Arabic temporal correlates of segmental length: perception test

A familiar phonotactic constraint in Arabic limits monosyllabic words to CVVC and CVCC syllable type, where VV and CC are long segmentso In this study, we are interested in learning, first, whether vowel length difference serves as a perceptual cue of the length difference between short (single) and long (geminate) consonantso Second, if consonant length difference cues vowel length differenceo Spectrographically analyized data on the two features: vowel length and consonant length were prepared for the punpose of this perception study. To provide developmental data, two groups of native Arabic speakers were recrui.:ted to serve as subjects, adul ts and children. Findings of this perception study indicate that vowel duration and consonant duration differences of length cantrast are useful perceptual cues of consonant length and vowel length~ respectively~ Moreover the children subjects have shown more or less the same sensitivity to the three acoustic parameters of vowel length, consonant length and voice as the adults. Findings of the experiment in question will be taken up for discussion in regard of their consequences for models of phonetic control and syllable structure o (Research suppörted by Yarmouk University). INTRODUCT I ON It is well-known in Arabic that shört Arabic vowels /i, u, a/ cantrast phonemically with their long counterparts /ii, uu, aa/ (Ref 1) but that single (short) consonants occur only following the long vowel and only geminate (long) consonants occur in syllables with short vowels Caef 1, 2)o Thus, vowel length and consonant length are not independent in Arabic but are confounded. "Gemination involves prolongation of the continuants and a Ionger closure of stops" (Ref 3). However geminated consonants are treated as identical clusters where the first member of the cluster is regarded as the coda of the syllable and the second member as the onset of the following syllable (Ref I, p. 77)0 Moreo ver , g e m in a t e d cons onan ts c o n t ras t w i t h t h e i r c o r r es p o n d in g single consonants as indicated by the forms: /qatala/ 'he killed' and /qattala/ 'he slaughtered' 0 Spectrographic test of Arabic vowel length cantrast revealed that the ratio of short to long vowel averages overall Oo65 ( Ref 'f). This is similar to the general trend of vowel phonemic length cantrast reported for Arabic and other languages (Ref 2, §, ,)0 The purpose of this paper is to provide spectrographic data on Arabic geminated consonants and, second to test reliance of adults and children on the timing cue in perceiving consonant and vowel length featureo * Department of English, Yarmouk University, Irbid-Jordano