Abstract
Phonetic data from Hebrew and Arabic were examined to determine if laryngeal consonants in those languages have tongue root articulation. This was done in search of an articulatory basis for the phonological patterning of Semitic laryngeals with tongue root consonants like pharyngeals and uvulars. This issue has been problematic for phonological theory because a theoretically comfortable phonetic basis for that patterning has not yet been identified [J. J. McCarthy, Pap. Lab. Phonol. III, 191–234 (1994); F. Nolan, ibid. IV, 361–367 (1995)]. The present study is the first to address the problem with clear natural-language data. Acoustic and articulatory data are presented (digital audio and video, waveform, spectrogram and video picture) from two laryngoscopic films: Prof. A. Laufer’s film of Hebrew and Arabic speech recorded at Haskins Labs in the early 1980s, and a new film of Arabic speech recorded at Speech Technology Research. The data show no tongue root articulation for the laryngeals. The implications for phonology are discussed. Note: Thanks to Prof. Laufer and Haskins Labs for permission to use the Haskins film, and to Prof. John Esling for collaboration in recording the new Arabic data. [Work supported by a SSHRCC grant to J. Esling.]
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