Acoustic parameters of plain and pharyngal fricatives in Lybian Arabic

Abstract

Arabic fricatives, particularly those differentiated by pharyngalization, still present unanswered questions to phonetic investigators: the acoustic cues differentiating the contrasts have only been partially specified [e.g., al‐Ani, Arabic Phonology, The Hague (1970)]; it has not been satisfactorily demonstrated whether fricative noise itself or only the surrounding vowels differentiate between corresponding pairs of pharyngalized (emphatic) and nonpharyngalized fricatives [e.g., Jakobson “‘Mufaxxama’…”, in Selected Writings, Vol. 1, pp. 510–522 (1962); Bonnot, “Recherche experimentale sur la nature des consonnes emphatiques de l'arabe classique,” Traveaux de l'Institute Phonetique de Strasbourg 9, 47–88 (1977)]. A dialect of Lybian Arabic which, according to native linguists, contrasts an unusually large number of plain versus pharyngalized fricatives [s ᵴ ∫ ⨏ χ χ/ h; ℏ ð ð/] is recorded; measurement is made of time‐domain variables such as VOT, rise time, and relative amplitude of the fricative. Spectr...