Abstract
This paper investigates gemination which is a phonetic phenomenon in English and Arabic .It is concerned with true geminates and fake geminates phonetically ,true geminates which are found in Arabic are long segments which contrast with short ones , thus Arabic speakers have a phonemic length contrast since they treat long and short versions of the same sound as distinct categories . In contrast, fake geminates which are found in Arabic, but in English are called so because they are phonetically long but their length does not serve as a phonetic contrast .The research aims at revealing the difference in the achievement of the Arab and British undergraduate students of English when pronouncing Arabic true geminates and English fake geminates .It also aims to point out the effect of the intrinsic difference that concerns gemination in both languages . The third aim of this paper is to find out the type of English fake geminate which has more difference in the achievement of the subjects involved in this research .On the light of these aims three hypotheses were set .To carry out this research ,ten Iraqi (Arab ) undergraduate students of English from University of Anbar (4th year students ) were chosen besides ten British undergraduate students of English(4th year students ) from Essex University .The subjects involved in the study have to participate in two tests .In the first ,they have to pronounce twenty Arabic words (single and geminate),whereas in the second test ,they have to pronounce thirty words about the types of English fake geminates ,ten words were selected for each type .The study arrives at certain findings and conclusions .
Highlights
A geminate is a consonant held in closure for audibly longer period of time than a shorter, or singleton consonant
Gemination as a phonetic phenomenon needs to be investigated to achieve certain aims which are: 1- Pointing out the difference in the achievement of the Iraqi (Arab) and British undergraduate students of English when pronouncing Arabic true geminates and English fake geminates. 2- revealing the effect of reading the Arabic geminate words in front of the British undergraduate students of English three times in sequence on their pronunciation besides the effect of repeating reading these words by the students themselves in different periods before encoding them . 3- finding out the type of English fake geminates which has more difference in the achievement of the British and Iraqi (Arab)undergraduate students of English
The present study arrives at the following conclusions: 1- The British undergraduate students as native speakers of English face difficulty in producingthe Arabic true geminate words since most of them fail to produce a length contrast,whereas the Iraqi (Arab) undergraduate students as native speakers of Arabic reproduced a length contrast which characterizes Arabic geminate words .This conclusion is supported by the significant difference between the two languages as clarified in the results mentioned in tables (1a)and (1b) above .This conclusion verifies the first hypothesis. 2- There is no effect of reading the Arabic true geminate words three times by the researchers and repeating these words twice during two different periods by the British undergraduate students on the way they produce them
Summary
A geminate is a consonant held in closure for audibly longer period of time than a shorter, or singleton consonant. As regards English gemination ,Oh and Redford (2012 : 85 ) state that true geminate is not found in English ,long geminates do arise when identical short segments occur in sequence due to affixation which are known as fake geminates. They are called so because they are phonetically long but their length does not serve as a phonemic contrast , as does length in true geminates .For example , the word "unnoticed "is formed by prefixing un- to a word beginning with the same sound. Gemination as a phonetic phenomenon needs to be investigated to achieve certain aims which are: 1- Pointing out the difference in the achievement of the Iraqi (Arab) and British undergraduate students of English when pronouncing Arabic true geminates and English fake geminates. 2- revealing the effect of reading the Arabic geminate words in front of the British undergraduate students of English three times in sequence on their pronunciation besides the effect of repeating reading these words by the students themselves in different periods before encoding them . 3- finding out the type of English fake geminates which has more difference in the achievement of the British and Iraqi (Arab)undergraduate students of English
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