Phonetics and Phonology Paradox in Levantine Arabic: An Analytical Evaluation of Arabic Geminates’ Hypocrisy

Abstract

This paper explores the phonetic and phonological paradox between two categories of Levantine-Arabic long consonants—known as geminates by looking closely at the hypocrite Arabic geminates. Hypocrite geminates are phonetically long segments in a sequence that are not contrastive. The paper seeks to demonstrate that Arabic geminates can be classified into two categories—true vs. fake geminates—based on the phonological process of inseparability and the Obligatory Contour Principle (OCP). Thirty Levantine Arabic speakers have taken part in this case study. Fifteen participants were asked to utter a group of stimuli where the two types of geminates interact with the surrounding phonological environment. The other fifteen participants were recorded while reading target word lists that contained geminate consonants and medial singleton preceded by short and long consonants and engaging in naturalistic conversations. Auditory and acoustic analyses of long consonants were made. Results from the word lists indicated that while Arabic true geminates embrace the phonological process of inseparability, Arabic fake geminates do not. The case study also shows that the OCP seems to bridge the contradiction between these two categories of Arabic geminates.