Tongue root position in Hijazi arabic voiceless emphatic and non-emphatic coronal consonants

Abstract

The longstanding interest in Arabic emphatic consonants stems in part from their articulatory variability across dialects. In different dialects, emphatics are variously described as pharyngealized, uvularized, velarized, or even glottalized consonants. This pilot study analyzes ultrasound images of the voiceless coronal emphatic consonants (traditionally transcribed as pharyngealized /tʕ/ and /sʕ/), and compares them with the corresponding non-emphatics (/t/ and /s/), and with the uvular /q/ in identical vocalic environments. We also examine coarticulatory interactions between emphatic consonants and adjacent vowels. Data from two native speakers of Hijazi Arabic showed more retracted tongue root in emphatics compared to non-emphatics. The emphatics are different from uvulars, in that the tongue dorsum is not raised toward the uvular place of articulation. Non-emphatic coronals are potentially velarized, or even palatalized, especially in the context of a front vowel. Short vowels (/a/, /i/, /u/) were more affected by emphasis in the adjacent consonant than the long vowels (/a:/, /i:/, /u:/), with more retracted tongue root position in the context of emphatic consonants. The high back vowels (/u/, /u:/) were less affected by emphasis than the other vowels.