LINGUIST List 23.2165
Fri May 04 2012
Diss: Moroccan Arabic/Phonetics/Phonology/Psycholing: Zellou: 'Similarity and Enhancement: Nasality from Moroccan Arabic pharyngeals and nasals'
Editor for this issue: Xiyan Wang
<xiyanlinguistlist.org>
Date: 24-Apr-2012
From: Georgia Zellou <georgia.weissman
colorado.edu>
Subject: Similarity and Enhancement: Nasality from Moroccan Arabic pharyngeals and nasals
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Institution: University of Colorado at Boulder
Program: Department of Linguistics
Dissertation Status: Completed
Degree Date: 2012
Author: Georgia Eve Zellou
Dissertation Title: Similarity and Enhancement: Nasality from Moroccan Arabic pharyngeals and nasals
Linguistic Field(s):
Phonetics
Phonology
Psycholinguistics
Subject Language(s):
Arabic, Moroccan (ary)
Dissertation Director:
Rebecca Scarborough
Dissertation Abstract:
Experimental studies of the articulation, acoustics, and perception ofnasal and pharyngeal consonants and adjacent vowels were conducted toinvestigate nasality in Moroccan Arabic (MA). The status of nasality in MAis described as coarticulatorily complex, where two phoneme types(pharyngeal segments and nasal segments) yield similar non-contrastivecoarticulatory information (nasality) on adjacent vowels. The productionand perception of the coarticulatory complexity of nasality in MA is thefocus of this dissertation.
An aerodynamic study demonstrated that nasal airflow is reliably presentduring the production of pharyngeal consonants, yet to a degree less thannasal consonants. This study also indicated this nasality is coarticulatedon vowels adjacent to pharyngeal and nasal consonants. An acoustic studyconfirmed the patterns of coarticulatory nasality from nasals andpharyngeals and explored how nasality as a coarticulatory complex feature,a feature associated with two distinct segment types, affects itspatterning in the language.
This study reveals that vowel nasality is perceptually associated withpharyngeal, as well as nasal, consonants in MA, as evidenced by fasterreaction times when vowel nasality was present in a lexical repetitiontask, compared to a condition where there was no vowel nasality, evidencethat non-contrastive coarticulatory information is indeed perceptuallyinformative not only in the context of phonologically nasal segments, butalso in the context of pharyngeal consonants. Furthermore, there isevidence of perceptual compensation for nasality, wherein in the context ofpharyngeal consonants listeners show patterns that suggest they do not"hear" vowel nasality but rather attribute it to its source. Together,this is evidence of partial compensation since listeners retain sensitivityto and facilitation from vowel nasality, revealed by faster response timesin the lexical repetition task.
The results of the experiments outlined in this dissertation suggest 1)that nasality is a property of pharyngeal consonants and adjacent vowelsthat is highly controlled by speakers in order to maintain distinctivenessbetween pharyngeal and nasal consonant nasality and 2) that nasality isbeing utilized as a secondary, enhancement feature for pharyngealconsonants, potentially to maintain the distinctiveness of pharyngealsegments from the other guttural phonological class consonants in MA.
Page Updated: 04-May-2012