Saudi Cultural Missions Theses & Dissertations
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Item Restricted THE PRODUCTION AND PERCEPTION OF EMPHASIS IN QASSIMI ARABIC(Saudi Digital Library, 2023-12-01) Alrashed, Abdulmajeed; Blevins, James; Kwon, HarimThis dissertation explores emphasis effects (EE) in Qassimi Arabic (QA), examining whether EE functions as a phonetic or phonological process. EE is a well-documented phenomenon in Arabic linguistics, involving the influence of emphatic consonants on neighboring segments (Ghazali, 1977; Card, 1983; Davis, 1995; among others). The study also investigates emphasis perception in QA, specifically whether EE cues assist native QA listeners in identifying preceding or following consonants as emphatic or plain. As prior research exploring EE in various Arabic varieties has revealed variation among them, and limited research exists on emphasis perception by native Arabic listeners, this dissertation addresses these gaps by examining EE production and emphasis perception in the understudied variety of QA. In the production experiment, dynamic aspects of leftward and rightward EE on QA vowels were examined by analyzing second formants (F2) at 11 temporal points. Results indicate that leftward EE had a categorical effect on non-high vowels [a] and [aː], as well as the high front vowel [i], impacting them throughout their duration, providing evidence for it being a phonological process in QA. In contrast, rightward EE primarily affected the vowel onset, suggesting it as a gradual phonetic process rather than a categorical phonological one. In the perception experiments, the perceptual correlates of emphasis in QA were investigated using the gating paradigm (Grosjean, 1980). Native QA listeners accurately identified the following consonant using leftward EE cues, even within the shortest gate containing one-third of the vowel, indicating proficiency in using leftward EE cues throughout the vowel. However, for rightward EE cues, accuracy in identifying the preceding consonant as emphatic or plain improved significantly only when the entire vowel duration was audible. These findings align with the production experiment, confirming leftward EE as a phonological process and rightward EE as a phonetic process. The dissertation’s results have implications for understanding EE and emphasis perception in QA, emphasizing the importance of considering both phonological and phonetic processes when investigating EE and highlighting the significance of coarticulatory information in rightward emphasis perception. This nuanced understanding advances research into emphasis across Arabic varieties and Semitic languages.56 0Item Restricted Arabic Obstruents: Laryngeal Contrast and Representation(Saudi Digital Library, 2023-08) Dallak, Abdulrahman; Khattab, Ghada; Altamimi, JalalThis thesis examines the phonetics and phonology of Arabic obstruents in light of Laryngeal Realism. It focuses on how the voicing contrast is laryngeally modulated across several acoustic metrics. I draw from three acoustic experiments conducted to unpack the phonetic realisation and phonological representation of Arabic obstruents. The larger picture of this thesis is comparative in nature in that it seeks to investigate whether stops and fricatives exhibit similar laryngeal behaviours. The overarching goal involves examining how phonetics may inform formal representation, and how phonological patternings may explain phonetic differences for obstruents in Jazani Arabic. This thesis also disentangles the relative contribution and robustness of each acoustic correlate in predicting the domain of laryngeal contrast. Bayesian and Generalised Additive Mixed Models (GAMMs) were used as statistical approaches to answer the research questions. For visualisation, Bayesian estimation figures and smoothing spline figures were used to visualise the predicted results. Experiment One examines how the voicing contrast is modulated in stops. The results show that 7 out of 16 voicing correlates exhibited a reliable difference between the effect of the voiced vs. voiceless stops on the respective measure with 0% of the 95% HDI of the posterior distribution falling within the ROPE range, indicating that these acoustic measures are robust and reliable for uncovering voicing distinction in the present dialect. In addition, the larger picture of the pattern of VOT and voicing%, inter alia, in all the contexts examined suggests that voiced stops in the Jazani dialect are specified as [voice] whilst the voiceless stops are specified as [tense]. Experiment Two examines how the voicing contrast is modulated in fricatives. The results show that 9 out of 14 voicing correlates exhibit a reliable difference between the effect of the voiced vs. voiceless fricatives on the respective measure with 0% of the 95% HDI of the posterior distribution falling within the ROPE range. In addition, the pattern of fricative duration, voicing%, zero-crossing rate, inter alia, suggests that voiced fricatives are specified as [voice] whilst voiceless fricatives are specified as [tense]. Experiment Three examines the effects of consonant voicing on f0 perturbation dynamically and whether it mirrors the VOT pattern and (dis)confirms the predictions of Laryngeal Realism. Laryngeal Realism predicts that acoustic correlates such as VOT, f0, etc. should exhibit a comparable pattern for either feature. The results show that voiced obstruents exhibit a pronounced lowering effect compared to the nasal baseline, indicating that voiced obstruents are specified as [voice]. In contrast, the results of the voiceless context show that voiceless obstruents exhibited an insignificant raising pattern at vowel onset. The results of f0 perturbation show that f0 perturbation exhibits a similar pattern as VOT. The results, furthermore, provide further evidence demonstrating that the feature driving these patterns in the voiceless obstruents is [tense]. These results are in line with the predictions of Laryngeal Realism. While the combined results of these experiments show that stops and fricatives appear to exhibit relatively similar laryngeal behaviours and each category can be predicted from the other, each category, nonetheless, exhibits its own characteristics at the microscopic level.7 0