THE EFFECT OF SPEECH RATE ON THE ARABIC PHARYNGEAL /ʕ/ MANNER OF ARTICULATION: ACOUSTICS INVESTIGATION ON BOTH NATIVE SPEAKERS OF ARABIC AND ENGLISH ADVANCED LEARNERS OF ARABIC

Abstract

This study investigates acoustically one of long-term debated phonetic characteristics, the so- called Arabic voiced pharyngeal fricative /ʕ/. Most recent studies have found the Arabic pharyngeal to be approximant, while others have categorized it as a stop in careful speech, and still others have suggested it is a fricative depending on the dialect. Based on this controversy, the current study examined 8 male native speakers of Arabic divided into Najdi Saudi speakers (NA) and Egyptian Arabic Speakers (EA), and 6 male native English speakers speaking Arabic at an advanced stage (ES) in terms of their production of Arabic words containing /ʕ/ in different word positions at careful and fast speech as well as other phonetically similar phonemes (the glottal stop /ʔ/ and the voiceless pharyngeal/ħ/) in near minimal pairs. The study found that the target pharyngeal exhibited, in the manner, similar results to the Spanish spirant approximant; the Arabic native speakers produced the target sound rarely as an obstruent and mostly as an approximant in both speech rates. The nonnative speakers produced more stop instances similar to the native English speakers producing L2 Spanish spirant approximant in the literature.