Hostname: page-component-6766d58669-nqrmd Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2026-05-16T22:16:51.341Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Dynamic invariance in the phonetic expression of syllable structure: a case study of Moroccan Arabic consonant clusters*

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  08 December 2011

Jason A. Shaw ,
Adamantios I. Gafos ,
Philip Hoole  and
Chakir Zeroual
Jason A. Shaw
Affiliation:
University of Western Sydney
Adamantios I. Gafos
Affiliation:
University of Potsdam and Haskins Laboratories
Philip Hoole
Affiliation:
Ludwig Maximilians University, Munich
Chakir Zeroual
Affiliation:
Faculté Polydisciplinaire de Taza, Morocco and Laboratoire de Phonétique et Phonologie (CNRS/Université Sorbonne Nouvelle, Paris)
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

We asked whether invariant phonetic indices for syllable structure can be identified in a language where word-initial consonant clusters, regardless of their sonority profile, are claimed to be parsed heterosyllabically. Four speakers of Moroccan Arabic were recorded, using Electromagnetic Articulography. Pursuing previous work, we employed temporal diagnostics for syllable structure, consisting of static correspondences between any given phonological organisation and its presumed phonetic indices. We show that such correspondences offer only a partial understanding of the relation between syllabic organisation and continuous indices of that organisation. We analyse the failure of the diagnostics and put forth a new approach in which different phonological organisations prescribe different ways in which phonetic indices change as phonetic parameters are scaled. The main finding is that invariance is found in these patterns of change, rather than in static correspondences between phonological constructs and fixed values for their phonetic indices.

Information

Type
Articles
Information
Phonology , Volume 28 , Issue 3 , December 2011 , pp. 455 - 490
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2011

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

Article purchase

Temporarily unavailable

References

REFERENCES

Sean, Allen J., Miller, Joanne L. & DeSteno, David (2003). Individual talker differences in voice-onset-time. JASA 113. 544–552.Google Scholar
Bombien, Lasse, Mooshammer, Christine, Hoole, Philip & Kühnert, Barbara (2010). Prosodic and segmental effects on EPG contact patterns of word-initial German clusters. JPh 38. 388–403.Google Scholar
Boucher, Victor J. (1988). A parameter of syllabification for VstopV and relative-timing invariance. JPh 16. 299–326.Google Scholar
Boudlal, Abdulaziz (2001). Constraint interaction in the phonology and morphology of Casablanca Moroccan Arabic. PhD dissertation, Mohammed V University, Rabat.Google Scholar
Broselow, Ellen (1992). Parametric variation in Arabic dialect phonology. In Broselow, Ellen, Eid, Mushira & McCarthy, John (eds.) Perspectives on Arabic linguistics IV. Amsterdam & Philadelphia: Benjamins. 7–45.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Broselow, Ellen, Chen, Su-I & Huffman, Marie (1997). Syllable weight: convergence of phonology and phonetics. Phonology 14. 47–82.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Browman, Catherine P. & Goldstein, Louis (1988). Some notes on syllable structure in articulatory phonology. Phonetica 45. 140–155.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Byrd, Dani (1995). C-centers revisited. Phonetica 52. 285–306.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Byrd, Dani (1996). Influences on articulatory timing in consonant sequences. JPh 24. 209–244.Google Scholar
Byrd, Dani & Choi, Susie (2010). At the juncture of prosody, phonology, and phonetics – the interaction of phrasal and syllable structure in shaping the timing of consonant gestures. In Fougeron et al. (2010). 31–59.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Byrd, Dani, Lee, Sungbok, Riggs, Daylen & Adams, Jason (2005). Interacting effects of syllable and phrase position on consonant articulation. JASA 118. 3860–3873.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Byrd, Dani & Saltzman, Elliot (2003). The elastic phrase: modeling the dynamics of boundary-adjacent lengthening. JPh 31. 149–180.Google Scholar
Byrd, Dani, Tobin, Stephen, Bresch, Erik & Narayanan, Shrikanth (2009). Timing effects of syllable structure and stress on nasals: a real-time MRI examination. JPh 37. 97–110.Google ScholarPubMed
Chitoran, Ioana, Goldstein, Louis & Byrd, Dani (2002). Gestural overlap and recoverability: articulatory evidence from Georgian. In Gussenhoven, Carlos & Warner, Natasha (eds.) Laboratory phonology 7. Berlin & New York: Mouton de Gruyter. 419–447.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Davis, Stuart (1990). Italian onset structure and the distribution of il and lo. Linguistics 28. 43–55.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
De Jong, Kenneth J., Lim, Byung-jin & Nagao, Kyoko (2004). The perception of syllable affiliation of singleton stops in repetitive speech. Language and Speech 47. 241–266.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Dell, François & Elmedlaoui, Mohamed (2002). Syllables in Tashlhiyt Berber and in Moroccan Arabic. Dordrecht: Kluwer.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Fougeron, Cécile & Keating, Patricia A. (1997). Articulatory strengthening at edges of prosodic domains. JASA 101. 3728–3740.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Fougeron, Cécile, Kühnert, Barbara, D'Imperio, Mariapaola & Vallée, Nathalie (eds.) (2010). Laboratory phonology 10. Berlin & New York: De Gruyter Mouton.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Fudge, Erik (1969). Syllables. JL 5. 253–286.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Gafos, Adamantios I. (2002). A grammar of gestural coordination. NLLT 20. 269–337.Google Scholar
Gafos, Adamantios I., Hoole, Philip, Roon, Kevin & Zeroual, Chakir (2010). Variation in overlap and phonological grammar in Moroccan Arabic clusters. In Fougeron et al. (2010). 657–698.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Gick, Bryan, Campbell, Fiona, Oh, Sunyoung & Tamburri-Watt, Linda (2006). Toward universals in the gestural organization of syllables: a cross-linguistic study of liquids. JPh 34. 49–72.Google Scholar
Goldstein, Louis, Chitoran, Ioana & Selkirk, Elizabeth (2007). Syllable structure as coupled oscillator modes: evidence from Georgian vs. Tashlhiyt Berber. In Trouvain, Jürgen & Barry, William J. (eds.) Proceedings of the 16th International Congress of Phonetic Sciences. Saarbrücken: Saarland University. 241–244.Google Scholar
Goldstein, Louis, Nam, Hosung, Saltzman, Elliot & Chitoran, Ioana (2009). Coupled oscillator planning model of speech timing and syllable structure. In Fant, G., Fujisaki, H. & Shen, J. (eds.) Frontiers in phonetics and speech science: Festschrift for Wu Zongji. Beijing: Commercial Press. 239–249.Google Scholar
Gordon, Matthew (2002). A phonetically driven account of syllable weight. Lg 78. 51–80.Google Scholar
Haggard, Mark (1973). Abbreviations of consonants in English pre- and post-vocalic clusters. JPh 1. 9–24.Google Scholar
Hardcastle, W. J. & Roach, Peter J. (1979). An instrumental investigation of coarticulation in stop consonant sequences. In Hollien, Harry & Hollien, Patricia (eds.) Current issues in the phonetic sciences. Amsterdam: Benjamins. 531–540.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hermes, Anne, Grice, Martine, Mücke, Doris & Niemann, Henrik (in press). Articulatory coordination and the syllabification of word initial consonant clusters in Italian. In Hoole, Philip, Bombien, Lasse, Pouplier, Marianne, Mooshammer, Christine & Kühnert, Barbara (eds.) Consonant clusters and structural complexity. Berlin & New York: Mouton de Gruyter.Google Scholar
Hermes, Anne, Ridouane, Rachid, Mücke, Doris & Grice, Martine (2011). Kinematics of syllable structure in Tashlhiyt Berber: the case of vocalic and consonantal nuclei. Proceedings of the 9th International Seminar on Speech Production, Montreal. 401–408.Google Scholar
Honorof, Douglas & Browman, Catherine P. (1995). The centre or edge: how are consonant clusters organised with respect to the vowel? In Elenius, Kjell & Branderud, Peter (eds.) Proceedings of the 13th International Congress of the Phonetic Sciences. Vol. 4. Stockholm: KTH & Stockholm University. 552–555.Google Scholar
Hoole, Philip, Fuchs, Susanne & Dahlmeier, Klaus (2003). Interarticulator timing in initial consonant clusters. In Palethorpe, Sallyanne & Tabain, Marija (eds.) Proceedings of the 6th International Seminar on Speech Production. Sydney: Macquarie University. 101–106.Google Scholar
Hoole, Philip & Zierdt, Andreas (2010). Five-dimensional articulography. In Maassen, Ben & van Lieshout, Pascal (eds.) Speech motor control: new developments in basic and applied research. Oxford: Oxford University Press. 331–349.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hoole, Philip, Zierdt, Andreas & Geng, Christian (2003). Beyond 2D in articulatory data acquisition and analysis. In Solé, M. J., Recasens, D. & Romero, J. (eds.) Proceedings of the 15th International Congress of Phonetic Sciences. Barcelona: Causal Productions. 265–268.Google Scholar
Kahn, Daniel (1976). Syllable-based generalizations in English phonology. PhD dissertation, MIT. Published 1980, New York: Garland.Google Scholar
Kim, Heejin & Cole, Jennifer (2005). The stress foot as a unit of planned timing: evidence from shortening in the prosodic phrase. Interspeech 2005: Proceedings of the 9th European Conference on Speech Communication and Technology, Lisbon. 2365–2368.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Kiparsky, Paul (2003). Syllables and moras in Arabic. In de Vijver, Caroline Féry & Ruben van (eds.) The syllable in Optimality Theory. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. 147–182.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Klatt, Dennis H. (1973). Interaction between two factors that influence vowel duration. JASA 54. 1102–1104.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Klatt, Dennis H. (1976). Linguistic uses of segmental duration in English: acoustic and perceptual evidence. JASA 59. 1208–1221.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Krakow, Rena A. (1989). The articulatory organization of syllables: a kinematic analysis of labial and velic gestures. PhD dissertation, Yale University.Google Scholar
Krakow, Rena A. (1999). Physiological organization of syllables: a review. JPh 27. 23–54.Google Scholar
Kühnert, Barbara, Hoole, Philip & Mooshammer, Christine (2006). Gestural overlap and C-center in selected French consonant clusters. Proceedings of the 7th International Seminar on Speech Production, Ubatuba, Brazil. 327–334.Google Scholar
Lehiste, Ilse (1972). The timing of utterances and linguistic boundaries. JASA 51. 2018–2024.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Marin, Stefania & Pouplier, Marianne (2010). Temporal organization of complex onsets and codas in American English: testing the predictions of a gesture coupling model. Motor Control 14. 380–407.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Nam, Hosung (2007). Syllable-level intergestural timing model: split-gesture dynamics focusing on positional asymmetry and moraic structure. In Cole, Jennifer & Hualde, José Ignacio (eds.) Laboratory phonology 9. Berlin & New York: Mouton de Gruyter. 483–506.Google Scholar
Nittrouer, Susan, Munhall, Kevin G., Scott Kelso, J. A., Tuller, Betty & Harris, Katherine S. (1988). Patterns of interarticulator phasing and their relation to linguistic structure. JASA 84. 1653–1661.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Perkell, Joseph S., Cohen, Marc H., Svirsky, Mario A., Matthies, Melanie L., Garabieta, Iñaki & Jackson, Michael T. T. (1992). Electromagnetic midsagittal articulometer systems for transducing speech articulatory movements. JASA 92. 3078–3096.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Redford, Melissa A. (2008). Production constraints on learning novel onset phonotactics. Cognition 107. 785–816.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Redford, Melissa A. & Randall, Patrick (2005). The role of juncture cues and phonological knowledge in English syllabification judgments. JPh 33. 27–46.Google Scholar
Repp, Bruno H. (1982). Phonetic trading relations and context effects: new experimental evidence for a speech mode of perception. Psychological Bulletin 92. 81–110.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Schöner, Gregor (2002). Timing, clocks, and dynamical systems. Brain and Cognition 48. 31–51.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Selkirk, Elisabeth (1982). The syllable. In Hulst, Harry van der & Smith, Norval (eds.) The structure of phonological representations. Part 2. Dordrecht: Foris. 337–383.Google Scholar
Shaw, Jason A., Gafos, Adamantios I., Hoole, Philip & Zeroual, Chakir (2009). Syllabification in Moroccan Arabic: evidence from patterns of temporal stability in articulation. Phonology 26. 187–215.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Smith, Bruce L. (2002). Effects of speaking rate on temporal patterns of English. Phonetica 59. 232–244.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Sproat, Richard & Fujimura, Osamu (1993). Allophonic variation in English /l/ and its implications for phonetic implementation. JPh 21. 291–311.Google Scholar
Strangert, Eva (1985). Swedish speech rhythm in a cross-language perspective. Stockholm: Almqvist & Wiksell.Google Scholar
Surprenant, Aimée M. & Goldstein, Louis (1998). The perception of speech gestures. JASA 104. 518–529.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Tuller, Betty & Kelso, J. A. Scott (1991). The production and perception of syllable structure. Journal of Speech and Hearing Research 34. 501–508.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Umeda, Noriko (1977). Consonant duration in American English. JASA 61. 846–858.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Waals, Juliette (1999). An experimental view of the Dutch syllable. PhD dissertation, Utrecht University.Google Scholar
Wing, Alan M. & Kristofferson, A. B. (1973). Response delays and the timing of discrete motor responses. Perception and Psychophysics 14. 5–12.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Wright, Richard (1996). Consonant clusters and cue preservation in Tsou. PhD dissertation, University of California, Los Angeles.Google Scholar
Zierdt, Andreas, Hoole, Philip & Tillmann, Hans G. (1999). Development of a system for three-dimensional fleshpoint measurement of speech movements. In Ohala, John J., Hasegawa, Yoko, Ohala, Manjari, Granville, Daniel & Bailey, Ashlee C. (eds.) Proceedings of the 14th International Congress of Phonetic Sciences. Berkeley: Department of Linguistics, University of California, Berkeley. 735–738.Google Scholar
Zsiga, Elizabeth C. (1994). Acoustic evidence for gestural overlap in consonant sequences. JPh 22. 121–140.Google Scholar
Zuraw, Kie (2007). The role of phonetic knowledge in phonological patterning: corpus and survey evidence from Tagalog infixation. Lg 83. 277–316.Google Scholar