Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
. 2023 Dec;52(6):2877-2902.
doi: 10.1007/s10936-023-10025-w. Epub 2023 Nov 4.

Production of Arabic Geminates by English Speakers

Mutasim Al-Deaibes  1 , Marwan Jarrah  2
Affiliations

Production of Arabic Geminates by English Speakers

Mutasim Al-Deaibes et al. J Psycholinguist Res. 2023 Dec.

Abstract

This study investigates the production of Arabic intervocalic geminate obstruents as produced by American L2 learners of Arabic. The participants of the study were 24 Arabic learners (12 advanced, 12 beginners) at North Georgia University and 12 native speakers of Jordanian Arabic (the control group). An examination of the results reveals that native speakers of Arabic and advanced Arabic learners pattern similarly while the beginner Arabic learners show a different pattern. Native speakers as well as advanced L2 learners of Arabic maintain a contrast between geminate and singleton consonants in terms of consonant duration while beginner L2 leaners do not. Unlike the case of the beginner L2 learners, the duration of the preceding vowel is found to be shorter before a geminate in native speakers and advanced L2 learners. However, the duration of vowels following a geminate is not affected across all proficiency levels. Further, the results suggest that the place and manner of articulation have no effect on the production of geminate consonants for both native and advanced L2 learners. Finally, voicing of geminates is found to have a significant effect on the duration of geminates, in favor of voiceless geminates, among native speakers and beginner L2 learners.

Keywords: Arabic; Bilingualism; English; Gemination; L2; Second language acquisition.

PubMed Disclaimer

References

    1. Al-Deaibes, M. (2016). The phonetics and phonology of assimilation and gemination in Rural Jordanian Arabic. PhD Dissertation, University of Manitoba.
    1. Al-Deaibes, M. (2021). Gemination: weight or length? Evidence from rural Jordanian Arabic. Word, 67(2), 159–171.
    1. Al-Deaibes, M., Al-Shawashreh, E., & Jarrah, M. (2021a). Emphatic variation of the labio-velar/w/in two Jordanian Arabic dialects. Heliyon, 7(11).
    1. Al-Deaibes, M. (2021b). The syntax-phonology mapping of reduplicative forms in the Jordanian Arabic dialect of Irbid. Ampersand, 8, 100077.
    1. Al-Deaibes, M. (2021c). Take it ya 3azizi: code-switching on facebook by Jordanian Bilinguals. Folia linguistica et litteraria, (35), 215–234.

LinkOut - more resources