{"title":"On the Acoustics of Emphasis in Central Mount Lebanon Lebanese","authors":"Georges Sakr","doi":"10.1093/jss/fgad024","DOIUrl":null,"url":null,"abstract":"Abstract This paper presents a study of emphasis in an attempt to determine its acoustic correlates in Central Mount Lebanon Lebanese Arabic (CMLL), an urban colloquial variety of Arabic spoken in Lebanon. Several analyses of emphasis exist in the literature, which largely focus on neighbouring vowels and either investigate, or make use of, a link between F2 lowering and emphasis. This study, based on acoustic data from 11 speakers, considers various possible consonantal as well as vocalic correlates. The vocalic analyses make use of statistical modelling in linear mixed effects, and generalised additive mixed modelling. This study finds significant F2 lowering in vowels preceding the emphatic voiceless sibilant /ṣ/. It argues that, in terms of the acoustics, emphasis is a vocalic rather than consonantal phenomenon, and that, in CMLL, the phonological feature ‘emphasis’ is consonantal, but is realized phonetically as a colouration of the adjacent vowels.","PeriodicalId":17130,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Semitic Studies","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":0.3000,"publicationDate":"2023-09-11","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":"0","resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":null,"PeriodicalName":"Journal of Semitic Studies","FirstCategoryId":"1085","ListUrlMain":"https://doi.org/10.1093/jss/fgad024","RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"社会学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":null,"EPubDate":"","PubModel":"","JCR":"0","JCRName":"ASIAN STUDIES","Score":null,"Total":0}
引用次数: 0
Abstract
Abstract This paper presents a study of emphasis in an attempt to determine its acoustic correlates in Central Mount Lebanon Lebanese Arabic (CMLL), an urban colloquial variety of Arabic spoken in Lebanon. Several analyses of emphasis exist in the literature, which largely focus on neighbouring vowels and either investigate, or make use of, a link between F2 lowering and emphasis. This study, based on acoustic data from 11 speakers, considers various possible consonantal as well as vocalic correlates. The vocalic analyses make use of statistical modelling in linear mixed effects, and generalised additive mixed modelling. This study finds significant F2 lowering in vowels preceding the emphatic voiceless sibilant /ṣ/. It argues that, in terms of the acoustics, emphasis is a vocalic rather than consonantal phenomenon, and that, in CMLL, the phonological feature ‘emphasis’ is consonantal, but is realized phonetically as a colouration of the adjacent vowels.
期刊介绍:
The Journal of Semitic Studies was established in 1955 and since then has built up a reputation as one of the leading international academic journals in its field. Semitic Studies has always been understood by the editors to include the modern as well as the ancient Near (Middle) East, with special emphasis on research into the languages and literatures of the area. The editors continue to maintain the policy of ensuring that each volume contains items of interest to Orientalists and Biblical Scholars. Extensive reviews of selected books, as well as general review notices, remain a feature of the Journal.