Vowelless word forms in Tarifit are produced with longer voiceless aspiration intervals.

Abstract

This paper examines voiceless aspiration duration in Tarifit, a Moroccan Amazigh language that allows vowelless productions of some words. Thirty-seven speakers produced words with a /CCəC/ structure containing a voiceless stop in the underlyingly pre-vocalic position (e.g., /skəf/) across speaking styles. Vowelless forms of these words occur for about 11% of productions. When these words surface as vowelless, they are produced with a longer aspiration than when they are produced with a vowel. Thus, vowellessness in Tarifit consists of articulatory restructuring of words involving aspiration lengthening, possibly in addition to either vowel deletion or devoicing. Results are discussed for models of sound change and phonological typology.