Cover not available
Part of
Experimental Arabic Linguistics
Edited by Dimitrios Ntelitheos and Tommi Tsz-Cheung Leung
[Studies in Arabic Linguistics 10] 2021
► pp. 23–56

Articulatory and acoustic correlates of pharyngealization and pharyngealization spread in Cairene Arabic

A real-time magnetic resonance imaging study

| University of Chicago
| University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
| University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
| University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
ORCID logo | University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign

Pharyngealized speech sounds in Arabic are articulated with a secondary posterior constriction and a lowered tongue body. This articulatory configuration spreads to adjacent and neighboring segments and has the acoustic consequence of lowering F2 in affected vowels. This study demonstrates that real-time Magnetic Resonance Imaging (rtMRI) can be successfully used to examine the role of (1) vowel length and (2) direction of spread in the extent of the articulatory modifications that occur in the segments to which pharyngealization spreads. Parallel acoustic measurements are also acquired to examine and compare the extent of modifications in formant frequencies. Results from both articulatory and acoustic data demonstrate that the extent of pharyngealization spread significantly varies with respect to these two factors.

Keywords: pharyngealization, pharyngealization spread, Magnetic Resonance Imaging, Cairene Arabic
Article outline
  • 1.Introduction
  • 2.Review of literature
    • 2.1Acoustic correlates of pharyngealization
    • 2.2Articulatory correlates of pharyngealization
      • 2.2.1Early Arab grammarians
      • 2.2.2More recent literature
    • 2.3MRI in phonetic studies on Arabic
  • 3.Pharyngealization as a phonological feature
    • 3.1A discussion of coarticulation, coproduction, and spread
    • 3.2Phonological studies on the spread of pharyngealization
  • 4.Research statement
  • 5.Data acquisition
    • 5.1Articulatory data acquisition
    • 5.2Acoustic data acquisition
  • 6.Test material
  • 7.Data analysis
    • 7.1Articulatory data analysis
    • 7.2Acoustic data analysis
  • 8.Results
    • 8.1Results from articulatory data
    • 8.2Results from acoustic data
  • 9.Discussion
    • 9.1Discussion of articulatory results
    • 9.2Discussion of acoustic results
  • 10.Conclusions
  • Notes
  • References
Published online: 26 July 2021
DOI logo
https://doi.org/10.1075/sal.10.01her
References
Al-Tamimi, F., & Heselwood, B.
(2011) Nasoendoscopic, video-fluoroscopic and acoustic study of plain and emphatic coronals in Jordanian Arabic. In Z. M. Hassan & B. Heselwood (Eds.), Instrumental studies in Arabic Phonetics (pp. 165–191). Amsterdam & Philadelphia: John Benjamins. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Bellem, A.
(2007) Towards a comparative typology of emphatics across Semitic and into Arabic dialect phonology. Ph.D. dissertation, University of London.Google Scholar
Boersma, P., & Weenink, D.
(2013) Praat: doing phonetics by computer [computer program]. Retrieved from [URL]
Carignan, C., Shosted, R. K., Fu, M., Liang, Z.-P., & Sutton, B.
(2015) A real-time MRI investigation of the role of lingual and pharyngeal articulation in the production of the nasal vowel system of French. Journal of Phonetics, 50, 34–51. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Chiba, T., & Kajiyama, M.
(1941) The vowel: Its nature and structure. Tokyo: Kaiseikan.Google Scholar
Davis, S.
(1995) Emphasis spread in Arabic and grounded phonology. Linguistic Inquiry, 26, 465–498.Google Scholar
De Sacy, S.
(1810) Grammaire Arabe à l’usage des élèves de l’école spéciale des langues orientales vivantes. Paris: L’imprimerie Impériale.Google Scholar
Embarki, M., Ouni, S., & Salam, F.
(2011a) Speech clarity and coarticulation in Modern Standard Arabic and dialectal Arabic. In W.-S. Lee & E. Zee (Eds.), Proceedings of the 17th International Congress of Phonetic Sciences, 635–638. City University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong.Google Scholar
Embarki, M., Ouni, S., Yeou, M., Guilleminot, C., & Al Maqtari, S.
(2011b) Acoustic and electromagnetic articulographic study of pharyngealisation: coarticulatory effects as an index of stylistic and regional variation in Arabic. In Z. M. Hassan & B. Heselwood (Eds), Instrumental studies in Arabic Phonetics (pp. 193–216). Amsterdam & Philadelphia: John Benjamins. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Fu, M., Zhao, B., Carignan, C., Shosted, R. K., Perry, J. L., Kuehn, D. P., Liang, Z.-P., & Sutton, B.
(2015) High-resolution dynamic speech imaging with joint low-rank and sparsity constraints. Magnetic Resonance in Medicine, 73,1820–1832. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Gadalla, H.
(2000) Comparative morphology of standard and Egyptian Arabic. Muenchen: Lincom Europa.Google Scholar
Ghazeli, S.
(1977) Back consonants and backing coarticulation in Arabic. Ph.D. dissertation, University of Texas at Austin.Google Scholar
Giannini, A., & Pettorino, M.
(1982) The emphatic consonants in Arabic. Speech Laboratory Report 4. Oriental Institute of Naples.Google Scholar
Grossman, R. C.
(1964) Sensory innervation of the oral mucosae. Journal of the Southern California State Dental Association, 32, 128–133.Google Scholar
Hermes, Z., Wong, N., Loucks, T., & Shosted, R.
(2015) The primary articulation of plain-emphatic /s/-/sˤ/ in Lebanese Arabic: an EMA study. In The Scottish Consortium for ICPhS 2015 (Ed.), Proceedings of the 18th International Congress of Phonetic Sciences. Paper number 0681, 1–5.Google Scholar
Herzallah, R.
(1990) Aspects of Palestinian Arabic Phonology: A non-linear approach. Ph.D. dissertation, Cornell University.Google Scholar
Heselwood, B., & Al-Tamimi, F.
(2011) A study of the laryngeal and pharyngeal consonants in Jordanian Arabic using nasoendoscopy, videofluoroscopy and spectrography. In Z. M. Hassan & B. Heselwood (Eds), Instrumental studies in Arabic Phonetics (pp. 101–128). Amsterdam & Philadelphia: John Benjamins. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Hetzron, R.
(1998) The Semitic languages. New York: Routledge.Google Scholar
Israel, A., Proctor, M., Goldstein, L., Iskarous, K., & Narayanan, S.
(2012) Emphatic segments and emphasis spread in Lebanese Arabic: a real-time magnetic resonance imaging study. 13th Annual Conference of the International Speech Communication Association INTERSPEECH, 3, 2175–2178.Google Scholar
Jakobson, R.
(1957) Mufaxxama: the ‘emphatic’ phonemes in Arabic. In E. Pulgram (Ed), Studies Presented to Joshua Whatmough on his Sixtieth Birthday (pp. 105–116). Gravenhage: Mouton & Co.Google Scholar
Jan, M. A., Marshall, I., & Douglas, N. J.
(1994) Effect of posture on upper airway dimensions in normal human. American Journal of Respiratory and Critical Care Medicine, 149, 145–148. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Jongman, A., Herd, W., Al-Masri, M., Sereno, J., & Combest, S.
(2011) Acoustics and perception of emphasis in Urban Jordanian Arabic. Journal of Phonetics, 39, 85–95. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Khattab, G., Al-Tamimi, F., & Heselwood, B.
(2006) Acoustic and auditory differences in /t/-/ṭ/ opposition in male and female speakers of Jordanian Arabic. In S. Boudelaa (Ed), Perspectives on Arabic linguistics XVI (pp. 131–160). Amsterdam & Philadelphia: John Benjamins. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Kühnert, B., & Nolan, F.
(1999) The origin of coarticulation. In W. J. Hardcastle & N. Hewlett (Eds), Coarticulation theory data and techniques (pp. 7–30). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Lapinskaya, N.
(2013) An exploratory ultrasound investigation of emphatic articulation in Cairene Arabic. Paper presented in Ultrafest VI, Queen Margaret University, Edinburgh. Poster number 21, 67–68.
Laufer, A., & Baer, T.
(1988) The emphatic and pharyngeal sounds in Hebrew and in Arabic. Language and Speech, 31, 181–205. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Lehn, W.
(1963) Emphasis in Cairo Arabic. Language, 39, 29–39. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Lingala, S. G., Sutton, B., Miquel, M., & Nayak, K.
(2016) Recommendations for real-time speech MRI. Journal of Magnetic Resonance Imaging, 43, 28–44. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Maddieson, I., & Precoda, K.
(1991) UPSID-PC: the UCLA phonological segment inventory database. [URL] (retrieved May 2016).
Manuel, S. Y., & Krakow, R. A.
(1984) Universal and language particular aspects of vowel-to-vowel coarticulation. Haskins Laboratories: Status Report on Speech Research, 69–78.Google Scholar
McCarthy, J. J.
(1994) The phonetics and phonology of Semitic pharyngeals. In P. A. Keating (Ed.), Phonological structure and phonetic form: papers in Laboratory Phonology III (pp. 191–233). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Narayanan, S., Toutios, A., Ramanarayanan, V., Lammert, A., Kim, J., Lee, S., Nayak, K., Kim, Y. C., Zhu, Y., Goldstein, L., Byrd, D., Bresch, E., Ghosh, P., Katsamanis, A., & Proctor, M.
(2014) Real-time magnetic resonance imaging and electromagnetic articulography database for speech production research (TC). The Journal of the Acoustical Society of America, 136, 1307. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Norlin, K.
(1987) A phonetic study of emphasis and vowels in Egyptian Arabic. Lund University Department of Linguistics Working Papers, 30, 1–119.Google Scholar
Obrecht, D. H.
(1968) Effects of the second formant on the perception of velarisation consonants in Arabic. The Hague: Mouton. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Proctor, M. I., Bone, D., Katsamanis, N. & Narayanan, S.
(2010) Rapid semi-automatic segmentation of real-time magnetic resonance images for parametric vocal tract analysis. Proceedings of the 11th Annual Conference of the International Speech Communication Association INTERSPEECH, 1576–1579.Google Scholar
Royal, A.
(1985) Male/female pharyngealization patterns in Cairo Arabic: a sociolinguistic study of two neighborhoods. Ph.D. dissertation, University of Texas.Google Scholar
Savitzky, A., & Golay, M. J. E.
(1964) Smoothing and differentiation of data by simplified least squares procedures. Analytical Chemistry, 36, 1627–1639. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Semaan, K. I.
(1963) Arabic phonetics: Ibn Sīnā’s Risālah on the points of articulation of the speech-sounds translated from medieval Arabic. Arthur Jeffery memorial monographs. Lahore: Ashraf Press.Google Scholar
Shahin, K.
(2002) Postvelar harmony. Amsterdam & Philadelphia: John Benjamins. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Shar, S., & J. Ingram
(2011) MRI investigations of Arabic gutturals. In W.-S. Lee & E. Zee (Eds) The International Conference of Phonetic Sciences XVII (pp. 1802–1805). City University of Hong Kong.Google Scholar
Shosted, R., Benmamoun, A., & Sutton, B.
(2012) Using magnetic resonance to image the pharynx during Arabic speech: static and dynamic aspects. 13th Annual Conference of the International Speech Communication Association INTERSPEECH, 3, 2179–2182.Google Scholar
Versteegh, K.
(2001) The Arabic Language. Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press.Google Scholar
Vollers, K.
(1893) The system of Arabic sounds as based upon Sibaweih and Ibn Yaish. Transactions of the 9th International Congress of Orientalists, 2, 130–154.Google Scholar
Wahba, K. M.
(1996) Linguistic variation in Alexandrian Arabic: the feature of emphasis. In A. Elgibali (Ed.), Understanding Arabic: essays in contemporary Arabic linguistics in honor El-Said Badawi (pp. 103–128). Cairo: The American University in Cairo Press.Google Scholar
Watson, J. E. E.
(2002) The phonology and morphology of Arabic. New York: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Xu, Y., & Gao, H.
(2018) FormantPro as a tool for speech analysis and segmentation. Revista de Estudos da Linguagem, 26(4), 1435–1454. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Yeou, M.
(1997) Locus equations and the degree of coarticulation of Arabic consonants. Phonetica, 54, 187–202. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Youssef, I.
(2014) Emphasis spread in Cairene Arabic: a reassessment. In O. Durand, A. D. Langone, & G. Mion (Eds.), Alf lahğa wa lahğa: Proceedings of the 9th AIDA Conference (pp. 455–464). Lit. Verlag.Google Scholar
Zemlin, W.
(1998) Speech and hearing science anatomy and physiology 4th ed. Boston: Allyn and Bacon.Google Scholar
Zeroual, C., Esling, J. H., & Hoole, P.
(2011a) EMA, endoscopic, ultrasound and acoustic study of two secondary articulations in Moroccan Arabic. In Z. M. Hassan & B. Heselwood (Eds.), Instrumental studies in Arabic Phonetics (pp. 277–300). Amsterdam & Philadelphia: John Benjamins. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Zeroual, C., Esling, J. H., Hoole, P. & Ridouane, R.
(2011b) Ultrasound study of Moroccan Arabic labiovelarization. In W.-S. Lee & E. Zee (Eds.), Proceedings of the 17th International Congress of Phonetic Sciences (pp. 2272–2275). City University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong.Google Scholar