CROSS-DIALECTAL VARIATIONS IN THE IRAQI ARABIC VOWEL SYSTEM: A SOCIOPHONETIC STUDY

Abstract

ملخص البحث :

This paper provides an acoustic description of the three Arabic vowels /i/, /a/ and /u/, and their long counterparts /i:/, /a:/ and /u:/ as produced by speakers of the two Iraqi qəltu dialects spoken in Hīt (Hīti Iraqi Arabic) and Mosul (Mosuli Iraqi Arabic), from now onwards referred to as HIA and MIA, respectively. It examines temporal and spectral acoustic characteristics between and within these two speech communities, and compares the results to relevant previous studies that have been conducted on several Arabic dialects, including Iraqi Arabic (IA) (Al-Ani, 1970). No previous acoustic analyses of this type have been conducted on HIA and MIA. Hence, this paper attempts to build on previous studies on temporal and spectral characteristics of Arabic vowels. In addition, it is expected to provide an empirical evidence to the universal as well as language-specific features of vowels and relates such evidence to regional and gender factors. Furthermore, it investigates to what extent regional and gender differences in vowel duration correlates with the spectral variations. In terms of vowel duration contrasts, MIA showed slightly greater short to long vowel duration ratio (1:2.4) than HIA (1:2.2). Gender seems to be an influential factor in Hit than in Mosul in terms of such variations. HIA men produced longer /a/, /u/ and /a:/ with statistical significance, while gender -related duration variations in MIA were statistically significant only /i/. As for the spectral differences, it has been found that MIA vowels are lower and more retracted than their cognates in HIA. Both dialects varied in F2 rather than in F1. Results show with statistically significant values that the effect of vowel quality on vowel duration is clearly greater in HIA than in MIA.