An acoustic study of the production of Iraqi Arabic vowels

Abstract EN

The present study describes the Mosuli Iraqi Arabic (henceforth MIA) pure vowels acoustically in terms of two parameters: vowel quality and vowel quantity.

Two measurements are made: first, measuring the three formants F1, F2 and F3, and second, measuring vowel duration.

The MIA pure vowels /i, i: a, a: u, u: e: o:/ are analysed acoustically using 14 monosyllabic CVC and two disyllabic (CVCCVC) words.

These words are read in a carrier phrase by 15 native speakers of MIA (three times each) obtaining 720 tokens.

The effect of the voicing of the following consonant on vowel duration is also investigated.

The results show that the qualitative differences between the MIA long vowels and their short counterparts, especially on the F2 dimension, are of greater importance than the quantitative differences.

It is also found that vowels before voiced consonants are longer than those before voiceless ones