Patterns of coda clustering simplification in RP English by Omani female students : a generative perspective

Abstract EN

This paper is a generative study of simplification patterns of RP English coda clustering as performed by adult Omani female learners.

The subjects were (18) diploma and bachelor university college students (20-24 years old).

They were Omani girls studying at the English Department, recently joined a course in phonetics.

The tokens deployed were fifteen representing coda CC, CCC, and CCCC clusters.

Two sessions were devoted for tape-recording carried out in a language "smart class".

The data collected were analyzed in-depth to identify simplification strategies and their relevant contexts.

Phonological rules were applied to allocate the phonetic features of the segments that undergo adaptation with due emphasis on the environment of this adaptation.

The major findings of this work were: (i) the length of the cluster is directly related to the accuracy rates.

The longer the cluster, the higher rate of errors is CC (20 %), CCC (54.4 %), and CCCC (94.4 %), (ii) deletion is the most preferable simplification strategy.

It is favoured over consonant substitution and insertion.

A combination of these patterns comes second,(iii) in terms of generative phonology, the contexts of elision were : a- the plosive obstruents / t / and / d / in final position preceded by the plosive obstruent / p /, the affricate obstruents / ʧ / and / ʤ /, and the fricative obstruents / f / and / s /.

b- The plosive obstruent / p / as post-final (1) preceded by the pre-final nasal sonorant /m/.

c- The fricative obstruents / ɵ / and / s / before and after another consonant, / ɵ / as post-final is deleted after the final fricative obstruent / f /, as post-final (1) after the final fricative obstruent / f / and before the fricative obstruent / s / as post-final (2), as post-final (2) before and after the fricative obstruent / s / as post-final (1) and (3).

d- / s / as post-final (1) after the final plosive obstruent / k / and before the fricative obsruent / ɵ / as post-final (2), as post-final (3) after the plosive obstruent / t / and the fricative obstruent / ɵ / as post-final (2).

e- The fricative obstruent / z / as post-final after the final nasal sonorant / m /, (iv) the only segments which were subjected to substitution were : the plosive obstruents / p / and / t /, the affricate obstruents / ʧ / and / ʤ /, (v) the most disfavoured strategy was insertion, (vi) there is a great correlation between the markedness of the cluster and the deployment of multiple simplification strategies, (vii) a considerable impact was scored for the structure of the cluster (the way consonants are concatenated) rather than the phonetic quality of the cluster elements, (viii) the nucleus quality had no considerable effect on the process of simplification, and (ix) the prominent parameters that control coda clustering simplification are: the size and the structure of the cluster, and word structure (simple vs.

complex).