Using Temporal Stability to Probe the Syllabification of Medial Geminates: Evidence from Moroccan Arabic
Year: 2026
Type: article
Abstract: This paper investigates whether the syllabification of medial geminates can be probed using temporal stability measures (Browman & Goldstein 1988; Goldstein et al. 2007). Theoretical accounts treat medial geminates as either heterosyllabic (VCi.CiV; Levin 1985; Hayes 1989a) or tautosyllabic (V.CiCiV; Mohanan 1989; Topintzi 2008). I show that the two parses make distinct predictions about temporal alignment: the former predicts stability at the mid-point of the right part of the geminate, while the latter predicts stability at the mid-point of the entire geminate. I test these predictions on medial geminates in Moroccan Arabic and compare them to medial clusters, using acoustic measurements of temporal stability (Durvasula et al. 2021). The results show that both medial geminates and clusters exhibit right-edge-to-anchor stability, supporting a heterosyllabic representation. This finding aligns with existing phonological evidence, which already supports a heterosyllabic parse for both geminates and clusters in Moroccan Arabic (Boudlal 2001; Dell & Elmedlaoui 2002; Noamane 2021), providing evidence that temporal stability measures can serve as a useful phonetic tool for testing predictions of competing analyses of geminate syllabification.
Author: Ali Nirheche
Institution: University of Massachusetts Amherst
Language: English
Subfield: Experimental and Cognitive Psychology
Field: Psychology
Domain: Social Sciences
Open Access status: gold
Estimated APC paid: $551
OpenAlex ID: W7163864464