An Experimental Study of Vowel Duration in Iraqi Spoken Arabic

This is an experimental study of vowel duration
in I.S.A. (Iraqi Spoken Arabic). It investigates some
myodynamic (articulatory), aerodynamic, acoustic and
perceptual correlates of vowel duration and aims at
answering, partly at least, the question whether the
factors governing the systematic variations of vowel
duration are phonetic-universal or language-specific
phenomena. It falls into two main parts:
PART ONE comprises three chapters. Chapter One
gives a general phonological background of I.S.A. with
special reference to the phonemic significance of vowel
length and its correlation with stress. Chapter Two
reviews some of the literature on vowel duration. The
literature review is confined to a critical survey of
particular aspects of vowel duration viz; intrinsic
duration of vowels, segmental conditioning of vowel
duration i.e. the influence of voicing and manner of
articulation of the preceding and following consonants
and the place of articulation of the following consonants
on vowel duration, the influence of stress and gemination
on vowel duration and some of the literature on the
perception of duration. Chapter Three reviews critically some of the hypotheses for the interpretation of vowel duration
in myodynamic (articulatory) and aerodynamic terms. The
hypotheses reviewed are articulatory distance, force of articulation and articulatory energy expenditure,
contrasting aerodynamic conditions, laryngeal adjustment,
temporal compensation and closure transition.
PART TWO comprises three chapters giving details of
the experimental investigation and discussion of results.
The intention has been to keep in line with the same
aspects of vowel duration reviewed in Part One; the same
aspects have been investigated from the acoustic point
of view in Chapter Four. The acoustic findings have been
subjected to a myodynamic and aerodynamic investigation
in Chapter Five. The results of both chapters have been
subjected to statistical treatment. In Chapter Six the
findings of both Chapter Four and Five are summarized and
discussed from the myodynamic, aerodynamic, acoustic and
perceptual points of view. Suggestions for further
research have also been included at the end of this
chapter.