The timing of geminate consonants in Tarifit Berber

Abstract : The main thrust of this investigation is to examine timing of gemination in Tarifit Berber (spoken in Northern Morocco) in order to find out if spatiotemporal phonetic characteristics underlying the production of Tarifit geminates may be captured from a phonological standpoint by a structural representation of these segments as two consecutive timing units associated with one simultaneous segmental slot. The investigation is based on acoustic data for six native speakers and on X-ray data for two native speakers. It presents results of singleton and geminate voiced and voiceless consonants, produced in word-initial, word-medial, and word-final positions, at a normal and at a fast speaking rate. Speech rate is varied in order to evaluate the robustness of the phonological contrast. Special attention is paid to the timing of tongue gestures in producing this phonological contrast.