Geminates in Libyan Arabic: investigating articulatory correlates
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.36505/TheLinguisticProceedings/2025/16/01/012/000672Keywords:
Libyan Arabic, gemination, sonorants, EPG, articulatory correlatesAbstract
This electropalatographic (EPG) study examines articulatory correlates of singleton and geminate sonorants (/l, n, r/) in Tripolitanian Libyan Arabic (TLA). Alveolar contact (rows R1–R3) was quantified using Amount of Contact (AoC) and Centre of Gravity (CoG), while mean palatograms were inspected visually. Although previous acoustic evidence suggested minimal strengthening for TLA sonorants (Issa, 2017), the results showed that geminates exhibit greater linguopalatal contact, more posterior contact, and longer articulatory durations than singletons. The findings indicate that contrastive structure is preserved articulatorily even when acoustic strengthening is absent, supporting multimodal approaches to the study of gemination.
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