EMA, endoscopic, ultrasound and acoustic study of two secondary articulations in Moroccan Arabic

Based on three physiological experiments (electromagnetic articulography, endoscopy and ultrasound) carried out separately with two speakers, but with one subject in common, we demonstrate that the back articulation of the Moroccan Arabic emphatic stop consonants can be considered as pharyngealised, i.e. produced with a constriction in the oro-pharyngeal cavity. The emphatics /ṭ ḍ/¹ are not velarised, and /ḍ/ has a slight degree of labialisation. MA geminate labials, generally considered as ‘labialised’, are clearly velarised in accord with phonological analyses by Heath (1987) and Elmedlaoui (1995), and not emphatic or pharyngealised as was predicted by Mitchell (1993). These labials are labial-velarised consonants since they are also slightly more labialised compared to their singleton cognates. We confirm that the labialisation observed in word initial clusters /#C₁C₂/, where /C₁/ or /C₂/ is a velar or uvular consonant, is associated with /C1/ even when this latter is coronal. Labialised dorsals (velars and uvulars: /k^w, ɡ^w, q^w, χ^w, ʁ^w/) are not only labialised, but also more retracted than their non-labialised counterparts.