Variation in the acoustic correlates of emphasis in Jordanian Arabic: Gender and social class

Abstract

Abstract The present study investigates the effect of gender and social class on the acoustic correlates of emphasis in Jordanian Arabic. To achieve this goal, 40 participants were recorded reading a list of minimal pairs, and several acoustic measurements were taken, including VOT (voiceless stops), post-release duration (voiced stops), friction duration, vowel duration, and vowel formant frequencies (F1–F3) at onset and midpoint positions. The results of the study reveal that significant gender and social class differences in emphasis production have different linguistic distributions. Gender differences were relevant at F1 and F2 at the onset and midpoint, whereas social class differences were evident at the onset position of F1 and F2, vowel duration, and the post-release duration of the voiced emphatic stop. Generally, male speakers produced stronger cues of emphasis, the non-prestigious form, than female speakers, as they made more F1 raising and F2 lowering in the emphatic environment. Strong emphasis cues were also favored by the lower-middle class speakers. The results also showed that the effect of gender significantly intersects with that of social class. At F1(onset and midpoint), significant gender differences existed only within the upper-class group. At F2 midpoint, however, gender differences were evident only in the lower-middle class group.