The Production of English Coda Clusters by Aljouf Arabic Speakers

Abstract

<p>This study examines how Aljouf Arabic speakers deal with English coda clusters containing two consonants, which will help in addressing the modification strategies used by the participants to simplify clusters. In addition, the study aims to examine whether or not markedness—based on the sonority distance—has an effect on the participants’ pronunciation. Fifteen native speakers of the Aljouf Arabic dialect were asked to read a list of twenty-five nonwords that took into account the sonority distance between C1 and C2 in clusters. In general, the results showed that the participants tended to modify English coda clusters. They used two strategies to modify the clusters: epenthesis and deletion. Markedness based on sonority distance did not provide an explanation for participants' performance. Coda clusters in which the sonority distance is two were modified by all participants. On the other hand, some clusters in which the sonority distance is less than two were pronounced correctly by most of the participants. The clusters which were correctly pronounced by most of the participants include nasal- obstruent clusters and an obstruent-obstruent cluster.</p>