Pharyngealization in Amazigh: Acoustic and articulatory marking over time

Pharyngealization refers to a secondary articulation whereby a set of consonants is produced with the backing of the tongue towards the pharyngeal wall. This typologically rare phenomenon appears in some Afroasiatic languages, including Arabic and Amazigh. While the phonetic characteristics of pharyngealization in Arabic have been investigated in-depth, the comparative data currently available on Amazigh is particularly scant. The present study aims to fill this gap and provides a comprehensive study on the phonetic characteristics of pharyngealization in an Amazigh language. The empirical data comes from acoustic and articulatory recordings of six Tashlhiyt speakers producing a set of singleton and geminate plain coronals and their pharyngealized counterparts in intervocalic position. We analyze formant trajectories of the vowels surrounding plain and pharyngealized consonants and articulatory trajectories during the consonantal movements and examine how the manner of articulation, voicing, and length shape variability in the way the contrast is implemented. Results show that pharyngealization is principally characterized by a large drop of F2 of adjacent vowels at the acoustic level and an extensive lowering of the tongue body at the articulatory level. These attributes are consistent across voicing, length and manner of articulation.