The intonation patterns of Ibbi Yemeni Arabic: An acoustic phonetic study

This paper aimed at offering an acoustic linguistic phonetic description of the intonation patterns of Ibbi Yemeni Arabic (IYA) dialect in terms of tonal inventory, intonation systems and pitch movements associated with different grammatical patterns. Using a corpus of controlled spontaneous speech samples of four male speakers comprising 11 elicited grammatical patterns including declaratives, interrogatives, imperatives, exclamatives and vocatives, the three systems of IYA intonation: tonality, tonicity, tone were examined and identified. Data analysis was done both perceptually through phonemic transcription and acoustically using Praat programme (Boersma & Weenink 2023). The key findings showed that IYA has six tones: fall, low rise, high rise, fall rise, rise fall, and level tones. IYA is characterized by post-lexical nuclear accent and tonicity, a level tone in declaratives, narrow pitch range and accentuation which is unattested in other Arabic dialects, and more varied intonation patterns than Taizi Yemeni Arabic )TYA( and Sanaani Yemeni Arabic )SYA(. The study outcomes situate the IYA dialect on equal footing with other colloquial Arabic dialects, highlighting differences in pitch contours for questions, statements, or emotional expressions, emphasizing cultural nuances of intonation to enrich communication competence.