The Intelligibility of the Onset Cluster [pl] and the Coda Cluster [ƞz] in Arabic-Accented English

This paper analyzes two specific instances of English consonant-cluster production among native Arabic speakers of English. We analyze the onset cluster /pl/ and the coda cluster /ŋz/. These clusters are of interest because the first segment in each cluster does not exist in Arabic but the second is shared by both Arabic and English. Five Arabic-speaking subjects were selected based on a number of shared features, including a shared city of origin, beginning their acquisition of English after the critical period, and having spent no more than one year in an English-speaking environment at the time of the recordings. The findings give us the opportunity to assess the participants’ pronunciations of these clusters in light of the two syllable phonotactic constraints: Sonority Sequencing Principle (SSP) and the Minimal Sonority Distance Parameter (MSDP). Other issues investigated have to do with the segmental transfer hierarchy and ranking