Gemination in Tarifit Berber: Doing one or two things at once?

International audienceAcoustic and X-ray data have been collected for gemination in Tarifit Berber. The acoustic data show that consonantal closure of geminates is significantly longer than that of corresponding singletons, for all consonants examined (alveolars, velars and uvulars), in both voiced and voiceless contexts, for two subjects, in two speech rate conditions: normal and fast. Articulatory measurements obtained from mid sagittal profiles show that occlusion contact-extents are longer for geminate consonants than for their singleton counterparts. Results take into account the elasticity of speech signals and are discussed within the "doing one or two things" paradigm