An Acoustic Analysis of Intonation in

the Taizzi variety of Yemeni Arabic

A Critique Paper
By Gemma B. Pagaddut
Paper Analyzed: An Acoustic Analysis of Intonation
in the Taizzi variety of Yemeni Arabic

Authors: Nada Mohammed Salem , Stefanie Pillai

Presented by Gemma B. Pagaddut, MAT - English

Purpose:

a. identify the features of intonation

patterns focusing on pitch contours
and pitch peak alignment.
b. determine the difference between the intonational
patterns of the younger generation and the older
generation of Taizzi Yemeni Arabic speakers
Respondents: Two Female (Age) Goups
(1) 30 female Taizzi speakers - 20 to 25 years old
(2) 30 women - 60 to 65 years old

They all live in the city of Taizz in Yemen. Taizz is known for
being the most important commercial centre, and was the capital of
the country from 1948 to 1962, namely until the revolution. Their
parents and spouses are also from the city of Taizz and all the
speakers in this study were born and educated in Taizz. They speak
only TYA in their homes. However, the younger speakers started
studying Standard Arabic in schools from primary to high school and
English as a foreign language from the age of 12 to13 years old.
Procedure:
(1) Read Text (One reading text for all respondents)
- derived from the speech of a TYA speaker
(Transcribed from her monologue)

(2) Spontaneous speech

a. talking about one of the topics assigned to them, b.
producing interrogatives of speakers
- Yes/no and wh-questions elicited from the
participants answers in a a guessing game
Background:
Four main varieties Yemeni Arabic:
Sana’ani - spoken in the north
Hadhrami - spoken in the east
Tihami - spoken in the west and
Taizzi - spoken in the south.

Yemen was isolated from other Arab countries during the

rule of the Imamate. Prior to the 1962 Revolution, there was a
great divide among the people with each group, sect, tribe,or
clan, wrapping its own version of Yemeni identity (Barett,
2011).
 After the Imam was finally deposed in 1962, the
establishment of a republican rule began in the country. This
included the establishment of new educational institutions in
the 1970s and 1980s accompanied by the need for experts in
the field of education.

To attain this, the government employed people who

came from different parts of the world, including other
Arabic-speaking countries.
Assumption:
Old speakers,whose original or native language influences and
shapes their lives may display certain features that may not exist
among younger speakers. This may be due to mass media and
tourism restrictions.

Therefore, the increasing contact and interaction that Yemenis

had with Arabic speakers from different countries with the
opening up of education could have influenced the speakers’
linguistic practices, resulting in variation in the linguistic
patterns of older and younger Yemenis, such as intonation
patterns.
Intonation in Arabic

Some languages use a falling pitch at the end of a

grammatical unit, such as in a statement.
Or, an incomplete utterance will have a rising pitch which
indicates an incomplete utterance, and that some
information is still to come.

Palestinian Arabic, speakers were found to utilize different

tonal patterns to convey meaning, express attitudes and
differentiate between grammatical structures
(i) Kultlu ru;ħ (HL tone)
(I asked him to go away (implying before he regrets
staying)

(ii) Kultlu ru;ħ (LL tone)

I asked him to go away (implying that the
misunderstanding is finished at that point)
Arabic English
‘ismi (name). Maa ‘ismak? My name is…,what is yours? ( to a male)
min ‘ayn ‘ant? Where are you from? (masc., sing.)
‘ana min al-‘Filbini I am from the Philippines.
kayf ant? How are you? (masc., sing.)
kayf anti? How are you? (fem., sing.)
bi-khayr Good, alright
naahi, w-‘ant? Fine, and you? (masc., sing.)
naahiya, w-‘anti? Fine, and you? (fem., sing.)
 However, a general rule cannot be applied to all languages
since not all languages employ the same rising intonational
patterns in questions or falling intonation in statements.

In fact, in some language pitch movements occur quite

freely, and the tonal placement is prone to unusual degree of
variability (Lehtinen, 2008).
Findings

TYA does not show variability in pitch accents in the

different speaking contexts unlike the other Arabic varieties.
It is consistent tone in all utterances
A. Pitch contours spontaneous speech
Majority of utterances displayed a falling tone pattern,
however, there was a general tendency of ending the last
accented syllable with a higher pitch than the beginning of
that syllable.
The utterances from both groups have a gradual declination
of the pitch contour. Although the YOG speakers displayed
more pitch variations in the last accented syllable than the
YYG speakers, the F0 alignment was similar for both groups.
B. On the read passage

The utterances displayed much steeper global declination

than the spontaneous speech utterances.
Thus, for both groups, F0 alignment had a tendency to occur
towards the beginning of the last accented syllable.
On the wh- Questions
Different patterns for speakers of both groups were displayed.
- the only speaking context that displayed differences from
the other group
- also different from other Arabic varieties

The YYG speakers showed a global declination of the

utterances, but with the last accented syllable ending in a rising
tone.
The YOG speakers also displayed a global F0 declination but
with the last accented syllable ending in a falling tone.
Note:
Descriptions of Arabic tend to show a falling contour over the
whole wh-question utterance

C. On yes/no questions
- Speakers of both groups exhibited a global F0 increase.
- But the last accented syllable showed a prominent
pitch variation with a falling tone.
-The YYG speakers displayed more pitch variations than
the YOG.
Conclusion

The global and local contours are independent of each

other which appeared to be true in TYA, where some cases
displayed a global declination with a local rising tone and
other cases exhibited a global rise with a local falling tone.
 However, it was the local contour of the last accented
syllable that captured the distinct patterns of TYA
intonation between both groups.
When compared to Hellmuth’s (2014) study of Sana’ani
Arabic, the latter was described as displaying a frequent L*
tone in different utterances. In this study, on the other hand,
H* appeared to be the frequent tone that accompanied the
prominent syllables in the utterances.
 The implications of these findings on the intonation
patterns in relation to age differences is that despite the
different circumstances in which the speakers in both
groups lived and were educated, their prosodic output
in TYA did not appear to be different.
 This is contradictory to what might have been expected,
which is that the younger generation would adopt new
linguistic features while the older generation would tend to
maintain older forms (Trudgill, 1988).
It was assumed that the increasing contact and interaction
that Yemenis had with foreigners for decades after the
revolution and the generally different environment that
accompanied that phase might have influenced the speakers’
linguistic practices.
 Following this assumption, the younger speakers
were expected to show variations from the older
Yemenis who lived in a very different environment and
barely had contact with non-Yemeni speakers.
 However, the expected variation was not evident in
the intonation patterns of the TYA speakers in this study.

This could be because TYA is a local Arabic variety

used in a local social network of TYA speakers and, thus,
can be considered as a marker of local identity that
distinguishes TYA speakers from other Arabic speaking
areas .
 Further, communication with non-TYA Arabic speakers is likely
to be in a more standard form of Arabic for mutual intelligibility.

Quoting Thomason (2001), it is concluded that despite all the

changes that occurred in Yemen and having a small number of non-
Yemenis, there was no significant influence made onTYA .

It was also evident that there was no significant influence from

the speakers from different parts of the world who came to Yemen to
contribute to the educational process in the country.

This may have been due to contact that was confined in the
educational context.
Recommended Studies
From the study, it can be said that the features of TYA has
remained relatively unchanged.
However, the following possibilities can be studied separately:
(1) That the Standard Arabic spoken by TYA speakers may be
influenced by speakers of other varieties of Arabic;
(2) Possible influence of other varieties of Arabic on the
phonological and other linguistic features of TYA
(3) Both males and females should be included in a study to
provide a better insight of TYA and their use of SA.
Strengths:
It was able to explain the pitch contours of the TYA that
distinguishes it from other Arabic languages.
It has proven that a language doesn’t have to be affected by
external influences.
It highlighted the Taizzi Yemeni Arabic as a marker of local
identity for the speakers.
Weakness:
It has failed to explain the possible reason/s for the slight
difference in the pitch contour between the two groups;
It has not stated any specific goal or implication in the
teaching or acquisition of a certain language.