Laryngeal realism and the voicing contrast in Khuzestani Arabic stops Nawal Bahrani Faculty of Persian Literature and Foreign Languages, Allameh Tabataba’i University, Iran nawal.bahrani@yahoo.com Vladimir Kulikov Department of English Literature and Linguistics, Qatar University, Doha, Qatar vkulikov@qu.edu.qa In LARYNGEAL REALISM (LR), laryngeal specification of stops is explained by direct maps of cues (e.g. VOT) onto privative phonological laryngeal features [voice] or [spread glottis]. Phonetic realization of the segments and speakers’ ‘control’ (e.g. the degree of intervocalic voicing and speech rate manipulation effects on VOT duration) are used as diagnostics of phonological specification. Similar to some Arabic vernacular dialects (e.g. Qatari Arabic), Khuzestani Arabic in Iran presents a case where three voiced stops /bd g/ are in contrast with voiceless stops /ptk/, but two voiceless guttural plosives /t≥ q/ have no voiced homorganic counterparts. In this paper we examine the phonetic realiza- tion of voicing in these stops at word-initial and intervocalic position, as well as the effects of speech rate manipulation on VOT and closure voicing. The data came from 12 native speakers recorded in Khorramshahr, Iran. Our findings suggest an over-specified voicing system in this Arabic variety. We found that voiced /bd g/ were produced with voicing lead in initial position and complete closure voicing word medially, voiceless /ptk/ had long lag VOT, while guttural /t≥ q/ had short lag VOT. Speech rate manipulation revealed that only duration of (pre)voicing and duration of aspiration increased in slower speech. Also, f0, F1, and F2 were measured at vowel onset to evaluate the glottal state in production of stops. The results support the predictions of LR that voiced stops are specified by [voice], voiceless stops are [sg], while gutturals lack underlying specification for voice. 1 Introduction In world’s languages, stop consonants produced at the same place of articulation are often differentiated by a phonological contrast traditionally known as ‘voicing contrast’. In this tradition, the contrasting segments are classified as either VOICED or VOICELESS. Acoustic correlates of this contrast include voice onset time (VOT), percent voicing (voicing ratio, VR), fundamental frequency (f0), frequencies of the first (F1) and second (F2) formant, con- striction duration, or the length of the neighboring vowel. Among these, VOT (Lisker & Abramson 1964) is mainly considered the primary acoustic correlate of the voicing con- trast in stop consonants in word-initial position. Laryngeal realism (LR) theory (Iverson & Salmons 1995, Honeybone 2005, Beckman et al. 2011, Beckman, Jessen & Ringen 2013) closely reflects VOT typology and directly maps privative phonological features [voice] or [spread glottis] on the VOT categories, such as voicing lead (prevoicing) or long voicing lag. Journal of the International Phonetic Association, page 1 of 32 © The Author(s), 2023. Published by Cambridge University Press on behalf of The International Phonetic Association. doi:10.1017/S002510032300004X https://doi.org/10.1017/S002510032300004X Published online by Cambridge University Press