Prosodic correlates and pragmatic functions of the particle tˤayb in spoken Saudi Arabic

Abstract

This study describes the prosodic and functional patterns of the particle tˤayb[1] in Spoken Saudi Arabic (SSA; the variety of Arabic spoken in Saudi Arabia) through phonetic and conversational analysis. This particle, literally meaning “good/well/okay,” is one of the most common spoken particles used in SSA. Data were collected by recording four hours of oral spontaneous speech produced by five Saudi speakers. The findings reveal that, structurally, the particle tˤayb can occur independently before questions and before negative and affirmative statements. Moreover, its meaning depends on its context and, sometimes, prosody. The particle is identified 109 times in the corpus, and consistently occupies an initial (i.e., turn-initial) but not a medial or final position. The results provide the pragmatic functions and the prosody of the particle tˤayb as well as the participants' use frequency of such functions. Tˤayb conveys nine pragmatic functions in the data, which are listed in order from the most frequent (i.e., turn-taking marker) to the least frequent use (i.e., request for patience). From a phonetic perspective, the results show different patterns in the production of the particle tˤayb; it may show an almost flat contour with medium length, as in the functions representing (turn-taking, change and close topic); a sharp rising/falling contour with medium length, particularly with the functions conveying (reproach and refusal); or a high contour that decreases gradually with long duration, as found in the particle marking Be patient or showing little/no importance.

[1] The symbol /tˤ/ represents the voiceless alveolar emphatic stop in Arabic