Investigating EFL Learners’ Production of Pre-Fortis Clipping in English at University Level

Investigating EFL Learners’ Production of Pre-Fortis Clipping in English at University Level

Section: Article
Issue
Vol. 6 No. 21 (2026): Volume Six / Issue 21
Published
Jan 1, 2026
Pages
1269-1250

Abstract





It is well known that vowels are shorter before voiceless consonants than voiced ones in English, as in many other languages. The main objective of this study is to examine EFL learners' capacity to produce shorter vowels before a fortis consonant and longer vowels before a lenis consonant. Twenty EFL learners were requested to produce the English vowels / i:, ɑ:, ɔ:, u:, ʒ:, ɪ , æ, ʊ/ and Arabic vowels / i: , a:, u: ,i , a , u /, once before the voiceless stop /t/ and once before the voiced stop /d/. The duration of each vowel was measured for each speaker. For this purpose, the quantitative approach is adopted. The recordings were analyzed using the Praat program. The results revealed that vowels preceding /t/ were shorter than those preceding /d/, confirming the presence of pre-fortis clipping in English and Arabic. The results were compared to those of the native speakers’ mother tongue performance.





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Authors

Sabeeha Hanna Azzo

Mosul University, College of Education for Humanities, Department of English / Mosul - Iraq

Ziyad Rakan Kasim

Mosul University, College of Education for Humanities, Department of English / Mosul - Iraq

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How to Cite

صبيحة حنا عزو, & زياد راكان قاسم. (2026). Investigating EFL Learners’ Production of Pre-Fortis Clipping in English at University Level: Investigating EFL Learners’ Production of Pre-Fortis Clipping in English at University Level. Journal of Education for the Humanities, 6(21), 1269–1250. Retrieved from https://jeh.uomosul.edu.iq/index.php/jeh/article/view/61415
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