UC Berkeley

This paper describes the results of an acoustic experiment designed to test the properties of Kabyle Berber's "double" consonants. There is a debate in the literature as to whether these "double" consonants should be analyzed as geminate, long or fortis consonants. I outline the acoustic predictions which each of these labels entail, then measure the acoustic properties of a series of Kabyle words containing both singleton and "double" consonants. Based on the results of the experiment, I conclude that the label "fortis" is the most appropriate for Kabyle "double" consonants.