The Behavior and Representation of Geminate Consonants in Moroccan Arabic

The present paper explores the special behavior of geminate consonants in Moroccan Arabic vis-á-vis short consonants and consonant clusters. By way of comparison, it is shown that geminates exhibit properties that are reminiscent of both unit structures and cluster structures. In particular, we reveal that geminates in MA demonstrate an inconsistent behavior in relation to the process of schwa epenthesis. In this context, we ask whether geminates get split up in MA, and when and how that happens. In order to characterize the patterning of geminates in MA, different phonological representations of geminates are examined against the variable behavior of geminates. On this basis, it is eventually suggested that geminates should be depicted as two root nodes that are underlyingly associated with a mora at the prosodic level.