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Abstract

This study provides cross-language comparisons of Egyptian English and General American English (GAE) vowels. The main purpose of this study is to determine the intelligibility of Egyptian speakers in comparison with GAE speakers. In order to implement this comparison, eleven GAE vowels in /hVd/ contexts produced by five male and five female Egyptian speakers were analyzed acoustically using Praat software. The results reveal that Egyptian speakers’ production of GAE vowels is affected by the Egyptian vowel system. While some GAE vowels are easy for Egyptians to pronounce intelligibly, others such as /æ, ɛ, o, ɔ, ɑ/, are difficult to produce close to the standard American English pronunciation.

Faculty Supervisor

Professor Ettien Koffi

Author Bio

Samar Khalil received her MA in TESL/Applied Linguistic at Saint Cloud State University in May 2013. She hopes to pursue a PhD in Applied Linguistics. Her area of interest is computational linguistics.

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