Faulty Consonant Gemination in the Pronunciation of English Biomedical Terms by Arab Healthcare Professionals

Abstract

This study analyzed faulty geminated consonants in English biomedical terms as pronounced by Arab healthcare professionals. Ninety biomedical terms with faulty geminated consonants were collected from the casual speech of 52 Arab healthcare professionals who are YouTubers and medical doctors, pharmacists, nutritionists, radiologists, physical therapists, and lab technicians who work at some pharmacies, hospitals, and polyclinics. Data analysis revealed the subjects’ tendency to geminate double consonants /l, r. n, b, t, p/ in penicillin, cannula, collagen, millimeter, heart attack, Ferrus, Ginko biloba, copper, life support due to phonological, orthographic, and psycholinguistic factors rooted in Arabic phonotactics and L1 transfer. The subjects also geminate double consonants in common words used in the healthcare fields (collect, connect, correct, comment, assignment, announcement) due to phonological transfer from Arabic and misinterpretation of English orthography. Arabic has phonemic gemination, where consonant length is contrastive and meaningful (kataba vs. kattaba). Whereas English gemination occurs across word boundary only (immature, that time). This leads to a default tendency to lengthen consonants, especially when they appear between vowels or in stressed syllables. They over-apply gemination in English, even when it is not phonemic. Similarly, single final consonants in up, cut, shut, gel were geminated due to L1 phonological transfer, phonotactic repair strategies, and perceptual habits rooted in Arabic. These words resemble Arabic monosyllabic words ending in true geminates ( رَبّ/rabː/ God, حبّ /ħubː/ love). Arabic speakers geminate final consonants in these words for clarity or emphasis. By contrast, the subjects do not geminate double letters in (Accu-Check, mammography appendix, tranquillizer, capillaries) where double consonants occur in unstressed syllables, across syllable boundaries or in one syllable withing the words. Here, the subjects do not apply gemination because they do not perceive a morphological boundary that justifies it, contrary to collect or connect, where the prefix co- or con- is salient. Common words as (communication, aggressive, immune, happen, difference, stopped, sitting, hopping) contain morphological doubling but Arabic speakers often recognize inflectional suffixes where the double consonant is a spelling convention and such words are frequently used in academic and clinical contexts. Further results and recommendations are given in detail.