In Moroccan Arabic, word final vowels are lengthened when they are followed by a consonant. Compared to vowels in syllable-final position, this lengthening may attain 50%. The difference in duration cannot be put down either to intrinsic or cointrinsic effects, nor to final lengthening. Since this temporal difference occurs at word boundaries it is consequently a potential cue for the identification of word bondaries, as can be shown from minimal pairs such as: /za bfasu/ "He came with his pickaxe #/zab fasu/ "He brought his pickaxe" where the only difference is in the duration of the first vowel.