Arabic phonology

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Arabic alphabet
ﺍ ﺏ ﺕ ﺙ ﺝ ﺡ
ﺥ ﺩ ﺫ ﺭ ﺯ س
ﺵ ﺹ ﺽ ﻁ ﻅ ﻉ
ﻍ ﻑ ﻕ ﻙ ﻝ
ﻡ ﻥ ه‍ ﻭ ﻱ
History · Transliteration Diacritics · Hamza ء Numerals · Numeration v • d • e

Note: This page or section contains IPA phonetic symbols in Unicode. See Help:IPA for a pronunciation key.

The Arabic language has a standard pronunciation, which is basically the one used to recite the Qur'an. The same pronunciation is used in newscasts, discourses and formal declarations of all types.

As in other widely used languages, dialects of Arabic pronounce certain sounds differently.

Standard Arabic (or Qur'ānic Arabic) has 28 consonant sounds, represented by the 28 letters of the Arabic alphabet, and three vowel sounds. Both consonants and vowels may be short or long; long consonants are marked with the shadda (sign of gemination, literally "sign of emphasis" in Arabic), whereas long vowels are marked with the letters ا (alif), ي (yā) or و (wāw) quiescent (then called matres lectionis or "mothers of reading").

1 Vowels and diphthongs
2 Consonants
3 Local variations
4 Distribution
5 References
6 Bibliography
7 See also

[edit] Vowels and diphthongs

There are three short vowels, three long vowels and two diphthongs (formed by a combination of short /a/ with the semivowels /j/ and w/).

Short /a/ is pronounced like e in English bed but with the tongue towards the center of the mouth: [ɛ̈]. However, in an environment of velarised or pharyngealised (so called "emphatic") consonants, it is pronounced like a short version of the first vowel in English father: IPA [ɑ].
Short /i/ is pronounced like i in English sit: IPA [ɪ].
Short /u/ is pronounced like u in English put: IPA [ʊ].
Long /aː/ (ā) is pronounced like a long version of the vowel in English man: IPA [æː]. In promixity to velarised consonants, as well as after r, it is pronounced like the first vowel in English father: IPA [ɑː].
Long /iː/ (ī) is pronounced similar to the ee in English need: IPA [iː].
Long /uː/ (ū) is pronounced like uh in German Stuhl: IPA [uː]. (Note: oo in English tool is different in some dialects)
The diphthong /aj/ is pronounced as a combination of short /a/ and short /i/: [ɛ̈ɪ]. In a velarised environment it is pronounced with a back first element: [ɑɪ].
The diphthong /aw/ is pronounced as a combination of short /a/ and short /u/: [ɛ̈ʊ]. Near velarised consonants it is pronounced with a back first element: [ɑʊ].

[edit] Consonants

The 28 consonant sounds of Arabic are the following: (Letters left without a comment are pronounced more or less like in English.)

**Standard Arabic consonant phonemes**
		Labial	Inter- dental	Dental/Alveolar		Palatal	Velar	Uvular	Pharyn- geal	Glottal
		Labial	Inter- dental	plain	emphatic¹	Palatal	Velar	Uvular	Pharyn- geal	Glottal
Nasal		m		n
Stop	voiceless			t	tˤ		k	q		ʔ
Stop	voiced	b		d	dˤ	dʒ ~ g²
Fricative	voiceless	f	θ	s	sˤ	ʃ	x ~ χ		ħ	h
Fricative	voiced		ð	z	ðˤ		ɣ ~ ʁ		ʕ
Trill				r
Approximant				l	(lˤ)³	j

Emphatic consonants are pronounced with the back of the tongue approaching the pharynx (see pharyngealization). /q/, /ħ/, and /ʕ/ can be considered the emphatic counterparts to /k/, /h/, and /ʔ/ respectively.
/dʒ/ is pronounced as [ɡ] by some speakers. This is especially characteristic of the Egyptian and southern Yemeni dialects.^[1] In many parts of North Africa and in the Levant, it is pronounced as [ʒ], and in certain regions of Oman it is pronounced as [j]. In classical Arabic, this was either [ɟ] or [gʲ].
/lˤ/ occurs only in /ʔalˤːaːh/, the name of God, i.e. Allah,^[2] when the word follows short and long /a/ and /u/ (after long and short /i/, it is not emphatic: bismi l-lāh /bismilːaːh/).

In most dialects, uvular fricatives of the classical period have become velar or post-velar.^[3]

Long consonants are pronounced exactly like short consonants, but last longer. In Arabic, they are called them "mushaddadah" i.e. "strengthened", but they are not pronounced any stronger, just held longer.

[edit] Local variations

Most variations on spoken Arabic have different reflexes of Classical Arabic phonemes than the pronunciation of literary Arabic. Or, to put it differently, spoken and literary Arabic differ not only in specific words but also contain changes in the pronunciations of certain sounds.

A good example would be Egyptian Arabic, where:

The letter ﻕ (SA /q/) represents a glottal stop /ʔ/ in most (but not all) words.
The letter ﺝ (SA */dʒ/) represents a velar stop /ɡ/.
The letter ﺙ (SA */θ/) represents /t/ in common words and /s/ in borrowings from Classical Arabic. Thus Umm Kulthum is actually pronounced Umm Kulsuum.
The letter ﺫ (SA */ð/) represents /d/ in common words and /z/ in borrowings from Classical Arabic.
The letter ﻅ (SA */ðˁ/) represents an emphatic /dˁ/ in common words and an emphatic /zˁ/ in Classical Arabic borrowings.

Other dialects have similar variations. The letter most prone to variations in pronunciation seems to be ﻕ. This sometimes leads to variations in transliteration systems.

This does not mean that Egyptians recite the Qur'an differently or that they do not know the standard pronunciation: speakers have no difficulty pronouncing /q/ correctly and understand Standard Arabic when necessary.

[edit] Distribution

The most frequent consonant phoneme of Arabic is /r/, the rarest is /ðˤ/. The frequency distribution of the 28 consonant phonemes, based on the 2,967 triliteral roots listed by Wehr (1952) is (with the percentage of roots in which each phoneme occurs):

Phoneme	Frequency
/r/	24%
/w/	18%
/l/	17%
/m/	17%
/n/	17%
/b/	16%
/f/	14%
/ʕ/	13%
/q/	13%
/d/	13%
/s/	13%
/ħ/	12%
/j/	12%
/ʃ/	11%
/dʒ/	10%
/k/	9%
/h/	8%
/z/	8%
/tˤ/	8%
/x/	8%
/sˤ/	7%
/ʔ/	7%
/t/	6%
/dˤ/	5%
/ɣ/	5%
/θ/	3%
/ð/	3%
/ðˤ/	1%

This distribution does not necessarily reflect the actual frequency of occurrence of the phonemes in speech, since pronouns, prepositions and suffixes are not taken into account, and the roots themselves will occur with varying frequency. The list does give, however, an idea of which phonemes are more marginal than others. It will be noted that the five least frequent letters are among the six letters added to those inherited from the Phoenician alphabet.

[edit] References

[edit] Bibliography

Hans Wehr, Arabisches Wörterbuch für die Schriftsprache der Gegenwart (1952)
Watson, Janet (2002), written at New York, The Phonology and Morphology of Arabic, Oxford University Press