A Brief Description of Consonants in Modern Standard Arabic

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A Brief Description of Consonants in Modern Standard Arabic Linguistics and Literature Studies 2(7): 185-189, 2014 http://www.hrpub.org DOI: 10.13189/lls.2014.020702 A Brief Description of Consonants in Modern Standard Arabic Iram Sabir*, Nora Alsaeed Al-Jouf University, Sakaka, KSA *Corresponding Author: [email protected] Copyright © 2014 Horizon Research Publishing All rights reserved. Abstract The present study deals with “A brief Modern Standard Arabic. This study starts from an description of consonants in Modern Standard Arabic”. This elucidation of the phonetic bases of sounds classification. At study tries to give some information about the production of this point shows the first limit of the study that is basically Arabic sounds, the classification and description of phonetic rather than phonological description of sounds. consonants in Standard Arabic, then the definition of the This attempt of classification is followed by lists of the word consonant. In the present study we also investigate the consonant sounds in Standard Arabic with a key word for place of articulation in Arabic consonants we describe each consonant. The criteria of description are place and sounds according to: bilabial, labio-dental, alveolar, palatal, manner of articulation and voicing. The attempt of velar, uvular, and glottal. Then the manner of articulation, description has been made to lead to the drawing of some the characteristics such as phonation, nasal, curved, and trill. fundamental conclusion at the end of the paper. The aim of this study is to investigate consonant in MSA taking into consideration that all 28 consonants of Arabic alphabets. As a language Arabic is one of the most 2. Consonants important languages in the world, because it is the language Consonant is a speech sound that represents a speech of Quran. Each language has its own phonetic system; sound produced by a partial or complete obstruction of the furthermore to the enlightenment of MSA sound system; air stream by a constriction of the speech organs and a giving a comparison between Arabic and English sound vowel is a voiced sound in the pronunciation of which the air considered as similarities and differences between the two passes through the mouth in a continuous stream, there being systems such as /p/ and /b/ e.g. /p/- pit /p t/ in English but is no obstruction (Ward, 1971: 65).A consonant, on the other not spoken in Arabic. Although /b/ sound is similar in both hand are classified according to the organs articulating them ɪ ɪɣ bal / and according to the manner of their articulation is also / غلاب ,the languages e.g., / b /- bit/b t/ in English “Adult” in Arabic. This study attempts to observe these possible to combine the movement of the vocal cords with ɪ words and statistical work for each other and their the articulation of any consonant, i.e. , consonants can be representation in the data included with the analysis of these either voiced or voiceless. As stated above, Arabic has 28 results. consonants (including two semi-vowels)and six vowels Keywords MSA, Arabic, Consonants, Analysis, (three short vowels and three long vowels); they appear as Speech Sounds, Description different allophones, depending on the preceding consonant. Short vowels are not usually represented in written language, although they may be indicated with diacritics. Most of these have equivalent consonants in English and other languages, although a few do not. 1. Introduction List of Phonetic Symbols as transliterated in this article: Arabic is considered to be a worldwide language, with 27 a. 26 consonants: b t d k q l m n f θ ð s z x h r ς ŧ sub- languages. These varieties are spoken all over the Arab đ ∂ ʒ Ṣ ʃ ɣ ḥ world. Standard Arabic is widely studies and used b. 2 semi-vowels: w j ʡ throughout the Islamic world. Standard Arabic has 36 c. 6 vowels: i ә a u phonemes, of which six are vowels, two diphthongs and 28 Note that Arabic is particularly rich in uvular, pharyngeal, ɪ ʊ are consonants. Weather in hand writing, Arabic script only and pharyngealized ("emphatic") sounds. The emphatic andط/ŧ/,ض /đ/ ,ص/reveals a cursive style and is written from right to left. The sounds are generally considered to be /ṣ ,Note that Arabic is particularly rich in uvular .ظ/Arabic language has a standard pronunciation; this study is /ẓ specifically concerned with the analysis of consonants in pharyngeal, and pharyngeal zed ("emphatic") sounds. 186 A Brief Description of Consonants in Modern Standard Arabic Table 1. A List of Phonetic Symbols of the Arabic consonants Phonetic Arabic S.No. Three-term label Example symbol letter (Voiced bilabial plosive ḥʊb(love ب b 1 (Voiceless denti-alveolar plosive tәŧabIq(match ت t 2 (Voiced denti-alveolar plosive daxIl(inner د d 3 (Voiceless velar plosive kita:b(book ك k 4 (Voiced palate-alveolar affricate ʒuς(hunger ج ʒ 5 (Voiceless uvular plosive qәmәr(moon ق q 6 (Voiced alveolar lateral la: (no ل l 7 (Voiced bilabial nasal mәŧәr (rain م m 8 (Voiced alveolar nasal nu:r (light ن n 9 (Voiceless labio-dental fricative fәn (art ف f 10 (Voiceless inter-dental fricative θәlaθәh (three ث θ 11 (Voiced inter-dental fricative ðәki(intelligent ذ ð 12 (Voiceless alveolar fricative su:q (market س s 13 (Voiceless velarised alveolar fricative ṣәḥḥәh(health ص Ṣ 14 (Voiced alveolar fricative ruz (rice ز z 15 (Voiceless palate-alveolar fricative ʃәms (sun ش ʃ 16 (Semi-Voiced uvular fricative xәsarәh (lose خ x 17 (Voiced uvular fricative ɣuba:r (dust غ ɣ 18 (Voiceless pharyngeal fricative ḥima:r (donkey ح ḥ 19 (Voiceless glottal fricative hawa:ʡ (air ه h 20 (Voiced alveolar trill rәb (lord ر r 21 (Voiced pharyngeal frictionless continuant ςәql (mind ع ς 22 (Voiced palatal semi-vowel jәd(hand ي j 23 (Voiced labio-velar semi-vowel wahid (one و w 24 (Voiceless velarised denti alveolar plosive ŧi:n (soil ط ŧ 25 (Voiced velarised denti-alveolar plosive đәςi:f (weak ض đ 26 (Voiced velarised alveolar fricative ∂әrf (envelope ظ ∂ 27 (Voiceless epiglottal plosive faʡr (rat أ ʡ 28 Table 2. A List of Phonetic Symbols of the Arabic Vowels Phonetic S.No. Label Example symbol I 1 Front unrounded vowel between close and half-close (short) ςIlm(know) 2 i Front close unrounded vowel (long) din (religion) 3 ә Front open unrounded vowel (short) rәq (dance) 4 a Front open unrounded vowel (long) babṣ (door) 5 Back rounded vowel between close and half close (short) ŧ fl(baby) 6 ʊu Back close rounded vowel (long) bumәhʊ (owl) Linguistics and Literature Studies 2(7): 185-189, 2014 187 2.1. Place of Articulation are pronounced in very different manner, non-native speakers are not pronounced perfectly and clearly. There are some common consonants in both English and Palatal: articulated with the body of the tongue ʃ Arabic. These consonants are (d, b, t, j, f, z, , h, l, m, n, w, r approaches or touches the hard palate. English /j/ is a palatal and y). There are eighteen consonants common between approximant -- the tongue body approaches the hard palate, English and Arabic. However, these common consonants are but closely enough to create turbulence in the airstream. .”Life“ ﺣﯿﺎة /ḥәyah/ ي/not always identical; there are some differences. /t/ in Example: /j English is alveolar, but in Arabic it is dental. Here is a Labio-velar: articulated with both the lips and the soft .”ʡswәd /Black/ دوسأ /w/ و :difference in the place of articulation; /d/ in English is palate example alveolar, but dental in Arabic. /h/ occurs in initial and medial Velar: articulated with the body of the tongue touches the positions in English, but not finally, e.g., horse, behalf. In soft palate, or velum. In English /k/, /ɡ/, and /ŋ/ are stops. -/ kItab/ “book”, / ŋ/ﻛﺘﺎب -/ Arabic, /h/ occurs is finally, e.g. /dәlalәh/ ‘Denote’. Examples for velar consonants/ k Place of articulation is defined as both the active and not in Arabic. passive articulators. The place of articulation of a consonant Uvular: articulated with the back of the tongue and uvula / أخɣәbi/ “idiot” and /x/ in /ﻏﺒﻲ /qәŧәh/ “cat”, /ɣ/ ﻗﻄﺔ/specifies where in the vocal tract the narrowing occurs from e.g., /q front to back; there are several basic active articulators: ʡx/ “Brother”. articulated with the back of theع /and /ςح /Bilabial: articulated with the upper and lower lips Pharyngeal:/ḥ /m ʊ ḥәrrIk/ ﻣﺤﺮك/approach or touch each other. English /p/, /b/, and /m/ are tongue and pharynx, for example: /ḥ .”ςnzәb/“Goat/ ﻋﻨﺰة /bilabial stops but in Arabic /p/ sound is not spoken, For “Engine” and /ς ɪ ɪ .Glottal: The glottis is the opening between the vocal folds / ﺑﺎﻟﻎ,example: /p/- pit /p t/ in English /b/- bit/b t/ in English ɪɣ In /h/sound, this opening is narrow enough to create some ﻣﺪرﺳﺔ ,bal / “Adult” in Arabic /m/ - meet /mit/ in English ɪ /mәdr sәh/ “School” in Arabic. turbulence in the airstream flowing past the vocal folds. For Labiodentals: articulated with the lower lip touches the this reason, /h/ is often classified as a glottal fricative. .”mauzәh/ “banana/ ھﻤﻮزة/upper teeth. English /f/ and /v/ are bilabial fricatives, For Example for glottal /h -/fIʡh/“class” in Arabic/v/ ﻓﺌﺔ,example: / f /-fan in English van in English but it is not in Arabic: Dental: articulated with the tip or blade of the tongue 2.2. Manners of Articulation touches the upper teeth. English /θ/ and /ð/ are dental Stops: A stop consonant completely cuts off the airflow fricatives. There are actually a couple of different ways of through the mouth.
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