ICPhS XVII Regular Session Hong Kong, 17-21 August 2011 PROBLEMS FOR FOREIGNERS IN PRODUCING ARABIC SOUNDS AND A GUIDE FOR HELPING THEM, WITH A SPECIAL FOCUS ON NATIVE KOREAN SPEAKERS Joshua Ahn SIL, USA [email protected] ABSTRACT The present writer lived in Tunisia for 17 years. He Manner has met many people who struggle with learning of Articu- Arabic, especially with its pronunciation. This is a tal lation velar - short guide for helping foreigners with the pronunciation of Arabic sounds, especially as it Bilabial Labiodental (Inter)den Alveolar Postalveolar Palatal Velar Uvular Pharyngeal Glottal Labial relates to Koreans. articulation of Point This paper consists of 3 parts: consonants, vd.. m () Nasal vowels and the intonation of Arabic. In each part, vd. lateral approxi- problems for foreigners in producing Arabic vd. central mant sounds are shown, and helpful guides for solutions vd. Trill to these problems are introduced. are pharyngealized sounds. Keywords: Arabic learning, native Korean, grey indicates ‘sun letters’, while non-grey foreigners, pronunciation, guide for helping letters indicate ‘moon letters’. 1. CONSONANTS In Tunisia, ( ) are only used when assimilations have taken place or 1.1. Number of consonants borrowed words are transcribed. The number of Arabic consonants is 28. But the Arabic consonants make up 28 phonemes but number of Korean consonants is much less than we can see 29 symbols in this chart. 27 Arabic. Korean has 19 consonants (including 5 phonemes are used in Tunisian Arabic fortis sounds). This is why Koreans have because * are not used any more in difficulties in pronouncing Arabic consonants. Tunisia and have changed to / /ض & ] ظ (Table 1: IPA (The International Phonetic Alphabet) ex symbols for Arabic Consonants. Table 2: IPA (The International Phonetic Alphabet) symbols for Korean Consonants. Manner of Articu- Manner of lation velar velar - - Articulation Bilabial Labiodental (Inter)dental Alveolar Postalveolar Palatal Velar Uvular Pharyngeal Glottal Point of articulation of Point Labial La Labial La Bilabial Alveolar Postalveolar Palatal Velar Glottal Point of articulation of Point vl. (p) .t Plosive vd. .* () vl. asp. grooved vl. lenis Plosive vl. Fricative vl. p t k fortis vd. (b) ( ) ( ) vd. . .* vl. ( ) grooved asp. vl. Affricates () Fricative vd. () vl. s fortis 208 ICPhS XVII Regular Session Hong Kong, 17-21 August 2011 hand, native Arabic speakers have difficulties pronouncing the affricates of Korean. They Manner of pronounce affricates like fricatives. velar Articulation [z] [dz]’ز‘ :problem - al [] [d]’ج‘ Bilabial Alveolar Postalveolar Palat Velar Glottal Point of articulation of Point Labial [awz] ‘nut’ [dawdz] َج ْوز(ex vl. asp. [ zaw ]‘husband’[dzawd] َز ْوج vl. lenis Affricates vl. solution: Teach native Korean speakers the ts fortis differences between fricatives vd. () and affricates and make them vd. Nasal practice the following vd. * lateral examples. approximant z] is not same as [dz] in Korean]’ز‘ vd. * * central vd. Trill word 자전거[tsadzng]‘bicycle’. ] is not same as [d] in English]’ج‘ ( ) are only used when assimilations have taken place . word ‘jealous’[deləs]. Korean consonants make up 19 phonemes. [l] is only used in final syllable position. In Korean, ㄹ[ril] is pronounced two ways Its underlying form is [r]. [r] is only depending on the environment of the sound. One is used in the syllable initial position. [r] for the first consonant of a syllable, while the [] and [] are classified as semi-vowels in other is [l] in syllable final position. That’s why Korean. Thus, the 3 asterisks(*) are Koreans always tend to pronounce [l] as [r] in any excluded from the list of 19 phonemes. position within the syllable. But in Arabic these two sounds are totally different from each other. In 1.2. Distinctive feature of sun letters and other words, they are different phonemes. moon letters problem: [li:bi:] ‘Libyan people’ [ri:bi:] [el] with nouns in [ileyhi] ‘to him’ [ireyhi]ال When we pronounce the article Arabic, there is a rule which determines whether the sound [l] is maintained or not. This [l] is solution:Teach native Korean speakers the alveolar. So, if the next sounds have the same or differences between laterals and similar point of articulation to this alveolar [l] – i.e. trills and make them think about dental or postalveolar –the [l] is assimilated to the the sound [l] before they pronounce following sound. We call these sounds, which it as they are used to. Help them bring about assimilation of the definite article, ‘sun practice those sounds. ]. In Korean, ㄱ[kijək], ㄷ[tigt], ㅂ[pip] and]’ج‘ :letters’. However, there is an exception ㅈ[ t] can be pronounced both as voiced or 1.3. Influence of Korean consonants voiceless according to the environment. However, There are many sounds which are difficult for voiced and voiceless consonants in Arabic are native Korean speakers to pronounce because of totally different phonemes. Koreans tend to the influence of Korean sounds. Arabic has 14 pronounce voiced consonants in syllable initial fricatives but it does not contain any affricates. (An position as voiceless consonants, especially when affricate is a sequence of a stop released directly it comes to lenis sounds. into a fricative at the same or nearly the same point of articulation.) But on the other hand, Korean has problem: [bab] ‘door’ [pab] [dar] ‘a house’ [tar] only one fricative [s/] and 3 affricates. That is why the native Korean speaker faces solution: Teach native Korean speakers the problems in pronouncing fricatives. A Korean will differences between voiced and pronounce fricatives like affricates. On the other voiceless sounds and make sure 209 ICPhS XVII Regular Session Hong Kong, 17-21 August 2011 they are able to discriminate aspirated stops and make them between those sounds. practice those sounds. in Arabic is pronounced as a (ئ ,ؤ ,ء) Difficult Arabic consonants Hamza .1.4 glottal stop [ ]. When we pronounce this, the Some sounds in Arabic do not exist in the phonetic inventory of other languages, making these sounds vocal cords come together to form a complete very difficult to produce for native speakers of closure. By very definition, a glottal stop means those languages. Pharyngeal or pharyngealized that the vocal cords cannot vibrate, so that only a sounds are especially difficult to pronounce for voiceless sound is produced.[3] We can practice native Korean speakers. Of course, this applies to hamza with a vowel as below. most foreign speakers of Arabic. [aaaaaa] In producing these sounds, the body of the [a a a a a a ] tongue is flattened, causing the tongue root to be drawn backwards towards the pharyngeal wall. The mistakes, that is, incorrect pronunciation, This will cause a constriction of the pharyngeal which have been mentioned above may be applied cavity.[1] But Korean pronounces the pharyngeal/ not only to native Korean speakers but to all non- pharyngealized sounds as fortis consonants. native speakers of Arabic. s] [s ] 1.5. Assimilations]’ص‘ :problem t] [ t ] Not a great deal of assimilation takes place in] ’ط‘ Korean also pronounces a Arabic, except for alveolarization with sun letters ,h]. and pharyngealization. For example ] ’ه‘ ] as a glottal]’ح‘ pharyngeal solution: Teach native Korean speakers how [elams] [etams] ‘the sun’ to pronounce pharyngeal/ [itaraba] [itaraba] ‘to wave’ pharyngealized sounds and make them practice those sounds. However, Koreans have a tendency to assimilate much more often than native Arabic speakers. Korean typically does not discriminate between Let’s look at an example of nasalization: uvular and velar sounds. Arabic: not yet [n t jet ] q] [k] ]’ق‘ :problem good morning [gud mniŋ] solution: Teach native Korean speakers the point of articulation of velar and Korean: not yet [nn net], uvular sounds and make them good morning [gun mniŋ] practice those sounds. Korean also doesn’t discriminate between 1.6. Released and unreleased consonants (inter)dental and alveolar sounds. The final consonant of Arabic is released normally but the final consonant of Korean should be [d] ’د‘ ] ]’ذ‘ :problem unreleased. That is why the native Korean speaker [z] ’ز‘ [ ]’ذ‘ speaks as below. solution: Teach native Korean speakers the Arabic: ] ‘book’ point of articulation of (inter)dental and alveolar sounds and make them ‘plant’ practice those sounds. Korean: ], Furthermore, some Korean speakers do not discriminate between fricatives and aspirated stops 2. VOWELS (plosives). 2.1. Numbers of vowels x] [k] Arabic has, essentially, only 3 vowels. They are]’خ‘ :problem solution: Teach native Korean speakers the [a], [i], and [u]. As you see in Figure 1, [e] and [o] characteristics of fricatives and are allophones of [a] and [u]. But Korean has 8 210 ICPhS XVII Regular Session Hong Kong, 17-21 August 2011 vowels, as Figure 2 shows. So it is not difficult for [a] and [u] are used more often than [e] and [o] in native Korean speakers to pronounce Arabic Middle Eastern countries as compared with North vowels. Africa, that is, the Maghreb region. Figure 1: IPA (The International Phonetic Alphabet) With regard to [a] and [e], [a] especially is symbols for Arabic Vowels. pronounced after uv ular or pharyngeal/ pharyngealized sounds. [a] is also pronounced with .which is pronounced long ,(ى)or alif-maqsura (ا)front unrounded back rounded alif close i u u 2.4. Syllabic structure close-mid (e) (o) Syllabic structure is a very important factor to take into consideration when trying to pronounce a language correctly. The syllabic structure of open Korean is V, CV, CVC. However, in Tunisian (e), (o) are allophones of [a] and [u] colloquial Arabic, we can find more complex syllabic structures like CCV, CCVC and CCVCC. Figure 2: IPA(The International Phonetic Alphabet) symbols for contemporary Korean Vowels. 3. I NTONATION front unrounded back rounded The most prominent criterion which indicates whether a speaker is a foreigner or not is intonation.