Standard Arabic phonology
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While many languages have numerous dialects that differ in phonology, contemporary spoken Arabic is more properly described as a continuum of varieties.<ref>Template:Harvcoltxt</ref> This article deals primarily with Modern Standard Arabic (MSA), which is the standard variety shared by educated speakers throughout Arabic-speaking regions. MSA is used in writing in formal print media and orally in newscasts, speeches and formal declarations of numerous types.<ref>Template:Harvcoltxt</ref>
Modern Standard Arabic has 28 consonant phonemes and 6 vowel phonemes, with four "emphatic" (pharyngealized) consonants that contrast with their non-emphatic counterparts. Some of these phonemes have coalesced in the various modern dialects, while new phonemes have been introduced through borrowing or phonemic splits. A "phonemic quality of length" applies to consonants as well as vowels.<ref>Template:Harvcoltxt</ref>
History
Of the 29 Proto-Semitic consonants, only one has been lost: Template:IPA, which merged with Template:IPA, while Template:IPA became Template:IPA (see Semitic languages).<ref>Template:Harvcoltxt</ref> Various other consonants have changed their sound too, but have remained distinct. An original Template:IPA lenited to Template:IPA, and Template:IPA – consistently attested in pre-Islamic Greek transcription of Arabic languages<ref>Al-Jallad, 42</ref> – became palatalized to Template:IPA or Template:IPA by the time of the Quran and Template:IPAslink, Template:IPAslink, Template:IPAslink or Template:IPA after early Muslim conquests and in MSA (see Arabic phonology#Local variations for more detail).<ref>Template:Harvcoltxt</ref>
Its emphatic counterpart Template:IPA was considered by Arabs to be the most unusual sound in Arabic (hence the Classical Arabic's appellation Template:Lang Template:Transliteration or "language of the Template:Transliteration"). For most modern dialects, it has become an emphatic stop Template:IPA with loss of the laterality<ref name="Harvcoltxt|Watson|2002|p=2">Template:Harvcoltxt</ref> or with complete loss of any pharyngealization or velarization, Template:IPA. The classical Template:Transliteration pronunciation of pharyngealization Template:IPA still occurs in the Mehri language, and the similar sound without velarization, Template:IPAslink, exists in other Modern South Arabian languages.Template:Image frameOther changes may also have happened. Classical Arabic pronunciation is not thoroughly recorded and different reconstructions of the sound system of Proto-Semitic propose different phonetic values. One example is the emphatic consonants, which are pharyngealized in modern pronunciations but may have been velarized in the eighth century and glottalized in Proto-Semitic.<ref name="Harvcoltxt|Watson|2002|p=2" />
Reduction of Template:IPA and Template:IPA between vowels occurs in a number of circumstances and is responsible for much of the complexity of third-weak ("defective") verbs. Early Akkadian transcriptions of Arabic names show that this reduction had not yet occurred as of the early part of the 1st millennium BC.Template:Citation needed
The Classical Arabic language as recorded was a poetic koine that reflected a consciously archaizing dialect, chosen based on the tribes of the western part of the Arabian Peninsula, who spoke the most conservative variants of Arabic. Even at the time of Muhammed and before, other dialects existed with many more changes, including the loss of most glottal stops, the loss of case endings, the reduction of the diphthongs Template:IPA and Template:IPA into monophthongs Template:IPA, etc. Most of these changes are present in most or all modern varieties of Arabic.Template:Citation needed
An interesting feature of the writing system of the Quran (and hence of Classical Arabic) is that it contains certain features of Muhammad's native dialect of Mecca, corrected through diacritics into the forms of standard Classical Arabic. Among these features visible under the corrections are the loss of the glottal stop and a differing development of the reduction of certain final sequences containing Template:IPA: Evidently, the final Template:IPA became Template:IPA as in the Classical language, but final Template:IPA became a different sound, possibly Template:IPA (rather than again Template:IPA in the Classical language). This is the apparent source of the alif maqṣūrah 'restricted alif' where a final Template:IPA is reconstructed: a letter that would normally indicate Template:IPA or some similar high-vowel sound, but is taken in this context to be a logical variant of alif and represent the sound Template:IPA.Template:Citation needed
Historical development
Arabic phonology has evolved over centuries, influenced by language contact and historical expansion. Classical Arabic phonological features have shifted in modern dialects, partly due to the spread of Arabic through conquest and trade (Versteegh, 2014). These changes have resulted in both the preservation of classical features and significant innovations across dialects.
Literary Arabic
The "colloquial" spoken dialects of Arabic are learned at home and constitute the native languages of Arabic speakers. "Formal" Modern Standard Arabic is learned at school; although many speakers have a native-like command of the language, it is technically not the native language of any speakers. Both varieties can be both written and spoken, although the colloquial varieties are rarely written down and the formal variety is spoken mostly in formal circumstances, e.g., in radio and TV broadcasts, formal lectures, parliamentary discussions and to some extent between speakers of different colloquial dialects.
Even when the literary language is spoken, it is normally only spoken in its pure form when reading a prepared text out loud and communicating between speakers of different colloquial dialects. When speaking extemporaneously (i.e. making up the language on the spot, as in a normal discussion among people), speakers tend to deviate somewhat from the strict literary language in the direction of the colloquial varieties. There is a continuous range of "in-between" spoken varieties: from nearly pure Modern Standard Arabic (MSA), to a form that still uses MSA grammar and vocabulary but with colloquial influence, to a form of the colloquial language that imports a number of words and grammatical constructions in MSA, to a form that is close to pure colloquial but with the "rough edges" (the most noticeably "vulgar" or non-Classical aspects) smoothed out, to pure colloquial.
The particular variant (or register) used depends on the social class and education level of the speakers involved and the level of formality of the speech situation. Often it will vary within a single encounter, e.g., moving from nearly pure MSA to a more mixed language in the process of a radio interview, as the interviewee becomes more comfortable with the interviewer. This type of variation is characteristic of the diglossia that exists throughout the Arabic-speaking world.Template:Citation needed
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Although Modern Standard Arabic (MSA) is a unitary language, its pronunciation varies somewhat from country to country and from region to region within a country. The variation in individual "accents" of MSA speakers tends to mirror corresponding variations in the colloquial speech of the speakers in question, but with the distinguishing characteristics moderated somewhat. It is important in descriptions of "Arabic" phonology to distinguish between pronunciation of a given colloquial (spoken) dialect and the pronunciation of MSA by these same speakers.
Although they are related, they are not the same. For example, the phoneme that derives from Standard Arabic Template:IPA has many different pronunciations in the modern spoken varieties, e.g., Template:IPA. Speakers whose native variety has either Template:IPAblink or Template:IPAblink will use the same pronunciation when speaking MSA. Even speakers from Cairo, whose native Egyptian Arabic has Template:IPAblink, normally use Template:IPAblink when speaking MSA.
Another example: Many colloquial varieties are known for a type of vowel harmony in which the presence of an "emphatic consonant" triggers backed allophones of nearby vowels (especially of the low vowels Template:IPA, which are backed to Template:IPAblink in these circumstances and very often fronted to Template:IPAblink in all other circumstances). In many spoken varieties, the backed or "emphatic" vowel allophones spread a fair distance in both directions from the triggering consonant. In some varieties, most notably Egyptian Arabic, the "emphatic" allophones spread throughout the entire word, usually including prefixes and suffixes, even at a distance of several syllables from the triggering consonant.
Speakers of colloquial varieties with this vowel harmony tend to introduce it into their MSA pronunciation as well, but usually with a lesser degree of spreading than in the colloquial varieties. For example, speakers of colloquial varieties with extremely long-distance harmony may allow a moderate, but not extreme, amount of spreading of the harmonic allophones in their MSA speech, while speakers of colloquial varieties with moderate-distance harmony may only harmonize immediately adjacent vowels in MSA.Template:Citation needed
Vowels
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Modern Standard Arabic has six vowel phonemes forming three pairs of corresponding short and long vowels (Template:IPA). Many spoken varieties also include Template:IPA and Template:IPA. Modern Standard Arabic has two diphthongs (formed by a combination of short Template:IPA with the semivowels Template:IPA and Template:IPA). Allophony in different dialects of Arabic can occur and is partially conditioned by neighboring consonants within the same word. The following are some general rules:
- Template:IPA
- retracted to Template:IPAblink in the environment of a neighboring Template:IPA, Template:IPA or an emphatic consonant (one that is uvularized, though customarily transcribed as if pharyngealized): Template:IPA, Template:IPA, Template:IPA, Template:IPA, Template:IPA, (in western Asian varieties the Template:IPA, Template:IPA) and in a few regional standard pronunciations also Template:IPA and Template:IPA;<ref name="Thelwall 1990 39">Template:Harvcoltxt</ref>
- only in Iraq and the Persian Gulf: Template:IPAblink before a word boundary;<ref name="Thelwall 1990 39"/>
- advanced to Template:IPAblink in the environment of most consonants:
- labial consonants (Template:IPA, Template:IPA and Template:IPA),
- plain (non-emphatic) coronal consonants with the exception of Template:IPA: namely Template:IPA, Template:IPA, Template:IPA, Template:IPA, Template:IPA, Template:IPA, Template:IPA, Template:IPA, Template:IPA and Template:IPA
- glottal consonants (Template:IPA and Template:IPA)
- Template:IPA, Template:IPA and Template:IPA;<ref>Template:Harvcoltxt</ref>
- Across North Africa and West Asia, the allophones Template:IPA and Template:IPA may be realized differently, either as Template:IPA, or both as Template:IPA;
- In northwestern Africa, the open front vowel Template:IPAslink is raised to Template:IPAblink or Template:IPAblink.
- Template:IPA
- Across North Africa and West Asia, Template:IPA may be realized as Template:IPA before or adjacent to emphatic consonants and Template:IPAblink, Template:IPAblink, (exclusively west Asian Template:IPAblink, Template:IPAblink). Template:IPA can also have different realizations, i.e. Template:IPA. Sometimes with one value for each vowel in both short and long lengths or two different values for each short and long lengths. They can be distinct phonemes in loanwords for a number of speakers.
- In Egypt, close vowels have different values; short initial or medial: Template:IPAblink, Template:IPAblink ← instead of Template:IPA. Template:IPA and Template:IPA completely become Template:IPA and Template:IPA respectively in some other particular dialects. Unstressed final long Template:IPA are most often shortened or reduced: Template:IPA → Template:IPA, Template:IPA → Template:IPA, Template:IPA → Template:IPA.
| short | long | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| i | Template:Lang Template:IPA | "promise!" | Template:Lang Template:IPA | "holiday" |
| u | Template:Lang Template:IPA | "count (command)" | Template:Lang Template:IPA | "oud" |
| a | Template:Lang Template:IPA | "counted" | Template:Lang Template:IPA | "came back" |
| aj | Template:Lang Template:IPA | "eye" | ||
| aw | Template:Lang Template:IPA | "return" | ||
However, the actual rules governing vowel-retraction are a good deal more complex and have relatively little in the way of an agreed-upon standard, as there are often competing notions of what constitutes a "prestige" form.<ref>Template:Harvcoltxt</ref> Often, even highly proficient speakers will import the vowel-retraction rules from their native dialects.<ref>Template:Harvcoltxt</ref> Thus, for example, in the Arabic of someone from Cairo, emphatic consonants will affect every vowel between word boundaries, whereas certain Saudi speakers exhibit emphasis only on the vowels adjacent to an emphatic consonant.<ref name="Watson 1999 290">Template:Harvcoltxt</ref> Certain speakers (most notably Levantine speakers) exhibit a degree of asymmetry in leftward vs. rightward spread of vowel-retraction.<ref name="Watson 1999 290"/><ref>Template:Harvcoltxt</ref>
Template:Col-begin Template:Col-2
| Short | Long | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Front | Back | Front | Back | |
| Close | Template:IPAslink | Template:IPAslink | Template:IPAslink | Template:IPAslink |
| Open | Template:IPA | Template:IPA | ||
| Short | Long | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Front | Back | Front | Back | |
| Close | Template:IPAslink | Template:IPAslink | Template:IPAslink | Template:IPAslink |
| Mid | Template:IPAslink | Template:IPAslink | ||
| Open | Template:IPAslink | Template:IPAslink | ||
Template:Col-end The final heavy syllable of a root is stressed.<ref name="Thelwall 1990 38"/>
The short vowels Template:IPA are all possible allophones of Template:IPA across different dialects; e.g., Template:Lang Template:IPA ('I said') is pronounced Template:IPA or Template:IPA or Template:IPA, since the difference between the short mid vowels Template:IPA and Template:IPA is never phonemic, and they are mostly found in complementary distribution, except for a number of speakers where they can be phonemic but only in foreign words.
The short vowels Template:IPA are all possible allophones of Template:IPA across different dialects; e.g., Template:Lang Template:IPA ('from') is pronounced Template:IPA or Template:IPA or Template:IPA since the difference between the short mid vowels Template:IPA and Template:IPA is never phonemic, and they are mostly found in complementary distribution, except for a number of speakers where they can be phonemic but only in foreign words.
The long mid vowels Template:IPA and Template:IPA appear to be phonemic in most varieties of Arabic except in general Maghrebi Arabic, where they merge with Template:IPA and Template:IPA. For example, لون ('color') is generally pronounced Template:IPA in Mashriqi dialects but Template:IPA in most Maghrebi Arabic. The long mid vowels can be used in Modern Standard Arabic in dialectal words or in some stable loanwords or foreign names,<ref name="EMSA1">Elementary Modern Standard Arabic: Volume 1, by Peter F. Abboud (Editor), Ernest N. McCarus (Editor)</ref> as in Template:Lang Template:IPA ('Rome') and Template:Lang Template:IPA ('cheque').
Foreign words often have a liberal sprinkling of long vowels, as vowels tend to be written as long vowels in foreign loans, under the influence of European-language orthographies which write down every vowel with a letter.<ref name="TYA">Teach Yourself Arabic, by Jack Smart (Author), Frances Altorfer (Author)</ref> The long mid vowels Template:IPA and Template:IPA are always rendered with the letters Template:Lang and Template:Lang, respectively, accompanied by a preceding hamzah sitting above (أ) and below (إ) an alif (ا) respectively word-initially. In general, the pronunciation of loanwords is highly dependent on the speaker's native variety.
Consonants
Even in the most formal contexts, pronunciation of Arabic depends on the speaker's background,<ref>Template:Harvcoltxt</ref> even if number and phonetic character of most of the 28 consonants has a broad degree of regularity among Arabic-speaking regions. Arabic is particularly rich in uvular, pharyngeal, and pharyngealized ("emphatic") sounds. The emphatic coronals (Template:IPA, Template:IPA, Template:IPA, and Template:IPA) cause assimilation of emphasis to adjacent non-emphatic coronal consonants.Template:Citation needed The standard pronunciation of ⟨ج⟩ varies regionally, most prominently Template:IPAblink in the Arabian Peninsula; this pronunciation is also found in Iraq, parts of the Levant, north-central Algeria, and parts of Egypt; it is also considered as the predominant pronunciation of Literary Arabic outside the Arab world, the pronunciation used in Qur'an recitation and the pronunciation mostly used in Arabic loanwords across other languages (e.g. in Georgian, Malay, Persian, Turkish and Urdu). Other pronunciations include Template:IPAblink in most of Northwest Africa and the Levant and in some parts of the Arabian Peninsula, and Template:IPAblink essentially in Egypt (Template:IPAblink, though it also appears as a dialectal pronunciation in parts of coastal Yemen and south coastal Oman but it is not used when speaking MSA), as well as Template:IPAblink in Sudan, parts of Yemen and parts of Oman.
Note: the table and notes below discuss the phonology of Modern Standard Arabic among Arabic speakers and not regional dialects.
Long (geminate or double) consonants are pronounced exactly like short consonants, but last longer. In Arabic, they are called mushaddadah ("strengthened", marked with a shaddah). Between a long consonant and a pause, an epenthetic Template:IPA occurs,<ref name="Thelwall 1990 38"/> but this is only common across regions in West Asia.
Phonotactics
Standard Arabic syllables come in only five forms:<ref name="Ryding2005">Template:Cite book</ref>
- CV (light)
- CVV (heavy)
- CVC (heavy)
- CVVC (super-heavy)
- CVCC (super-heavy)
Standard Arabic syllable structure does not allow syllables to start with a vowel or with a consonant cluster.<ref name="Ryding2005" /> In cases where a word starts with a consonant cluster it is preceded by an epenthetic Template:IPA utterance initially or Template:IPAslink when preceded by a word that ends with a consonant; there are however exceptions like Template:Lang Template:IPA and Template:Lang Template:IPA that connect with a following word-initial consonant cluster with Template:IPAslink and Template:IPAslink respectively, if the preceding word ends with a long vowel that vowel is then shortened.
Super-heavy syllables are usually not allowed except word finally,<ref name="Ryding2005" /> with the exception of CVV- before geminates creating non-final CVVC- syllables, these can be found in the active participles of geminate Form I verbs, like in Template:Wikt-lang Template:IPA ('substance, matter'), Template:Wikt-lang Template:IPA ('entirely'). In the pausal form, the final geminates behave as a single consonant, only when preceding another word or with vocalization, the geminates start appearing, belonging to two separate syllables. E.g.: Template:Wikt-lang Template:IPA ('poisonous'), Template:Wikt-lang Template:IPA ('dry'), Template:Wikt-lang Template:IPA ('public, general'), Template:Wikt-lang Template:IPA ('private, special'), and Template:Wikt-lang Template:IPA ('hot, spicy').<ref name="Ryding2005" />
Loanwords can break some phonotactic rules like allowing initial consonant clusters (with an initial epenthetic Template:IPAslink or often another repeated vowel from the word being optional inserted after the first consonant) like in Template:Lang Template:IPA "stadium" and Template:Lang Template:IPA "Florence" or allowing CVVC syllables non-finally without geminates like in Template:Lang Template:IPA "Russia" and Template:Lang Template:IPA "Syria", which can be modified to Template:IPA to fit the phonotactics better.<ref name="Ryding2005" />
Word stress
Template:See also Stress in Modern Standard Arabic is generally consistent and standardized across the Arab world. Exceptions exist only in a limited set of scenarios, detailed below. Broadly speaking, stress is most likely to fall on the second-to-last syllable (the penultimate syllable), but frequently occurs in the final (ultimate) and third-to-last (antepenultimate) as well.
Arabic syllables can be categorized as light, heavy, and superheavy. This refers to the arrangement of vowels and consonants within the syllable.
With "C" representing a consonant, "V" representing a vowel, and "VV" representing a long vowel:
- Light:
- A syllable containing a short vowel (i.e. CV), such as وَ /wa/ ('and').
- Heavy:
- A syllable containing a long vowel (i.e. CVV), such as لَا /laː/ ('no').
- A syllable containing a short vowel followed by one consonant (i.e. CVC), such as مِن /min/ ('from').
- Super-heavy:
- A syllable containing a long vowel followed by one consonant (i.e. CVVC), such as بَاب /baːb/ ('door').
- A syllable containing a short vowel followed by two consonants (i.e. CVCC), such as بِنْت /bint/ ('girl'), or a long vowel followed by a geminate consonant (i.e. CVVCiCi), such as مادّ /maːdd/ ('stretching').
Phonotactic constraints in Arabic ensure that syllables do not generally fall outside of these patterns.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref>
The following description of Arabic stress patterns is adapted from the description provided by Halpern (2009).<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>
- Disregard all attached (prefixed) prepositions.<ref group="Note">A notable exception are words using the preposition لِ or بِ with a possessive enclitic, such as لَك and لَهُ, or بِنا and بِكم. These words are stressed on the first syllable even though this syllable is an attached prefix.</ref><ref group="Note">Note that this rule only excludes attached prefixes, and not possessive enclitics. Possessive suffixes like كَ- and هُم- will affect the stress.</ref> If this leaves only one syllable, stress it.
- If the final syllable is superheavy, stress it.
- Otherwise, if the word has only two syllables, stress the first one.
- Otherwise, if the second-to-last syllable is heavy, stress it.
When the above rules are insufficient to determine stress, speakers will employ different approaches to determine stress. These choices are influenced by the speaker's native dialect. Nearly all arrangements are possible. At least one source records four different stress placements for كتبتا /ka.ta.ba.taa/ ('two women wrote'): /ˈka.ta.ba.taa/ (Upper Egypt), /ka.ˈta.ba.taa/ (Jordan), /ka.ta.ˈba.taa/ (Cairo), and /ka.ta.ba.ˈtaa/ (Lebanon).<ref>Template:Cite book</ref>
Local variations of Modern Standard Arabic
Spoken varieties differ from Classical Arabic and Modern Standard Arabic not only in grammar but also in pronunciation. this variation might affect the way Modern Standard Arabic is spoken in each country or region.
Some examples of variation:
Consonants
The standard pronunciation of ⟨ج⟩ in MSA varies regionally, most prominently Template:IPAblink in the Arabian Peninsula, parts of the Levant, Iraq, north-central Algeria, and parts of Egypt, it is also considered as the predominant pronunciation of Literary Arabic outside the Arab world and the pronunciation mostly used in Arabic loanwords across other languages (e.g. in Georgian, Malay, Persian, Turkish and Urdu), and Template:IPAblink in most of Northwest Africa, most of the Levant, some parts of the Arabian Peninsula, other pronunciations include Template:IPAblink only in Egypt (Template:IPAblink appears as a dialectal pronunciation in coastal Yemen, and south coastal Oman but not as a standard pronunciation in MSA), as well as Template:IPAblink in Sudan.
In Modern Standard Arabic (not in Egypt's use), Template:IPA is used as a marginal phoneme to pronounce some dialectal and loan words. On the other hand, it is considered a native phoneme or allophone in most modern Arabic dialects, mostly as a variant of Template:Lang Template:IPA (as in Arabian Peninsula and Northwest African dialects) or as a variant of Template:IPA Template:Lang (as in Egyptian and a number of Yemeni and Omani dialects). It is also considered a separate foreign phoneme that appears only in loanwords, as in most urban Levantine dialects where Template:Lang is Template:IPA and Template:Lang is Template:IPA.
The dental Template:Lang Template:IPA was historically Template:IPA, a value it retains among older speakers in a few isolated dialects.<ref>Al-Azraqi. (2019). Delateralisation in Arabic and Mehri. Dialectologia, 23: 1–23. https://raco.cat/index.php/Dialectologia/article/download/366597/460520/</ref>
Mergers and mispronunciations
Regional modern dialects may influence the way Modern Standard Arabic is spoken, which sometimes causes mergers or mispronunciations in consonants:
- Speakers that merge Template:Lang Template:IPA and Template:Lang Template:IPA to Template:Lang Template:IPA in their respective dialects usually mispronounce Template:Lang as Template:Lang Template:IPA when speaking Modern Standard Arabic instead of the standard Template:IPA,<ref>Template:Cite book</ref> e.g. Template:Lang 'harmful' is pronounced Template:IPA instead of Template:IPA.
- The voiced emphatic dental fricative Template:Lang Template:IPA is sometimes mispronounced as a voiced emphatic alveolar fricative Template:IPA depending on the speaker in Egypt, Sudan and Lebanon,<ref name="Watson 2002 19">Template:Harvcoltxt</ref> e.g. Template:Lang 'governorate' is pronounced Template:IPA instead of Template:IPA.
- Speakers that lack the interdentals Template:Lang Template:IPA and Template:Lang Template:IPA in their respective dialects, may merge them with Template:Lang Template:IPAblink and Template:Lang Template:IPAblink or Template:Lang Template:IPAblink and Template:Lang Template:IPAblink, respectively.
- Some speakers especially in Lebanon and Egypt might pronounce the standard uvular Template:Lang Template:IPA as a plain velar Template:Lang Template:IPAblink.
- A number of speakers in Yemen and among Bedu pronounce the uvular Template:Lang Template:IPA as a velar Template:IPAblink when speaking Modern Standard Arabic, e.g. Template:Lang 'I told them' is pronounced Template:IPA instead of Template:IPA.
Foreign phonemes
The foreign phonemes Template:IPA, Template:IPA, Template:IPA, Template:IPA etc. are not necessarily pronounced by all Arabic speakers, but they can be pronounced by some speakers especially in foreign proper nouns and loanwords. Template:IPA and Template:IPA are usually transcribed with their own letters Template:Lang Template:IPA and Template:Lang Template:IPA but as these letters are not part of Standard Arabic, and they are simply written with Template:Lang Template:IPA and Template:Lang Template:IPA, e.g. The use of both sounds may be considered marginal and Arabs may pronounce the words interchangeably; both Template:Lang and Template:Lang Template:IPA, Template:IPA or Template:IPA "November", both Template:Lang and Template:Lang Template:IPA "caprice" can be used.<ref name="TYA" /><ref name="Wehr">Hans Wehr, Dictionary of Modern Written Arabic (transl. of Arabisches Wörterbuch für die Schriftsprache der Gegenwart, 1952)</ref>
Template:IPA is a possible loanword phoneme, as in the word Template:Script/Arabic or Template:Script/Arabic (sandawitš or sāndwitš 'sandwich'), though a number of varieties instead break up the Template:IPA and Template:IPA sounds with an epenthetic vowel.<ref>Template:Harvcoltxt, citing Ṣan‘ā’ni and Cairene as examples with and without this phoneme, respectively.</ref> Egyptian Arabic treats Template:IPA as two consonants (Template:IPA) and inserts Template:IPA, as [[[:Template:IPA]]C] or [CTemplate:IPA], when it occurs before or after another consonant. Template:IPA is found as normal in Iraqi Arabic and Gulf Arabic dialects.<ref name="tsh">Template:Cite web</ref> Normally the combination Template:Lang (tā’-shīn) is used to transliterate the Template:IPA. e.g. Template:Lang Template:IPA "Chad".
Vowels
- Development of highly distinctive allophones of Template:IPA and Template:IPA, with highly fronted Template:IPA, Template:IPA or Template:IPA in non-emphatic contexts, and retracted Template:IPA in emphatic contexts.Template:Citation needed The more extreme distinctions are characteristic of sedentary varieties, while Bedouin and conservative Arabian-peninsula varieties have much closer allophones. In some of the sedentary varieties, the allophones are gradually splitting into new phonemes under the influence of loanwords, where the allophone closest in sound to the source-language vowel often appears regardless of the presence or absence of nearby emphatic consonants.Template:Citation needed
- Spread of "emphasis", visible in the backing of phonemic Template:IPA. In conservative varieties of the Arabic peninsula, only Template:IPA adjacent to emphatic consonants is affected, while in Cairo, an emphatic consonant anywhere in a word tends to trigger emphatic allophones throughout the entire word.Template:Citation needed Dialects of the Levant are somewhere in between. Moroccan Arabic is unusual in that Template:IPA and Template:IPA have clear emphatic allophones as well (typically lowered, e.g. to Template:IPA and Template:IPA).Template:Citation needed
- The diphthongs Template:IPA and Template:IPA have monophthongized into Template:IPA and Template:IPA in most the Mashreqi dialects, these mid vowels may also be present in loanwords when speaking MSA, such as Template:Lang (Template:IPA Melbourne), Template:Lang (Template:IPA '(male) secretary'), Template:Lang (Template:IPA Rome) and Template:Lang (Template:IPA 'doctor').<ref name="EMSA1"/>
- Loss of final short vowels (with Template:IPA sometimes remaining), and shortening of final long vowels. This triggered the loss of most Classical Arabic case and mood distinctions.Template:Citation needed
- Change of nisba suffix Template:Transliteration > Template:Transliteration, the nisba suffix Template:Transliteration as Template:Lang (Template:IPA '(male) Arabic') is usually mispronounced Template:Transliteration Template:IPA by many speakers.
- Shorten of final long Template:Transliteration > Template:Transliteration Template:Lang (Template:IPA 'my love') is usually pronounced Template:IPA with a short final Template:Transliteration by many speakers.
Distribution
The most frequent consonant phoneme is Template:IPA, the rarest is Template:IPA. The frequency distribution of the 28 consonant phonemes, based on the 2,967 triliteral roots listed by Wehr<ref name=Wehr/> is (with the percentage of roots in which each phoneme occurs):
| Phoneme | Frequency | Phoneme | Frequency | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Template:IPA | 24% | Template:IPA | 18% | |
| Template:IPA | 17% | Template:IPA | 17% | |
| Template:IPA | 17% | Template:IPA | 16% | |
| Template:IPA | 14% | Template:IPA | 13% | |
| Template:IPA | 13% | Template:IPA | 13% | |
| Template:IPA | 13% | Template:IPA | 12% | |
| Template:IPA | 12% | Template:IPA | 11% | |
| Template:IPA | 10% | Template:IPA | 9% | |
| Template:IPA | 8% | Template:IPA | 8% | |
| Template:IPA | 8% | Template:IPA | 8% | |
| Template:IPA | 7% | Template:IPA | 7% | |
| Template:IPA | 6% | Template:IPA | 5% | |
| Template:IPA | 5% | Template:IPA | 3% | |
| Template:IPA | 3% | Template:IPA | 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. In particular, Template:IPA occurs in several extremely common affixes (occurring in the marker for second-person or feminine third-person as a prefix, the marker for first-person or feminine third-person as a suffix, and as the second element of Forms VIII and X as an infix) despite being fifth from last on Wehr's list. The list does give, however, an idea of which phonemes are more marginal than others. Note that the five least frequent letters are among the six letters added to those inherited from the Phoenician alphabet, namely, Template:Transliteration, Template:Transliteration, Template:Transliteration, Template:Transliteration, Template:Transliteration and Template:Transliteration.
Sample
The Literary Arabic sample text is a reading of The North Wind and the Sun by a speaker who was born in Safed, lived and was educated in Beirut from age 8 to 15, subsequently studied and taught in Damascus, studied phonetics in Scotland and since then has resided in Scotland and Kuwait.<ref>Template:Harvcoltxt</ref>
Normal orthographic version
Diacriticized orthographic version
Phonemic transcription (with i‘rāb)
Template:IPA<ref name="Thelwall 1990 40"/>
Phonemic transcription (without i‘rāb)
Phonetic transcription (Egypt)
ALA-LC transliteration
English Wiktionary transliteration (based on Hans Wehr)
English Translation
The North Wind and the Sun were disputing which was the stronger, when a traveler came along wrapped in a warm cloak. They agreed that the one who first succeeded in making the traveler take his cloak off should be considered stronger than the other. Then the North Wind blew as hard as he could, but the more he blew the more closely did the traveler fold his cloak around him; and at last the North Wind gave up the attempt. Then the Sun shined out warmly, and immediately the traveler took off his cloak. And so the North Wind was obliged to confess that the Sun was the stronger of the two.
Notes
References
Bibliography
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