![]() ![]() These sounds are often transcribed in the Latin alphabet with the capital letters D, TH, T, and S, because they’re emphatic versions of these four consonants you already know. Then there are four “emphatic” consonants, which you can think of as being pronounced with your whole tongue raised up, and a bit of a kick at the end. But if all goes well, hopefully you’ll see in the next few paragraphs that it’s not so hard, after all.įirst, the rolled “R” sound from the Spanish or Italian word perro and the “ch” sound from the German word Bach both appear in Arabic. Ten new consonant sounds exist beyond those, and these ten are the ones that give Arabic its reputation as a difficult language to pronounce. This little fact about pronunciation in Arabic grammar will come in handy as you progress in your Arabic-learning journey.Īlso, the l sound is light, like in the word “illicit.” It’s never dark, like in the word “Zelda.”įurthermore, the “j” sound is always soft, like in the words “A sia” and “u sually.” The only one you might not be familiar with is the glottal stop, but it’s just the hitch in your voice when you say”uh-oh!” That sound can come at the beginning, middle, or end of a word in Arabic, and it’s treated just like any other letter. Those are: b, f, h, k, d, t, m, l, n, s, w, j, z, y, sh, th, dh, and ‘, the glottal stop. While there’s really no easy Arabic pronunciation, starting here should make this part of Arabic pronunciation in English fairly simple once you get the hang of it. We’ll start with the hard ones: The consonants.įirst, the Arabic sound system has a ton of consonant sounds that you already know very well from English. All the Sounds in the Standard Arabic Language ![]() Which sound does “hat” have? How about “red?” You can see what a challenge it is to re-learn an accent after you’ve laid the wrong groundwork! 1. And if you later on learn to distinguish the two sounds, you have to go back and re-learn all the words with those sounds individually. Again, using English as an example, if you think that the “ a” in bat and the “ e” in bet are the same sound from the start, your English pronunciation obviously has much room for improvement.īut you’re likely to always have comprehension problems with certain words. So if you catch yourself making those sounds in English, you know you’ve just slipped up a little.Īnd this gives language-learners the extra foundation of knowing which sounds are actually distinguished. It’s easy to get good pronunciation if you take the time to figure out just which sounds are possible in a given language.įor example, someone learning English would have to learn at some point that the rolled “R” and the back-of-the-throat “R” are just not found in any standard English dialect. You may find that a good Arabic pronunciation app will help you with learning about Arabic pronunciation, along with our practical Arabic pronunciation guide and fun Arabic pronunciation lessons!īut what do I really mean by good pronunciation? So your listening improves because you can more easily pick out subtle distinctions, and your reading improves because the mental voice you read with sounds like a native speaker already. If you have good pronunciation, you simply end up with a better model of the language in your brain. Even if that’s not your goal, focusing a little bit on Arabic pronunciation can really help you be an overall better user of the Arabic language. In my linguistics research, I’ve come across some pretty compelling evidence that says adults really can learn to pronounce Arabic like a native speaker, along with other languages. To be honest, both are just two sides of the same coin when you learn Arabic pronunciation. ![]() Would you like to speak Arabic and be understood? Would you like to have a perfect Arabic accent? ![]()
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