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The Arabic Sound system

and Teaching Pronunciation
Dr. Antar S. Abdallah, Ph.D.

Learners of Arabic as a foreign language face many difficulties in recognizing certain

sounds and complain that they do not know how to "get it right". Certain sounds in
Arabic cause this problem, especially those which do not exist in European
Languages, e.g. the confusion resulting from the following pairs of sounds: the dal
and the Dhad, the Seen and the Saad, the Haa, the 7aa, and the khaa, the ta and the
Taa, the Kaaf and the Qaaf, the Zee and the Zaa, the 3ein and the Ghein, and finally
the Ghein and the khaa1. In this article we will look at four ways to help overcome
this problem.

1 Sound Description
At the beginning you can explain to the students how to articulate the sound, and what
organs of speech are used in order to produce it. Linguists and Phoneticians make a
lot of categories for discriminating between different sounds, the manner of
articulation and the place of articulation. For example, the throat letters2, the uvula
letters, the tangled letters, the extended letters, the premolar and molar letters, the
edge letters, the cavity letters, the gum letters, the tip letters, the lip letters, and the
nostril /nasal letters.

It is not important for learners to know all this jargon and the details as a lot of these
sounds can be produced easily by the learners since they exist in their mother tongue.
What is required then is to explain, where needed, the place of articulation and the
method of producing new sounds that students do not encounter in their mother
1
These are the names of letters in Arabic. Different transliteration schemes for the sounds of these
letters have been established, but the tendency is increasing to write Arabic in Arabic letters to get
students used to it. A transliteration scheme can be found at the end of this article. This is not included
in the Arabic version of the articles.
2
In Arabic each letter, especially consonants, has one distinct way of pronunciation, no letter will
change the sound associated with it in any place of the word, that's why most Arab linguists do not find
a difference between "letter" and "sound" and always refer to the latter using the former. In very rare
case three letters will behave differently, and these are called the diseased letters in Arabic. Modern
linguists call them "double agents".
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tongue. You can tell them, for example, that a Saad is a whistling sound, while the
Seen s a hissing sound, that the Zhal, the Thaa and the ZHaa all need to be extended
toward the lips while vibrating the vocal cords in the first, but not vibrating them in
the second, and vibrating them with more aspiration in the third. You can also refer to
certain actions that learners can do in order to produce the required sound. For
example, the Taa can be differentiated from the TAA by referring to the verb "tell" in
English and its past form "told". The quality of the /t/ in each word is different, they
are not identical, as one of them seems to be dark or harsher than the other. Then you
can establish this as a rule of thumb for learners to remember "Told" or "Tokyo"
whenever they want to pronounce the TAA and to remember "tell" whenever they
want to pronounce the taa.. You can refer the learner to the sound of snoring to
producing the Khaa, and the sound of gargling to produce the ghein, and the sound of
puffing air to clean the glasses to produce the 7aa.

Finally, you can make a mock model of the

human organs of speech that can be easily moved
apart to show what happens when the sound is
produced. This image, for example, shows where
the tongue goes when producing the Khaa sound
(links to other free video and flash animations for
sound production are presented in the list of extra
references at the end of this article).

2 Minimal Pairs
Minimal pairs are pairs of words that are identical in all sounds except for one. This
different sound is the one that needs to be mastered. Minimal pairs help train learners
to differentiate between what they hear and what they pronounce. First you can say
the two words and ask students to tell you whether you pronounced word number one
or word number two. This is good for training their ears to be sensitive to the change
in the quality or the timing of the sound. It is preferable if you can record these pairs
on a tape or a CD for students to refer to and practise drilling at home for longer
periods of time. It is also important to note that meaning is not important now since
what is important is the way the two words are produced. You can, however, give
some examples of word meanings just to show how the difference in pronunciation
can lead to confusion in the meaning. In the following tables, examples are given for

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pairs of words for every difficult sound students might find difficult. You can, of
course, add to the list any words that are in the course your students study.
[11 tables are given in the Arabic version].

3 Sentence completion
At this stage, the learner proceeds to a higher level where s/he can participate in the
process of meaningful pronunciation. Here you prepare some sentences that have
some missing words, accompanied with illustrating pictures. The student has to read
the sentence, understand its meaning, look at the picture and complete the sentence by
pronouncing the word indicated by the picture. You can then ask the student to
translate the sentence as a whole to make sure s/he has understood its meaning. Based
on the aforementioned pairs of words in the minimal pairs section, the following
sentences are just an example of how this technique works:
[21 sentences accompanied with pictures are provided in the Arabic version].

4 Making sentences
At this stage the learner starts to produce words that have difficult sounds and form
meaningful sentences. What is important for the student here is to say the sentence
rather than write it. For example, students can choose one or more words from group
(A) and some others from group (B), and make a meaningful sentence. Note that your
students can have wonderful ideas for good sentences, but they may need your help
with some vocabulary and, to a lesser degree, with some structures. This extra
information may not have been covered in your course, so give them what they want
and try to choose simple, easy-to-use, modern words. No word can be more difficult
than the word we want them to reach! For example:
[two groups of words are given in the Arabic version].

References and resources for further readings

‫ ﻣﻜ ﺔ‬.‫اﻟﻤﺮﺟ ﻊ ﻓ ﻲ ﺗﻌﻠ ﻴﻢ اﻟﻠﻐ ﺔ اﻟﻌﺮﺑﻴ ﺔ ﻟﻠﻨ ﺎﻃﻘﻴﻦ ﺑﻠﻐ ﺎت أﺧ ﺮى‬. (1987) .‫رﺷ ﺪي أﺣﻤ ﺪ ﻃﻌﻴﻤ ﺔ‬
.‫ ﻣﻄﺒﻌﺔ ﺟﺎﻣﻌﺔ أم اﻟﻘﺮى‬:‫اﻟﻤﻜﺮﻣﺔ‬
:‫ اﻟﺮﺑ ﺎط‬.‫ ﺗﻌﻠ ﻴﻢ اﻟﻠﻐ ﺔ اﻟﻌﺮﺑﻴ ﺔ ﻟﻐﻴ ﺮ اﻟﻨ ﺎﻃﻘﻴﻦ ﺑﻬ ﺎ ﻣﻨﺎهﺠ ﻪ وأﺳ ﺎﻟﻴﺒﻪ‬.(1989).__________
.‫ﻣﻨﺸﻮرات اﻷﻳﺴﻴﺴﻜﻮ‬
‫ اﻟﻜﺘ ﺎب اﻷﺳﺎﺳ ﻲ ﻟﺘﻌﻠ ﻴﻢ اﻟﻠﻐ ﺔ اﻟﻌﺮﺑﻴ ﺔ ﻟﻠﻨ ﺎﻃﻘﻴﻦ‬.(1983) .‫__________ و ﻣﺤﻤﻮد آﺎﻣﻞ اﻟﻨﺎﻗ ﺔ‬
.‫ ﺟﺎﻣﻌﺔ أم اﻟﻘﺮى‬:‫ ﻣﻜﺔ اﻟﻤﻜﺮﻣﺔ‬.‫ﺑﻠﻐﺎت أﺧﺮى‬
.‫ اﻷﻳﺴﻴﺴﻜﻮ‬:‫ اﻟﺮﺑﺎط‬.‫ هﺬﻩ ﻟﻐﺘﻲ‬.(2000) ._____________________
3
‫ ﺗﺤﻠﻴ ﻞ ﻧﻔ ﺴﻲ‬،‫( اﻟﻤﻬ ﺎرات اﻟﻠﻐﻮﻳ ﺔ وﻣ ﺴﺘﻮﻳﺎﺗﻬﺎ‬1990) .‫_________ وأﺣﻤ ﺪ ﺟﻤﻌ ﺔ أﺑ ﻮ ﺷ ﻨﺐ‬
.‫ ﺟﺎﻣﻌﺔ أم اﻟﻘﺮى‬:‫ ﻣﻜﺔ اﻟﻤﻜﺮﻣﺔ‬.‫ﻟﻐﻮي‬
‫ ﻣﺠﻤﻊ اﻟﻠﻐﺔ اﻟﻌﺮﺑﻴﺔ ﺑﺎﻟﻘﺎهﺮة‬.‫اﻟﻤﻌﺠﻢ اﻟﻮﺟﻴﺰ‬
Adrian Doff. (1988). Teach English. London: Longman.

Internet sites on the sounds of Arabic

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arabic_alphabet
This site includes a review of the alphabet and the writing systems of a
number of languages (mostly oriental), and Arabic is one of them. You
can view the different shapes of Arabic letters and numbers with and
without the diacritics. It also includes a standard transliteration and
phonetic representation of the sounds of the letters. The most interesting
thing, however, is the rules of writing the hamza, which most learners
find difficult. The site also presents images of the Arabic keyboard, and
the Arabic alphabet of other languages.

http://www.omniglot.com/writinsg/arabic.htm
This site reviews the history of the Arabic alphabet and sound system,
and provides images of the alphabet and numbers. It also includes links to
many resources for learning Arabic.

http://www.as-sidq.org/durusulQuran/articles/long-vowles.htm
This site is devoted to explaining the short and long vowels in Arabic.

http://st-takla.org/Learn_Languages/01_Learn_Arabic-ta3leem-
3araby/Learn-Arabic_01-Alphabet_El-Abgadeya.html
This Site Provide colourful illustrations of the different positions of the
Arabic letter. One advantage of this site is that it also provides sound
recordings of the pronunciation of the different letters in different words.

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http://www.mesiti.it/arabic/grammar/lessons/lesson1/vowels.html
This site provides more sound recordings for each letter in different
words.

http://www.shariahprogram.ca/Arabic-alphabet19.shtml
This site provides classifications of the letters according to their place of
articulation and manner of production. It is a very good reference if the
teacher/learner is not sure about the organs of speech used to produce this
sound.

APPENDIX
Transliteration scheme

Symbol Letter in Arabic

‘ ‫ء‬
b ‫ب‬
t ‫ت‬
th ‫ث‬
j ‫ج‬
ħ ‫ح‬
kh ‫خ‬
d ‫د‬
dh ‫ذ‬
r ‫ر‬
z ‫ز‬
s ‫س‬
sh ‫ش‬
* ‫ص‬

< ‫ض‬

ţ ‫ط‬
ž ‫ظ‬
{ ‫ع‬

gh ‫غ‬

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 f ‫ف‬
q ‫ق‬
K ‫ك‬
L ‫ل‬
M ‫م‬
N ‫ن‬
H ‫ﻩ‬
W (consonant)‫و‬
Y (consonant)‫ي‬
 (long vowel)‫ا‬
Û (long vowel)‫و‬
Î (long vowel)‫ي‬
A (short vowel)َ
U (short vowel)ُ
I (short vowel)ِ
al- (whether followed by a sun or a ‫ال‬
Al- (in names and at the beginning of sentences). moon letter)

Dr. Antar S. Abdallah, Ph.D.

Language Centre, SOAS, November 2005