The Arabic language has a standard pronunciation, which is basically the one used to recite the Qur'an. The same pronunciation is used in newscasts, discourses and formal actuations of all types. Arabic (; , less formally, ) is the largest member of the Semitic branch of the Afro-Asiatic language family (classification: South Central Semitic) and is closely related to Hebrew and Aramaic. ... The Quran (Arabic , literally the recitation; also called or The Noble Quran; also transliterated Quran, Koran, and less commonly Alcoran) is the holy book of Islam. ...

As in other widely used languages, dialects of Arabic pronounce some letters differently. A dialect (from the Greek word διάλεκτος, dialektos) is a variety of a language used by people from a particular geographic area. ...

Standard Arabic (or Quraanic Arabic) has 28 consonant sounds, represented by the 28 letters of the Arabic alphabet, and three vowel sounds. Both consonants and vowels may be short or long; long consonants are marked with the shadda (sign of gemination, literally "sign of emphasis" in Arabic), whereas long vowels are marked with the letters ا (alif), ي (yā) or و (wāw) quiescent (then called matres lectionis or "mothers of reading"). Listen to this article · (info) This audio file was created from the revision dated 2005-07-20, and does not reflect subsequent edits to the article. ... The Arabic alphabet is the script used for writing in the Arabic language. ... In phonetics, a vowel is a sound in spoken language that is characterized by an open configuration of the vocal tract so that there is no build-up of air pressure above the glottis. ... Ù‘ shadda marks the gemination (doubling) of a consonant. ... Listen to this article · (info) This audio file was created from the revision dated 2005-07-20, and does not reflect subsequent edits to the article. ...

Vowels and diphthongs

There are three short vowels, three long vowels and two diphthongs (formed by a combination of short a with the semivowels y and w).

• Short a is pronounced like e in English bed but with the tongue towards the center of the mouth: IPA [ɛ̈]. However, in an environment of velarised or laryngeal (so called "emphatic") consonants, it is pronounced like a short version of the first vowel in English father: IPA [ɑ].
• Short i is pronounced like i in English sit: IPA [ɪ].
• Short u is pronounced like u in English put: IPA [ʊ].
• Long a (ā) is pronounced like a long version of the vowel in English man: IPA [æː]. In promixity to velarised consonants, as well as after r, it is pronounced like the first vowel in English father: IPA [ɑː].
• Long i (ī) is pronounced like ee in English need: IPA [iː].
• Long u (ū) is pronounced like uh in German Stuhl: IPA [uː]. (Note: oo in English tool is different - it is centralised)
• The diphthong ai (equivalently ay) is pronounced as a combination of the short a and short i: [ɛ̈ɪ]. In a velarised environment it is pronounced with a back first element: IPA [ɑɪ].
• The diphthong au (equivalently aw) is pronounced as a combination of the short a and short u: [ɛ̈ʊ]. Near velarised consonants it is pronounced with a back first element: IPA [ɑʊ].

The International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA) is a system of phonetic notation devised by linguists to accurately and uniquely represent each of the wide variety of sounds (phones or phonemes) used in spoken human language. ...

Consonants

The 28 consonant sounds of Arabic are the following: (Letters left without a comment are pronounced more or less like in English.)

ء (hamza) 

glottal stop as "tt" in the Cockney pronunciation of "bottle" (bo'l)

ب (b) 

ت (t) 

as in English stand, but dental

ث (th) 

as in English "throw"

ج (j) 

as in English "jelly"

ح (_h) 

unvoiced pharyngeal fricative

خ (kh) 

as j in Northern Spanish or ch in Scottish "loch" or ch in German "Bach"

د (d) 

as in English made, but dental

ذ (dh) 

as in English "the other"

ر (r) 

as in Spanish

ز (z) 

س (s) 

ش (sh) 

ص (.s) 

emphatic s (see below)

ض (.d) 

emphatic d

ط (.t) 

emphatic t

ظ (.z) 

emphatic dh (not emphatic z!)

ع (ayn) 

voiced pharyngeal fricative

غ (gh) 

voiced kh

ف (f) 

ق (q) 

uvular stop, aspirated

ك (k) 

front palatal stop, unaspirated

ل (l) 

م (m) 

ن (n) 

و (w) 

ى (y) 

ه (h) 

voiced glottal fricative (unvoiced in some dialects)

To pronounce the four emphatics, make your tongue broader and cover the side teeth with it, and lower the back of the tongue. The four corresponding "unemphatics" (s, d, t, dh) are pronounced with a narrow tongue and with the back of the tongue raised. You also lower the back of the tongue to pronounce q and r. For the Sahaba, see Hamza ibn Abd al-Muttalib For Hamza, the letter Ø¡ in the Arabic alphabet, representing /Ê”/, see (glottal stop). ... The glottal stop or voiceless glottal plosive is a type of consonantal sound, used in many spoken languages. ... A pharyngeal consonant is a type of consonant which is articulated with the root of the tongue against the pharynx. ... A pharyngeal consonant is a type of consonant which is articulated with the root of the tongue against the pharynx. ... Uvulars are consonants articulated with the back of the tongue against or near the uvula, that is, further back in the mouth than velar consonants. ...

Long consonants are pronounced exactly like short consonants, but last longer. Arabs call them "mushaddadah" i.e. "strengthened", but they are not pronounced any stronger, just held longer.

Local variations

Most variation on spoken Arabic pronounce certain letters differnt than the pronunciation of literary Arabic. Or, to put it differently, spoken and literary Arabic differ not only in specific words but also contain changes throughout the board in the pronunciations of certain sounds.

A good example would be Egyptian Arabic.

• The letter ﻕ (q) is pronounced like a glottal stop in most (but not all) words.
• The letter ﺝ (j) is pronounced as g. Foreign words which contain the sound j are written with چ, the same special variation used in some other dialects to pronounce g.
• The letter ﺙ (th) is pronounced as s. Thus Umm Kulthum is actually pronounced Umm Kalsoum.
• The letter ﺫ (dh) is usually pronounced as z, sometimes as d.
• The letter ﻅ (emphatic dh) is pronounced as emphatic z.

Other dialects have similar variations. The letter most prone to variations in pronunciation seems to be ﻕ. This sometimes leads to variations in transliteration systems. Umm Kulthum (Arabic: أم كلثوم other English spellings include: Oum Kalsoum, Oum Kalthum, Omm Kolsoum, Umm Kolthoum) (c. ... Transliteration in a narrow sense is a mapping from one system of writing into another. ...

This does not mean that Egyptians recite the Quran differently or that they do not know the standard pronunciation: all of them can pronounce a q correctly and understand Standard Arabic when necessary.

Distribution

The most frequent phoneme of Arabic is rāʼ, the rarest is ẓāʼ. The frequency distribution of the 28 consonantal phonemes, based on the 2,967 triliteral roots listed by Wehr (1952) is (with the percentage of roots in which each phoneme occurs): Resh is the twentieth letter of many Semitic abjads, including Phoenician, Aramaic, Hebrew and Arabic alphabet . Its value is IPA or , in Hebrew also or . ... () is one of the six letters the Arabic alphabet added to the twenty-two inherited from the Phoenician alphabet (the others being , , , , ). It represents a = pharyngealized voiced dental or alveolar fricative (IPA or ). In name and shape, it is a variant of . ...

r (24%); w (18%); l (17%); m (17%); n (17%); b (16%); f (14%); ʿ (13%); q (13%); d (13%); s (13%); ḥ (12%); y (12%); š (11%); ǧ (10%); k (9%); h (8%); z (8%); ṭ (8%); ḫ (8%); ṣ (7%); ʾ (7%); t (6%); ḍ (5%); ġ (5%); ṯ (3%); ḏ (3%); ẓ (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. The list does give, however, an idea of which phonemes are more marginal than others. It will be noted that the five least frequent letters are among the six letters added to those inherited from the Phoenician alphabet. The Phoenician alphabet dates from around 1400 BC and is related to the Proto-Canaanite alphabet. ...

References

• Hans Wehr, Arabisches Wörterbuch für die Schriftsprache der Gegenwart (1952)

See also

• Qaddafi spelling variations (Example of confusion generated by translation of non-standard ﻕ pronunciation).