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A not very well known fact is that Arabic has a pharyngealized lateral fricative letter (ض) which a lot of people mispronounce as eather a pharyngealized /d/ so
by apta 7y ago
A not very well known fact is that Arabic has a pharyngealized lateral fricative letter (ض) which a lot of people mispronounce as eather a pharyngealized /d/ sound, or merge with the pharyngealized /dh/ sound (ظ). Both of which are incorrect. Apparently there are still some people in Iraq and parts of Saudi Arabia who maintain the correct pronunciation.
It is even mis-transliterated as /d/ in the linked article in (hadra).
- inawarminister 7y agoIsn't that sound one of the original sound in ancient Hijazi Arabic, and therefore most learned Muslims can at least distinguish it? I know I can...
- apta 7y agoThis is the correct pronunciation: https://youtu.be/U0qr9XxJges?t=99 https://youtu.be/U0qr9XxJges?t=99 Let me know if you have heard it before :)
- ComputerGuru 7y agoYes, Arabic is sometimes called “لغة الضاد” or “the language of ض" as it is considered a very important characteristic of Arabic, and almost (I once looked it up) entirely exclusive to it (there are some tribal languages that include the emphatic pharyngealized voiced alveolar stop).
- apta 7y agoExcept that the original (classical) pronounciation is not a (pharyngealized voiced alveolar stop), but a (pharyngealized voiced lateral fricative), which sounds very close to (ظ), and explains why many Arabs merged the two sounds together. The alveolar stop is a new letter, and seems to have come out of Egypt because they had a hard time pronouncing the original latter. See this video about how to correctly pronounce it: https://youtu.be/U0qr9XxJges?t=99 https://youtu.be/U0qr9XxJges?t=99
- ComputerGuru 7y agoSorry, I did mean the fricative. The stop is indeed not as uncommon.
- chrisshroba 7y agoFor someone like me who has no idea what these words mean, could you explain a little more or link a video on the topic? :)
- tdfx 7y agoIt's the "dh" in Riyadh. (الرياض)
- apta 7y agoThis is the correct pronunciation: https://youtu.be/U0qr9XxJges?t=99 https://youtu.be/U0qr9XxJges?t=99. Note that they sound similar, but they're independent letters.
- apta 7y agoSure! It sounds like this: Go to this page: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pharyngealization https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pharyngealization Then click on the "pharyngealized voiced alveolar lateral fricative" speaker icon to hear it. Note that it sounds very close to the "pharyngealized voiced dental fricative" right above it in the list, which is why people tend to interchange them. Here is a video with a man explaining the differences and showing how to pronounce each of them: https://youtu.be/U0qr9XxJges?t=99 https://youtu.be/U0qr9XxJges?t=99
- noufalibrahim 7y agoUsually, as part of basic madrassa education, we're taught the points in the mouth from which the various sounds originate and we practice it. This gives traditionally educated Muslims nice (although perhaps a very academic) pronunciation. It's part of the knowledge needed to recite the Quran properly. Here's a chart like many of the ones I was taught with https://wayofislam.fandom.com/wiki/Makhraj https://wayofislam.fandom.com/wiki/Makhraj
- tdfx 7y agoI've always struggled with it, so I just pronounce it as a deeper version of (ذ), since that's how it's transliterated.
- apta 7y agoWhich is in general an OK way to go about it, as it is a difficult letter (not many languages have lateral fricatives after all). This is the correct way of pronouncing it: https://youtu.be/U0qr9XxJges?t=99 https://youtu.be/U0qr9XxJges?t=99
- empath75 7y agoIf most people have a certain pronunciation, that’s just how it’s pronounced now.
- apta 7y agoThat doesn't sit well with people reciting the Quran as how it was originally revealed :) This is why there was a lot of care taken in writing out exactly how each letter is to be pronounced, and was passed down one generation after the other.