Arabic phonology

While many languages have numerous dialects that differ in phonology, the contemporary spoken Arabic language is more properly described as a continuum of varieties.[1] 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.[2]

This article is about the Modern Standard Arabic phonology. For other regional dialects' phonologies, see Varieties of Arabic. For the phonology of the medieval language, see Classical Arabic § Phonology.

Modern Standard Arabic has 28 consonant phonemes and 6 vowel phonemes or 8 vowels in most modern dialects. All phonemes contrast between "emphatic" (pharyngealized) consonants and non-emphatic ones. 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.[3]

Vowels
Vowel chart representing the pronunciation of long vowels by a Palestinian speaker educated in Beirut. From Thelwall (1990:38) (Notice that these values vary between regions across North Africa and West Asia)
Vowel chart representing the pronunciation of diphthongs by a Palestinian speaker educated in Beirut. From Thelwall (1990:38)

Modern Standard Arabic has six vowel phonemes forming three pairs of corresponding short and long vowels (/a, aː, i, iː, u, uː/). Many spoken varieties also include /oː/ and /eː/. Modern Standard Arabic has two diphthongs (formed by a combination of short /a/ with the semivowels /j/ and /w/). Allophony in different dialects of Arabic can occur, and is partially conditioned by neighboring consonants within the same word. As a general rule, for example, /a/ and /aː/ are:

  • /a, aː/
    • retracted to [ɑ] in the environment of a neighboring /r/, /q/ or an emphatic consonant (one that is uvularized, though customarily transcribed as if pharyngealized): /sˤ/, /dˤ/, /tˤ/, /ðˤ/, /ɫ/ and in a few regional standard pronunciations also /x/ and /ɣ/;[4]
    • only in Iraq and the Persian Gulf: [ɐ] before a word boundary;[4]
    • advanced to [æ] in the environment of most consonants:
    • Across North Africa and West Asia, the allophones [æ] and [ɑ] may be realized differently, either as [a ~ ɑ ~ ɛ], or both as [a ~ ä]
    • In northwestern Africa, the open front vowel /æ/ is raised to [ɛ] or [e].
  • /i, iː, u, uː/
    • Across North Africa and West Asia, /i/ may be realized as [ɪ ~ e ~ ɨ] before or adjacent to emphatic consonants and [q], [r], [ħ], [ʕ]. /u/ can also have different realizations, i.e. [ʊ ~ o ~ ʉ]. 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: [e], [o] ← instead of /i, u/. /i~ɪ/ and /u~ʊ/ completely become [e] and [o] respectively in some other particular dialects. Unstressed final long /aː, iː, uː/ are most often shortened or reduced: /aː/ → [æ ~ ɑ], /iː/ → [i], /uː/ → [o~u].
Example words[6]
short long
i عِدْ‎ /ʕid/"promise!"عِيد‎ /ʕiːd/"holiday"
u عُدّ‎ /ʕudd/"count (command)"عُود‎ /ʕuːd/"lute"
a َعَدّ‎ /ʕadd/"counted"عَاد‎ /ʕaːd/"came back"
aj عَيْن‎ /ʕajn/"eye"
aw عَوْد‎ /ʕawd/"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.[7] Often, even highly proficient speakers will import the vowel-retraction rules from their native dialects.[8] 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.[9] Certain speakers (most notably Levantine speakers) exhibit a degree of asymmetry in leftward vs. rightward spread of vowel-retraction.[9][10]

The final heavy syllable of a root is stressed.[6]

The short vowels [u, ʊ, o, o̞, ɔ] are all possible allophones of /u/ across different dialects, e.g. قُلْت /ˈqult/ ('I said') is pronounced [ˈqʊlt] or [ˈqolt] or [ˈqo̞lt] since the difference between the short mid vowels [o, o̞, ɔ] and [u, ʊ] is never phonemic and they're mostly found in complementary distribution, except for a number of speakers where they can be phonemic but only in foreign words.

The short vowels [i, ɪ, e, e̞, ɛ] are all possible allophones of /i/ across different dialects, e.g. مِن /ˈmin/ ('from') is pronounced [ˈmɪn] or [ˈmen] or [ˈmɛn] since the difference between the short mid vowels [e, e̞, ɛ] and [i, ɪ] is never phonemic and they're 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 /oː/ and /eː/ appear to be phonemic in most varieties of Arabic except in general Maghrebi Arabic where they merge with /uː/ and /iː/. For example لون ('color') is generally pronounced /loːn/ in Mashriqi dialects but /luːn/ 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.[11] as in روما /ˈroːma/ ('Rome') and شيك /ˈʃeːk/ ('cheque').

Foreign words often have a liberal sprinkling of long vowels, as their word shapes do not conform to standardized prescriptive pronunciations written by letters for short vowels.[12] The long mid vowels /eː/ and /oː/ are always rendered with the letters ي and و, respectively. In general, the pronunciation of loanwords is highly dependent on the speaker's native variety.

Consonants
See also: Arabic letters and sun and moon letters

Even in the most formal of conventions, pronunciation depends upon a speaker's background.[13] Nevertheless, the number and phonetic character of most of the 28 consonants has a broad degree of regularity among Arabic-speaking regions. Note that Arabic is particularly rich in uvular, pharyngeal, and pharyngealized ("emphatic") sounds. The emphatic coronals (/sˤ/, /dˤ/, /tˤ/, and /ðˤ/) cause assimilation of emphasis to adjacent non-emphatic coronal consonants. The phonemes /p/ ⟨پ⟩ and /v/ ⟨ڤ⟩ (not used by all speakers) are not considered to be part of the phonemic inventory, as they exist only in foreign words and they can be pronounced as /b/ ⟨ب⟩ and /f/ ⟨ف⟩ respectively depending on the speaker.[12][14] The standard pronunciation of ⟨ج⟩ /d͡ʒ/ varies regionally, most prominently [d͡ʒ] in the Arabian Peninsula, parts of the Levant, Iraq, northern Algeria and Sudan, it is also considered as the predominant pronunciation of Literary Arabic outside the Arab world, [ʒ] in most of Northwest Africa and the Levant, and [g] in most of Egypt and a number of Yemeni and Omani dialects.

Note: the table and notes below discusses the phonology of Modern Standard Arabic among Arabic speakers not individual dialects; Algerian, Egyptian, Syrian, etc.

Modern Standard Arabic consonant phonemes
Labial Dental Denti-alveolar Palatal Velar Uvular Pharyngeal Glottal
plain emphatic[lower-alpha 1]
Nasal m n
Plosive/
affricate		 voiceless (p)[lower-alpha 2] t[lower-alpha 3] tˤ k q[lower-alpha 4] ʔ
voiced b d[lower-alpha 3] dˤ[lower-alpha 5] d͡ʒ[lower-alpha 6] (ɡ)[lower-alpha 7]
Fricative voiceless f θ[lower-alpha 8] s sˤ ʃ x ~ χ[lower-alpha 9] ħ[lower-alpha 10] h
voiced (v)[lower-alpha 2] ð[lower-alpha 8] z ðˤ ~ zˤ[lower-alpha 11] ɣ ~ ʁ[lower-alpha 9] ʕ[lower-alpha 10]
Approximant l (ɫ)[lower-alpha 12] j w
Trill r[lower-alpha 13]
  1. Emphatic consonants are pronounced with the back of the tongue approaching the pharynx (see pharyngealization). They are pronounced with velarization by the Iraqi and Arabic Gulf speakers. /q/, /ħ/, and /ʕ/ can be considered the emphatic counterparts to /k/, /h/, and /ʔ/ respectively.[15]
  2. The foreign sounds /p/ ﭖ and /v/ ﭪ (usually transcribed as ب /b/ and ف /f/ respectively) are not necessarily pronounced by all Arabic speakers and their usage is optional. As these letters are not present on standard keyboards, they are simply written with ب /b/ and ف /f/, e.g. باكستان or پاکستان /pa(ː)kistaːn, ba(ː)kistaːn/ "Pakistan", فيروس or ڤيروس /vi(ː)ru(ː)s, vajru(ː)s/ "virus", etc.[12][14]
  3. Depending on the region, the plosives are either alveolar or dental.
  4. The Sudanese usually pronounce /q/ (ق) as [ɢ] even in Literary Arabic.
  5. ض [dˤ] merges into ظ [ðˤ] in the dialects of most of Saudi Arabia (except Hejaz), Gulf Countries, Tunisia and Iraq even when speaking Modern Standard Arabic
  6. When speaking Modern Standard Arabic, the phoneme represented by the Arabic letter ǧīm (ج) is usually pronounced /d͡ʒ/ or /ʒ/ depending on the speaker, except in Egypt where it is [ɡ], which is a characteristic of colloquial Egyptian in addition to southern Yemeni and a number of Omani dialects.[16]
  7. In Modern Standard Arabic /ɡ/ 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 ق /q/ (as in Arabian Peninsula and Northwest African dialects) or as a variant of /d͡ʒ/ ج (as in Egyptian and a number of Yemeni and Omani dialects). Urban Levantine dialects are an exception where ق is /ʔ/ and ج is /d͡ʒ~ʒ/ so /ɡ/ is considered a separate foreign phoneme in those dialects that appears only in loanwords. Foreign words containing /ɡ/ may be transcribed more commonly with ج‎, غ‎, ق‎ or ك‎ or less commonly ݣ‎ (used in Morocco) or ڨ‎ (used in Tunisian and Algeria), mainly depending on the regional spoken variety of Arabic or the commonly diacriticized Arabic letter.
  8. In nonstandard pronunciations and some dialects, /θ/ and /ð/ may be merged to [t] and [d] or [s] and [z], respectively.
  9. In most regions, uvular fricatives of the classical period have become velar or post-velar.[17]
  10. The "voiced pharyngeal fricative" /ʕ/ (ع) is described as neither pharyngeal nor fricative, but a creaky-voiced epiglottal approximant.[18] Its unvoiced counterpart /ħ/ (ح) is likewise epiglottal, although it is a true fricative. Thelwall asserts that the sound of ع is actually a pharyngealized glottal stop [ʔˤ].[19] Similarly, McCarthy (1994) points to dialectal and idiolectal variation between stop and continuant variations of /ʕ/ in Iraq and Kuwait, noting that the distinction is superficial for Arabic speakers and carries "no phonological consequences."[20]
  11. When speaking Modern Standard Arabic in some countries such as Egypt and Lebanon, the voiced emphatic dental fricative ظ [ðˤ] is pronounced as a voiced emphatic alveolar fricative [zˤ]. In many modern Arabic dialects [ðˤ] has also partially or fully merged with [dˤ] into either [dˤ], [zˤ] or [ðˤ] depending on dialect and speaker.[21]
  12. In most pronunciations, /ɫ/ as a phoneme occurs in a handful of loanwords. It also occurs in الله Allah /ʔaɫˈɫaːh/, the name of God,[16] except when it follows long or short /i/ when it is not emphatic: بسم الله bismi l-lāh /bis.milˈlaːh/ ("in the name of God").[22] However, /ɫ/ is absent in many places, such as Egypt, and is more widespread in certain dialects, such as Iraqi, where the uvulars have velarized surrounding instances of /l/ in certain environments. /ɫ/ also assumes phonemic status more commonly in pronunciations influenced by such dialects. Furthermore, /ɫ/ also occurs as an allophone of /l/ in the environment of emphatic consonants when the two are not separated by /i/.[23]
  13. Emphatic /r/ exists Northwestern African pronunciations. The trill /r/ is sometimes reduced to a single vibration when single, but it remains potentially a trill, not a flap [ɾ]: the pronunciation of this single trill is between a trill [r] and a flap [ɾ]. <r> is in free variation between a trill /r/ and a flap [ɾ] in Egyptian and Levantine 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), but they are not actually pronounced any "stronger". Between a long consonant and a pause, an epenthetic [ə] occurs,[6] but this is only common across regions in West Asia.

Phonotactics

Arabic syllable structure can be summarized as follows, in which parentheses enclose optional components:

  • (C1) (S1) V (S2) (C2 (C3))

Arabic syllable structure consists of an optional syllable onset, consisting of one or two consonants; an obligatory syllable nucleus, consisting of a vowel optionally preceded by and/or followed by a semivowel; and an optional syllable coda, consisting of one or two consonants. The following restrictions apply:

  • Onset
    • First consonant (C1): Can be any consonant, including a liquid (/l, r/). (Onset is composed only of one consonant; consonant clusters are only found in loanwords, sometimes an epenthetic /a/ is inserted between consonants.)
  • Nucleus
    • Semivowel (S1)
    • Vowel (V)
    • Semivowel (S2)
  • Coda
    • First consonant (C2): Can be any consonant.
    • Second consonant (C3): Can also be any consonant.

Word stress

The placement of word stress in Arabic varies considerably from one dialect to another, and has been the focus of extensive research and debate.

In determining stress, Arabic distinguishes three types of syllables:[24]

  • Light:
    • An open syllable containing a short vowel (i.e. CV), such as wa 'and'
  • Heavy:
    • An open syllable containing a long vowel (i.e. CVV), such as sā.fara 'he travelled'
    • A closed syllable containing a short vowel followed by one consonant (i.e. CVC), such as min 'from' or ka.tab.tu 'I wrote'
  • Super-heavy:
    • A closed syllable containing a long vowel followed by one consonant (i.e. CVVC), such as bāb# 'door' or mād.dun 'stretching (NOM)'
    • A closed syllable containing a vowel of any length followed by two consonants (i.e. CVCC, CVVCC), such as bint# 'girl' or mādd# 'stretching'

The word stress of Classical Arabic has been the subject of debate. However, there is consensus as to the general rule, even though there are some exceptions. A simple rule of thumb is that word-stress falls on the penultimate syllable of a word if that syllable is closed, and otherwise on the antepenultimate.[25]

A more precise description is J. C. E. Watson's. Here the stressed syllable follows the marker ' and variant rules are in brackets:[26]

  1. Stress a pre-pausal superheavy (CVVC, CVVGG, or CVCC) syllable: [kiˈtaːb] ‘book’, [ˈmaːdd] ‘stretching (MASC SG)’, [ʃaːˈribt] ‘I/you (MASC SG) drank’.
  2. Otherwise, stress the rightmost (ending) non-final heavy (CVV, CVC, or CVVG) syllable (up to the antepenult): [daˈrasnaː] ‘we learnt’, [ṣaːˈbuːnun] ‘soap (NOM)’, [ˈmaktabah] ‘library’, [ˈmaːddun] ‘stretching (NOM)’, [ˈmaktabatun] ‘library’ (non-pause) (or [makˈtabatun]).
  3. Otherwise, stress the leftmost (beginning) CV syllable (or antepenult): [ˈkataba] ‘he wrote’, [ˈkatabatuhu] ‘library’ (or [kataˈbatuhu]).

Modern Arabic dialects all maintain rules (1) and (2). But if there is neither a final superheavy syllable nor a heavy penultimate syllable, their behaviour varies. Thus in Palestinian, rule (3) is instead 'otherwise stress the first syllable (up to the antepenult): [ˈkatab] ‘he wrote’, [ˈzalama] ‘man’', whereas the basic rules of Cairene (to which there are exceptions) are:[27]

  1. Stress a superheavy ultima.
  2. Otherwise, stress a heavy penult.
  3. Otherwise, stress the penult or antepenult, whichever is separated by an even number of syllables from the rightmost non-final heavy syllable, or, if there is no non-final heavy syllable, from the left boundary of the word.

Local variations of Modern Standard Arabic

Spoken varieties differ from Classical Arabic and Modern Standard Arabic not only in grammar but also in pronunciation. Outside of the Arabian peninsula, a major linguistic division is between sedentary varieties, largely urban varieties. Inside the Arabian peninsula and in Iraq, the two types are less distinct; but the language of the urbanized Hejaz, at least, strongly looks like a conservative sedentary variety.

Some examples of variation:

Consonants
Different representations for some phonemes
Phoneme Letters
Moroccan Tunisian Algerian Hejazi Najdi Egyptian Levantine Palestinian Iraqi Gulf
/p/[lower-alpha 1] پ‎ / ب‎
/v/[lower-alpha 1] ڥ‎ / ڢ‎ / ف‎ ڤ‎ / ف‎
/t͡ʃ/ ڜ‎ تش‎ (ت + ش‎) چ‎ / ك‎
/g/ ڭ‎ / گ‎ ڨ‎ / ڧـ ـڧـ ـٯ‎ / ق‎ ق‎ ج‎[lower-alpha 2] غ‎ / ج‎[lower-alpha 3] چ‎ / ج‎[lower-alpha 4] گ‎ / ك‎ ق / گ‎
  1. unlike /ɡ/ and /t͡ʃ/, /p/ and /v/ never appear natively in Arabic dialects, and they are always restricted to loanwords, with their usage depending on the speaker.
  2. In Egypt, when there is a need to transcribe /ʒ/ or /d͡ʒ/, both are approximated to [ʒ] using چ.
  3. /ɡ/ is not part of the native phonemic inventory of urban Levantine Arabic dialects (Lebanese, Syrian and Palestinian).
  4. /ɡ/ is not part of the phonemic inventory of urban Levantine Arabic dialects (Lebanese, Syrian and Palestinian).

In Modern Standard Arabic (not in Egypt's use), /ɡ/ 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 ق /q/ (as in Arabian Peninsula and Northwest African dialects) or as a variant of /d͡ʒ/ ج (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 ق is /ʔ/ and ج is /d͡ʒ~ʒ/.

The phoneme represented by the Arabic letter ǧīm (ج) has many standard pronunciations: [d͡ʒ] in most of the Arabian Peninsula and as the predominant pronunciation of Literary Arabic outside the Arab world, [ɡ] in most of Egypt and some regions in southern Yemen and southwestern Oman. This is also a characteristic of colloquial Egyptian and southern Yemeni dialects.[16] In Morocco and western Algeria, it is pronounced as [ɡ] in some words, especially colloquially. In most north Africa and most of the Levant, the standard is pronounced [ʒ], and in certain regions of the Persian Gulf colloquially with [j]. In some Sudanese and Yemeni dialects, it may be either [ɡʲ] or [ɟ] as it used to be in Classical Arabic.

The foreign phonemes /p/ and /v/ are not necessarily pronounced by all Arabic speakers, but are often pronounced in names and loanwords. /p/ and /v/ are usually transcribed with their own letters ﭖ /p/ and ﭪ /v/ but as these letters are not present on standard keyboards, they are simply written with ب /b/ and ف /f/, e.g. both نوفمبر and نوڤمبر /nu(ː)fambar/, /novambar, -ber/ or /nofember/ "November", both كاپريس and كابريس /ka(ː)pri(ː)s, ka(ː)bri(ː)s/ "caprice" can be used.[12][14] The use of both sounds may be considered marginal and Arabs may pronounce the words interchangeably; besides, many loanwords have become Arabized, e.g. باكستان or پاکستان /pa(ː)kistaːn, ba(ː)kistaːn/ "Pakistan", فيروس or ڤيروس /vi(ː)ru(ː)s, vajru(ː)s/ "virus".

/t͡ʃ/ is another possible loanword phoneme, as in the word سندوتش‎ or ساندوتش‎ (sandawitš or sāndwitš 'sandwich'), though a number of varieties instead break up the [t] and [ʃ] sounds with an epenthetic vowel.[28] Egyptian Arabic treats /t͡ʃ/ as two consonants ([tʃ]) and inserts [e], as [teʃC] or [Cetʃ], when it occurs before or after another consonant. /t͡ʃ/ is found as normal in Iraqi Arabic and Gulf Arabic.[29] Normally the combination تش (tā’-shīn) is used to transliterate the [tʃ]. Otherwise Arabic usually substitutes other letters in the transliteration of names and loanwords like the Persian character چ which is used for writing [tʃ]

Other Variations include:

Vowels
  • Development of highly distinctive allophones of /a/ and /aː/, with highly fronted [a(ː)], [æ(ː)] or [ɛ(ː)] in non-emphatic contexts, and retracted [ɑ(ː)] in emphatic contexts. 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.
  • Spread of "emphasis", visible in the backing of phonemic /a(ː)/. In conservative varieties of the Arabic peninsula, only /a/ 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. Dialects of the Levant are somewhere in between. Moroccan Arabic is unusual in that /i/ and /u/ have clear emphatic allophones as well (typically lowered, e.g. to [e] and [o]).
  • Monophthongization of diphthongs such as /aj/ and /aw/ to /eː/ and /oː/, respectively (/iː/ and /uː/ in parts of the Maghrib, such as in Moroccan Arabic). Mid vowels may also be present in loanwords such as ملبورن (/milboːrn/ Melbourne), سكرتير (/sikriteːr/ '(male) secretary') and دكتور (/duktoːr/ 'doctor').[11]
  • Raising of word final /a/ to [e]. In some parts of Levant, also word-medial /aː/ to [eː]. See Lebanese Arabic.
  • Loss of final short vowels (with /i/ sometimes remaining), and shortening of final long vowels. This triggered the loss of most Classical Arabic case and mood distinctions.
  • Collapse and deletion of short vowels. In many varieties, such as North Mesopotamian, many Levantine dialects, many Bedouin dialects of the Maghrib, and Mauritanian, short /i/ and /u/ have collapsed to schwa and exhibit very little distinction so that such dialects have two short vowels, /a/ and /ə/. Many Levantine dialects show partial collapse of /i/ and /u/, which appear as such only in the next-to-last phoneme of a word (i.e. followed by a single word-final consonant), and merge to /ə/ elsewhere. A number of dialects that still allow three short vowels /a/ /i/ /u/ in all positions, such as Egyptian Arabic, nevertheless show little functional contrast between /i/ and /u/ as a result of past sound changes converting one sound into the other.[30] Arabic varieties everywhere have a tendency to delete short vowels (especially other than /a/) in many phonological contexts. When combined with the operation of inflectional morphology, disallowed consonant clusters often result, which are broken up by epenthetic short vowels, automatically inserted by phonological rules. In these respects (as in many others), Moroccan Arabic has the most extreme changes, with all three short vowels /a/, /i/, /u/ collapsing to a schwa /ə/, which is then deleted in nearly all contexts. This variety, in fact, has essentially lost the quantitative distinction between short and long vowels in favor of a new qualitative distinction between unstable "reduced" vowels (especially /ə/) and stable, half-long "full" vowels /a/, /i/, /u/ (the reflexes of original long vowels). Classical Arabic words borrowed into Moroccan Arabic are pronounced entirely with "full" vowels regardless of the length of the original vowel.

Phonologies of different Arabic dialects

The main dialectal variations in Arabic consonants revolve around the six consonants; ⟨ج⟩, ⟨ق⟩, ⟨ث⟩, ⟨ذ⟩, ⟨ض⟩ and ⟨ظ⟩:

Letter Classical Modern Standard Dialectal Main Variations Less Common Variations
ث‎ /θ/ /θ/ [θ] [t] [s] [f]
ج‎ /ɟ/ or /d͡ʒ/ /d͡ʒ/ [d͡ʒ] [ʒ] [ɡ] [ɟ] [j] [d͡z] [d]
ذ‎ /ð/ /ð/ [ð] [d] [z] [v]
ض‎ /ɮˤ/ /dˤ/ [dˤ] [ðˤ] [zˤ] [d]
ظ‎ /ðˤ/ /ðˤ/ [ðˤ] [dˤ] [zˤ]
ق‎ /q/ or /ɡ/ /q/ [q] [ɡ] [ʔ] [ɢ] [k] [d͡ʒ] [d͡z] [ɣ ~ ʁ]

Cairene
Main article: Egyptian Arabic

The Arabic of Cairo (often called "Egyptian Arabic" or more correctly "Cairene Arabic") is a typical sedentary variety and a de facto standard variety among certain segments of the Arabic-speaking population, due to the dominance of Egyptian media. Watson adds emphatic labials [mˤ] and [bˤ][31] and emphatic [rˤ][16] to Cairene Arabic with marginal phonemic status. Cairene has also merged the interdental consonants with the dental plosives (e.g. /θalaːθa/ → [tæˈlæːtæ], 'three') except in loanwords from Classical Arabic where they are nativized as sibilant fricatives (e.g. /θaːnawijja/ → [sænæˈwejja], 'secondary school'). Cairene speakers pronounce /d͡ʒ/ as [ɡ] and debuccalized /q/ to [ʔ] (again, loanwords from Classical Arabic have reintroduced the earlier sound[30] or approximated to [k] with the front vowel around it [æ] changed to the back vowel [ɑ]). Classical Arabic diphthongs /aj/ and /aw/ became realized as [eː] and [oː] respectively. Still, Egyptian Arabic sometimes has minimal pairs like [ˈʃæjlæ] ('carrying' f.s.) vs [ˈʃeːlæ] ('burden'). [ɡeːb] 'pocket' + [næ] 'our' → collapsing with [ˈɡebnæ] which means ('cheese' or 'our pocket'),[32] because Cairene phonology can't have long vowels before two consonants. Cairene also has [ʒ] as a marginal phoneme from loanwords from languages other than Classical Arabic.[33]

Sanaa
See also: Yemeni Arabic § San'ani Arabic dialect

Varieties such as that of Sanaa, Yemen, are more conservative and retain most phonemic contrasts of Classical Arabic. Sanaani possesses [ɡ] as a reflex of Classical /q/ (which still functions as an emphatic consonant).[32] In unstressed syllables, Sanaani short vowels may be reduced to [ə].[34] /tˤ/ is voiced to [dˤ] in initial and intervocalic positions.[31]

Distribution

The most frequent consonant phoneme is /r/, the rarest is /ðˤ/. The frequency distribution of the 28 consonant phonemes, based on the 2,967 triliteral roots listed by Wehr[14] is (with the percentage of roots in which each phoneme occurs):

Phoneme Frequency Phoneme Frequency
/r/ 24% /w/ 18%
/l/ 17% /m/ 17%
/n/ 17% /b/ 16%
/f/ 14% /ʕ/ 13%
/q/ 13% /d/ 13%
/s/ 13% /ħ/ 12%
/j/ 12% /ʃ/ 11%
/dʒ/ 10% /k/ 9%
/h/ 8% /z/ 8%
/tˤ/ 8% /x/ 8%
/sˤ/ 7% /ʔ/ 7%
/t/ 6% /dˤ/ 5%
/ɣ/ 5% /θ/ 3%
/ð/ 3% /ðˤ/ 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, /t/ 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, ḍād, ṯāʾ, ḫāʾ, ẓāʾ, ḏāl and ġayn.

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.[35]

Normal orthographic version

كانت ريح الشمال تتجادل والشمس في أي منهما كانت أقوى من الأخرى، وإذ بمسافر يطلع متلفعا بعباءة سميكة. فاتفقتا على اعتبار السابق في إجبار المسافر على خلع عباءته الأقوى. عصفت ريح الشمال بأقصى ما استطاعت من قوة. ولكن كلما ازداد العصف ازداد المسافر تدثرا بعباءته، إلى أن أسقط في يد الريح فتخلت عن محاولتها. بعدئذ سطعت الشمس بدفئها، فما كان من المسافر إلا أن خلع عباءته على التو. وهكذا اضطرت ريح الشمال إلى الاعتراف بأن الشمس كانت هي الأقوى.

Diacriticized orthographic version

كَانَتْ رِيحُ الشَّمَالِ تَتَجَادَلُ وَالشَّمْسَ فِي أَيٍّ مِنْهُمَا كَانَتْ أَقْوَى مِنَ الأُخْرَى، وَإِذْ بِمُسَافِرٍ يَطْلُعُ مُتَلَفِّعًا بِعَبَاءَةٍ سَمِيكَةٍ. فَاتَّفَقَتَا عَلَى اعْتِبارِ السَّابِقِ فِي إِجْبارِ المُسَافِرِ عَلَى خَلْعِ عَباءَتِهِ الأَقْوى. عَصَفَتْ رِيحُ الشَّمالِ بِأَقْصَى مَا اسْتَطَاعَتْ مِن قُوَّةٍ. وَلٰكِنْ كُلَّمَا ازْدَادَ العَصْفُ ازْدَادَ المُسَافِرُ تَدَثُّرًا بِعَبَاءَتِهِ، إِلَى أَنْ أُسْقِطَ فِي يَدِ الرِّيحِ فَتَخَلَّتْ عَنْ مُحَاوَلَتِهَا. بَعْدَئِذٍ سَطَعَتِ الشَّمْسُ بِدِفْئِهَا، فَمَا كَانَ مِنَ المُسَافِرِ إِلَّا أَنْ خَلَعَ عَبَاءَتَهُ عَلَى التَّوِّ. وَهٰكَذَا اضْطُرَّتْ رِيحُ الشَّمَالِ إِلَى الاِعْتِرَافِ بِأَنَّ الشَّمْسَ كَانَتْ هِيَ الأَقْوَى.[36]

Phonemic transcription (with i‘rāb)

/kaːnat riːħu‿ʃːamaːli tatad͡ʒaːdalu wa‿ʃːamsa fiː ʔajːin minhumaː kaːnat ʔaqwaː mina‿lʔuxraː | wa‿ʔið bimusaːfirin jatˤluʕu mutalafːiʕan biʕabaːʔatin samiːkah || fatːafaqataː ʕala‿ʕtibaːri‿sːaːbiqi fiː ʔid͡ʒbaːri‿lmusaːfiri ʕalaː xalʕi ʕabaːʔatihi‿lʔaqwaː || ʕasˤafat riːħu‿ʃːamaːli biʔaqsˤaː ma‿statˤaːʕat min quwːah || wa‿laːkin kulːama‿zdaːda‿lʕasˤfu‿zdaːda‿lmusaːfiru tadaθːuran biʕabaːʔatih | ʔilaː ʔan ʔusqitˤa fiː jadi‿rːiːħi fataxalːat ʕan muħaːwalatihaː || baʕdaʔiðin satˤaʕati‿ʃːamsu bidifʔihaː | fa‿maː kaːna mina‿lmusaːfiri ʔilːaː ʔan xalaʕa ʕabaːʔatahu ʕala‿tːawː || wa‿haːkaða‿dˤtˤurːat riːħu‿ʃːamaːli ʔila‿lʔiʕtiraːfi biʔanːa‿ʃːamsa kaːnat hija‿lʔaqwaː/[36]

Phonemic transcription (without i‘rāb)

/kaːnat riːħu‿ʃːamaːl tatad͡ʒaːdal wa‿ʃːams fiː ʔajːin minhumaː kaːnat ʔaqwaː mina‿lʔuxraː | wa‿ʔið bi musaːfir jatˤluʕ mutalafːiʕan biʕabaːʔa samiːkah || fatːafaqataː ʕala‿ʕtibaːri‿sːaːbiq fiː ʔid͡ʒbaːri‿lmusaːfir ʕalaː xalʕ ʕabaːʔatihi‿lʔaqwaː || ʕasˤafat riːħu‿ʃːamaːl biʔaqsˤaː ma‿statˤaːʕat min quwːa || wa‿laːkin kulːama‿zdaːda‿lʕasˤfu‿zdaːda‿lmusaːfir tadaθːuran biʕabaːʔatih | ʔilaː ʔan ʔusqitˤ fiː jadi‿rːiːħ fa taxalːat ʕan muħaːwalatihaː || baʕdaʔið satˤaʕati‿ʃːams bidifʔihaː | fa‿maː kaːn mina‿lmusaːfiri ʔilːaː ʔan xalaʕa ʕabaːʔatahu ʕala‿tːawː || wa‿haːkaða‿dˤtˤurːat riːħu‿ʃːamaːl ʔila‿lʔiʕtiraːf biʔanːa‿ʃːams kaːnat hija‿lʔaqwaː/

Phonetic transcription (Egypt)

[ˈkæːnæt ɾiːħ æʃ ʃæˈmæːl tætæˈɡæːdæl wæʃ ˈʃæm.se fiː ˈʔæj.jin menˈhomæ ˈkæːnæt ˈʔɑqwɑ mɪn æl ˈʔʊxɾɑ | wæ ʔɪð bi mʊˈsæːfeɾ ˈjɑtˤlɑʕ mʊtæˈlæf.feʕ bi ʕæˈbæːʔæ sæˈmiːkæ || fæt tæfɑqɑˈtæː ˈʕælæ ʕ.teˈbɑːɾ ɪs ˈsɑːbeq fiː ʔeɡbɑːɾ æl mʊˈsæːfeɾ ˈʕælæ ˈxælʕe ʕæbæːˈʔæt(i)hi lˈʔɑqwɑː || ˈʕɑsˤɑfɑt ɾiːħ æʃ ʃæˈmæːl bi ˈʔɑqsˤɑ mæ stæˈtˤɑːʕɑt mɪn ˈqow.wɑ || wæ ˈlæːkɪn kʊlˈlæmæ zˈdæːd æl ʕɑsˤf ɪzˈdæːd æl mʊˈsæːfeɾ tædæθˈθʊɾæn bi ʕæbæːˈʔætih | ˈʔilæ ʔæn ˈʔosqetˤ fiː jæd æɾˈɾiːħ fæ tæˈxæl.læt ʕæn mʊħæːwæˈlæt(i)hæ || bæʕdæˈʔiðin ˈsɑtˤɑʕɑt æʃ ˈʃæm.se bi dɪfˈʔihæ | fæ mæː kæːn mɪn æl mʊˈsæːfeɾ ˈʔil.læ ʔæn ˈxælæʕ ʕæbæːˈʔætæh ʕælætˈtæw || wæ hæːˈkæðæ tˈtˤoɾ.ɾɑt ɾiːħ æʃ ʃæˈmæːl ˈʔilæ lʔeʕteˈɾɑːf biˈʔænn æʃ ˈʃæm.se ˈkæːnæt ˈhɪ.jæ lˈʔɑqwɑ]

ALA-LC transliteration

Kānat rīḥ al-shamāl tatajādalu wa-al-shams fī ayyin minhumā kānat aqwá min al-ukhrá, wa-idh bi-musāfir yaṭlaʻu mutalaffiʻ bi-ʻabāʼah samīkah. Fa-ittafaqatā ʻalá iʻtibār al-sābiq fī ijbār al-musāfir ʻalá khalʻ ʻabāʼatihi al-aqwá. ʻAṣafat rīḥ al-shamāl bi-aqṣá mā istaṭāʻat min qūwah. Wa-lākin kullamā izdāda al-ʻaṣf izdāda al-musāfir tadaththuran bi-ʻabāʼatih, ilá an usqiṭ fī yad al-rīḥ fa-takhallat ʻan muḥāwalatihā. Baʻdaʼidhin saṭaʻat al-shams bi-difʼihā, fa-mā kāna min al-musāfir illā an khalaʻa ʻabāʼatahu ʻalá al-taww. Wa-hākadhā iḍṭurrat rīḥ al-shamāl ilá al-iʻtirāf bi-an al-shams kānat hiya al-aqwá.

English Wiktionary transliteration (based on Hans Wehr)

kānat rīḥu š-šamāli tatajādalu wa-š-šamsa fī ʾayyin minhumā kānat ʾaqwā mina l-ʾuḵrā, wa-ʾiḏ bi-musāfirin yaṭluʿu mutalaffiʿan bi-ʿabāʾatin samīkatin. fa-t-tafaqatā ʿalā ʿtibāri s-sābiqi fī ʾijbāri l-musāfiri ʿalā ḵalʿi ʿabāʾatihi l-ʾaqwā. ʿaṣafat rīḥu š-šamāli bi-ʾaqṣā mā staṭāʿat min quwwatin. walākin kullamā zdāda l-ʿaṣfu zdāda l-musāfiru tadaṯṯuran bi-ʿabāʾatihi, ʾilā ʾan ʾusqiṭa fī yadi r-rīḥi fataḵallat ʿan muḥāwalatihā. baʿdaʾiḏin saṭaʿati š-šamsu bi-difʾihā, famā kāna mina l-musāfiri ʾillā ʾan ḵalaʿa ʿabāʾatahu ʿalā t-tawwi. wa-hakaḏā ḍṭurrat rīḥu š-šamāli ʾilā l-ʾiʿtirāfi biʾanna š-šamsa kānat hiya l-ʾaqwā.

gollark: Or not enough people could bother and it would be very late.
gollark: Yes, but someone could just use vast amounts of computing power to do it sooner.
gollark: I'm pretty sure that's not possible whatsoever with encryption.
gollark: ↑ that idea
gollark: ++userdata get bismuth

References
  1. Kirchhoff & Vergyri (2005:38)
  2. Kirchhoff & Vergyri (2005:38–39)
  3. Holes (2004:57)
  4. Thelwall (1990:39)
  5. Holes (2004:60)
  6. Thelwall (1990:38)
  7. Abd-El-Jawad (1987:359)
  8. Abd-El-Jawad (1987:361)
  9. Watson (1999:290)
  10. Davis (1995:466)
  11. Elementary Modern Standard Arabic: Volume 1, by Peter F. Abboud (Editor), Ernest N. McCarus (Editor)
  12. Teach Yourself Arabic, by Jack Smart (Author), Frances Altorfer (Author)
  13. Holes (2004:58)
  14. Hans Wehr, Dictionary of Modern Written Arabic (transl. of Arabisches Wörterbuch für die Schriftsprache der Gegenwart, 1952)
  15. Watson (2002:44)
  16. Watson (2002:16)
  17. Watson (2002:18)
  18. Ladefoged & Maddieson (1996:167–168)
  19. Thelwall (1990), citing Gairdner (1925), Al Ani (1970), and Käster (1981).
  20. McCarthy (1994:194–195)
  21. Watson (2002:19)
  22. Holes (2004:95)
  23. Ferguson (1956:449)
  24. Watson, JCE (2011) Word stress in Arabic. In: The Blackwell companion to phonology. Wiley-Blackwell, Oxford, 2990-3019 (p. 2991), http://eprints.whiterose.ac.uk/75747/.
  25. Kees Versteegh, The Arabic Language (Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press, 1997), p. 90.
  26. Watson, JCE (2011) Word stress in Arabic. In: The Blackwell companion to phonology. Wiley-Blackwell, Oxford, 2990-3019 (p. 3003), http://eprints.whiterose.ac.uk/75747/.
  27. Watson, JCE (2011) Word stress in Arabic. In: The Blackwell companion to phonology. Wiley-Blackwell, Oxford, 2990-3019 (pp. 2993, 3004), http://eprints.whiterose.ac.uk/75747/.
  28. Watson (2002:60–62), citing Ṣan‘ā’ni and Cairene as examples with and without this phoneme, respectively.
  29. Gulf Arabic Sounds
  30. Watson (2002:22)
  31. Watson (2002:14)
  32. Watson (2002:23)
  33. Watson (2002:21)
  34. Watson (2002:40)
  35. Thelwall (1990:37)
  36. Thelwall (1990:40)

Bibliography
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  • Gairdner, W.H.T. (1925), The Phonetics of Arabic, London: Oxford University Press
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