Standard Arabic phonology

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

Modern Standard Arabic has 28 consonant phonemes and 6 vowel phonemes, with four "emphatic" (pharyngealized) consonants that contrast with their non-emphatic counterparts. 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.

History

Of the 29 Proto-Semitic consonants, only one has been lost: , which merged with , while became (see Semitic languages). Various other consonants have changed their sound too, but have remained distinct. An original lenited to , and – consistently attested in pre-Islamic Greek transcription of Arabic languages – became palatalized to or by the time of the Quran and Template:IPAslink, Template:IPAslink, Template:IPAslink or after early Muslim conquests and in MSA (see Arabic phonology#Local variations for more detail).

Its emphatic counterpart was considered by Arabs to be the most unusual sound in Arabic (hence the Classical Arabic's appellation or "language of the "). For most modern dialects, it has become an emphatic stop with loss of the laterality or with complete loss of any pharyngealization or velarization, . The classical pronunciation of pharyngealization still occurs in the Mehri language, and the similar sound without velarization, Template:IPAslink, exists in other Modern South Arabian languages.

Template:Photomontage

The first known book printed in Arabic: Kitābu ṣalāti s-sawā'ī (), a book of hours printed with movable type in 1514.

Other changes may also have happened. Classical Arabic pronunciation is not thoroughly recorded and different reconstructions of the sound system of Proto-Semitic propose different phonetic values. One example is the emphatic consonants, which are pharyngealized in modern pronunciations but may have been velarized in the eighth century and glottalized in Proto-Semitic.

Reduction of and between vowels occurs in a number of circumstances and is responsible for much of the complexity of third-weak ("defective") verbs. Early Akkadian transcriptions of Arabic names show that this reduction had not yet occurred as of the early part of the 1st millennium BC.

The Classical Arabic language as recorded was a poetic koine that reflected a consciously archaizing dialect, chosen based on the tribes of the western part of the Arabian Peninsula, who spoke the most conservative variants of Arabic. Even at the time of Muhammed and before, other dialects existed with many more changes, including the loss of most glottal stops, the loss of case endings, the reduction of the diphthongs and into monophthongs , etc. Most of these changes are present in most or all modern varieties of Arabic.

An interesting feature of the writing system of the Quran (and hence of Classical Arabic) is that it contains certain features of Muhammad's native dialect of Mecca, corrected through diacritics into the forms of standard Classical Arabic. Among these features visible under the corrections are the loss of the glottal stop and a differing development of the reduction of certain final sequences containing : Evidently, the final became as in the Classical language, but final became a different sound, possibly (rather than again in the Classical language). This is the apparent source of the alif maqṣūrah 'restricted alif' where a final is reconstructed: a letter that would normally indicate or some similar high-vowel sound, but is taken in this context to be a logical variant of alif and represent the sound .

Historical development

Arabic phonology has evolved over centuries, influenced by language contact and historical expansion. Classical Arabic phonological features have shifted in modern dialects, partly due to the spread of Arabic through conquest and trade (Versteegh, 2014). These changes have resulted in both the preservation of classical features and significant innovations across dialects.

Literary Arabic

File:Poem by Abu 'ala al-Ma'arri ("I no longer steal from nature") read in Arabic.ogg

Recording of a poem by Al-Ma'arri titled "I no longer steal from nature"

The "colloquial" spoken dialects of Arabic are learned at home and constitute the native languages of Arabic speakers. "Formal" Modern Standard Arabic is learned at school; although many speakers have a native-like command of the language, it is technically not the native language of any speakers. Both varieties can be both written and spoken, although the colloquial varieties are rarely written down and the formal variety is spoken mostly in formal circumstances, e.g., in radio and TV broadcasts, formal lectures, parliamentary discussions and to some extent between speakers of different colloquial dialects.

Even when the literary language is spoken, it is normally only spoken in its pure form when reading a prepared text out loud and communicating between speakers of different colloquial dialects. When speaking extemporaneously (i.e. making up the language on the spot, as in a normal discussion among people), speakers tend to deviate somewhat from the strict literary language in the direction of the colloquial varieties. There is a continuous range of "in-between" spoken varieties: from nearly pure Modern Standard Arabic (MSA), to a form that still uses MSA grammar and vocabulary but with colloquial influence, to a form of the colloquial language that imports a number of words and grammatical constructions in MSA, to a form that is close to pure colloquial but with the "rough edges" (the most noticeably "vulgar" or non-Classical aspects) smoothed out, to pure colloquial.

The particular variant (or register) used depends on the social class and education level of the speakers involved and the level of formality of the speech situation. Often it will vary within a single encounter, e.g., moving from nearly pure MSA to a more mixed language in the process of a radio interview, as the interviewee becomes more comfortable with the interviewer. This type of variation is characteristic of the diglossia that exists throughout the Arabic-speaking world.

File:هيئة المجمع اللغوي الملكي (مجمع اللغة العربية بالقاهرة) يوم تدشينه.png

Coverage in Al-Ahram in 1934 of the inauguration of the Academy of the Arabic Language in Cairo, an organization of major importance to the modernization of Arabic.

Although Modern Standard Arabic (MSA) is a unitary language, its pronunciation varies somewhat from country to country and from region to region within a country. The variation in individual "accents" of MSA speakers tends to mirror corresponding variations in the colloquial speech of the speakers in question, but with the distinguishing characteristics moderated somewhat. It is important in descriptions of "Arabic" phonology to distinguish between pronunciation of a given colloquial (spoken) dialect and the pronunciation of MSA by these same speakers.

Although they are related, they are not the same. For example, the phoneme that derives from Standard Arabic has many different pronunciations in the modern spoken varieties, e.g., . Speakers whose native variety has either Template:IPAblink or Template:IPAblink will use the same pronunciation when speaking MSA. Even speakers from Cairo, whose native Egyptian Arabic has Template:IPAblink, normally use Template:IPAblink when speaking MSA.

Another example: Many colloquial varieties are known for a type of vowel harmony in which the presence of an "emphatic consonant" triggers backed allophones of nearby vowels (especially of the low vowels , which are backed to Template:IPAblink in these circumstances and very often fronted to Template:IPAblink in all other circumstances). In many spoken varieties, the backed or "emphatic" vowel allophones spread a fair distance in both directions from the triggering consonant. In some varieties, most notably Egyptian Arabic, the "emphatic" allophones spread throughout the entire word, usually including prefixes and suffixes, even at a distance of several syllables from the triggering consonant.

Speakers of colloquial varieties with this vowel harmony tend to introduce it into their MSA pronunciation as well, but usually with a lesser degree of spreading than in the colloquial varieties. For example, speakers of colloquial varieties with extremely long-distance harmony may allow a moderate, but not extreme, amount of spreading of the harmonic allophones in their MSA speech, while speakers of colloquial varieties with moderate-distance harmony may only harmonize immediately adjacent vowels in MSA.

Vowels

File:Arabic vowels (Monophthongs).png

Vowel chart representing the pronunciation of long vowels by a Palestinian speaker educated in Beirut. From Template:Harvcoltxt. (These values vary between regions across North Africa and West Asia.)

File:Arabic vowels (Diphthongs).svg

Vowel chart representing the pronunciation of diphthongs by a Palestinian speaker educated in Beirut. From Template:Harvcoltxt

Modern Standard Arabic has six vowel phonemes forming three pairs of corresponding short and long vowels (). Many spoken varieties also include and . Modern Standard Arabic has two diphthongs (formed by a combination of short with the semivowels and ). Allophony in different dialects of Arabic can occur and is partially conditioned by neighboring consonants within the same word. The following are some general rules:

• • retracted to Template:IPAblink in the environment of a neighboring , or an emphatic consonant (one that is uvularized, though customarily transcribed as if pharyngealized): , , , , , (in western Asian varieties the , ) and in a few regional standard pronunciations also and ;
  • only in Iraq and the Persian Gulf: Template:IPAblink before a word boundary;
  • advanced to Template:IPAblink in the environment of most consonants:
    • labial consonants (, and ),
    • plain (non-emphatic) coronal consonants with the exception of : namely , , , , , , , , and
    • glottal consonants ( and )
    • , and ;
  • Across North Africa and West Asia, the allophones and may be realized differently, either as , or both as ;
  • In northwestern Africa, the open front vowel Template:IPAslink is raised to Template:IPAblink or Template:IPAblink.
• • Across North Africa and West Asia, may be realized as before or adjacent to emphatic consonants and Template:IPAblink, Template:IPAblink, (exclusively west Asian Template:IPAblink, Template:IPAblink). can also have different realizations, i.e. . 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: Template:IPAblink, Template:IPAblink ← instead of . and completely become and respectively in some other particular dialects. Unstressed final long are most often shortened or reduced:  → ,  → ,  → .

Example words

	short		long
i		"promise!"		"holiday"
u		"count (command)"		"oud"
a		"counted"		"came back"
aj				"eye"
aw				"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. Often, even highly proficient speakers will import the vowel-retraction rules from their native dialects. 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. Certain speakers (most notably Levantine speakers) exhibit a degree of asymmetry in leftward vs. rightward spread of vowel-retraction.

Vowel phonemes of Modern Standard and Classical Arabic

	Short		Long
	Front	Back	Front	Back
Close	Template:IPAslink	Template:IPAslink	Template:IPAslink	Template:IPAslink
Open

Common vowel system among colloquial Mashriqi Arabic dialects

	Short		Long
	Front	Back	Front	Back
Close	Template:IPAslink	Template:IPAslink	Template:IPAslink	Template:IPAslink
Mid			Template:IPAslink	Template:IPAslink
Open	Template:IPAslink		Template:IPAslink

The final heavy syllable of a root is stressed.

The short vowels are all possible allophones of across different dialects; e.g., ('I said') is pronounced or or , since the difference between the short mid vowels and is never phonemic, and they are mostly found in complementary distribution, except for a number of speakers where they can be phonemic but only in foreign words.

The short vowels are all possible allophones of across different dialects; e.g., ('from') is pronounced or or since the difference between the short mid vowels and is never phonemic, and they are 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 and appear to be phonemic in most varieties of Arabic except in general Maghrebi Arabic, where they merge with and . For example, لون ('color') is generally pronounced in Mashriqi dialects but 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, as in ('Rome') and ('cheque').

Foreign words often have a liberal sprinkling of long vowels, as vowels tend to be written as long vowels in foreign loans, under the influence of European-language orthographies which write down every vowel with a letter. The long mid vowels and are always rendered with the letters and , respectively, accompanied by a preceding hamzah sitting above (أ) and below (إ) an alif (ا) respectively word-initially. In general, the pronunciation of loanwords is highly dependent on the speaker's native variety.

Consonants

Even in the most formal contexts, pronunciation of Arabic depends on the speaker's background, even if number and phonetic character of most of the 28 consonants has a broad degree of regularity among Arabic-speaking regions. Arabic is particularly rich in uvular, pharyngeal, and pharyngealized ("emphatic") sounds. The emphatic coronals (, , , and ) cause assimilation of emphasis to adjacent non-emphatic coronal consonants. The standard pronunciation of ⟨ج⟩ varies regionally, most prominently Template:IPAblink in the Arabian Peninsula; this pronunciation is also found in Iraq, parts of the Levant, north-central Algeria, and parts of Egypt; it is also considered as the predominant pronunciation of Literary Arabic outside the Arab world, the pronunciation used in Qur'an recitation and the pronunciation mostly used in Arabic loanwords across other languages (e.g. in Georgian, Malay, Persian, Turkish and Urdu). Other pronunciations include Template:IPAblink in most of Northwest Africa and the Levant and in some parts of the Arabian Peninsula, and Template:IPAblink essentially in Egypt (Template:IPAblink, though it also appears as a dialectal pronunciation in parts of coastal Yemen and south coastal Oman but it is not used when speaking MSA), as well as Template:IPAblink in Sudan, parts of Yemen and parts of Oman.

Note: the table and notes below discuss the phonology of Modern Standard Arabic among Arabic speakers and not regional dialects.

Modern Standard Arabic consonant phonemes

		Labial	Dental	Denti-alveolar		Post-alv./ Palatal	Velar	Uvular	Pharyngeal	Glottal
				plain	emphaticTemplate:Efn
Nasal		Template:IPA link م		Template:IPA link ن
Plosive	voicelessTemplate:Efn			Template:IPA link ت	Template:IPA link ط		Template:IPA link ك	Template:IPA link ق		Template:IPA link أ
	voiced	Template:IPA link ب		Template:IPA link د	Template:IPA link ض	Template:IPA link جTemplate:Efn	(Template:IPA link)Template:Efn
Fricative	voiceless	Template:IPA link ف	Template:IPA link ث	Template:IPA link س	Template:IPA link ص	Template:IPA link ش	Template:IPA link ~ Template:IPA linkTemplate:Efn خ		Template:IPA link ح	Template:IPA link هـ
	voiced		Template:IPA link ذ	Template:IPA link ز	Template:IPA linkTemplate:Efn ظ		Template:IPA link ~ Template:IPA linkTemplate:Efn غ		Template:IPA link ع
Trill				Template:IPA linkTemplate:Efn ر
Approximant				Template:IPA link ل	(Template:IPA link)Template:Efn	Template:IPA link ي	Template:IPA link و

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). Between a long consonant and a pause, an epenthetic occurs, but this is only common across regions in West Asia.

Phonotactics

Standard Arabic syllables come in only five forms:

• CV (light)
• CVV (heavy)
• CVC (heavy)
• CVVC (super-heavy)
• CVCC (super-heavy)

Standard Arabic syllable structure does not allow syllables to start with a vowel or with a consonant cluster. In cases where a word starts with a consonant cluster it is preceded by an epenthetic utterance initially or Template:IPAslink when preceded by a word that ends with a consonant; there are however exceptions like and that connect with a following word-initial consonant cluster with Template:IPAslink and Template:IPAslink respectively, if the preceding word ends with a long vowel that vowel is then shortened.

Super-heavy syllables are usually not allowed except word finally, with the exception of CVV- before geminates creating non-final CVVC- syllables, these can be found in the active participles of geminate Form I verbs, like in Template:Wikt-lang ('substance, matter'), Template:Wikt-lang ('entirely'). In the pausal form, the final geminates behave as a single consonant, only when preceding another word or with vocalization, the geminates start appearing, belonging to two separate syllables. E.g.: Template:Wikt-lang ('poisonous'), Template:Wikt-lang ('dry'), Template:Wikt-lang ('public, general'), Template:Wikt-lang ('private, special'), and Template:Wikt-lang ('hot, spicy').

Loanwords can break some phonotactic rules like allowing initial consonant clusters (with an initial epenthetic Template:IPAslink or often another repeated vowel from the word being optional inserted after the first consonant) like in "stadium" and "Florence" or allowing CVVC syllables non-finally without geminates like in "Russia" and "Syria", which can be modified to to fit the phonotactics better.

Word stress

Stress in Modern Standard Arabic is generally consistent and standardized across the Arab world. Exceptions exist only in a limited set of scenarios, detailed below. Broadly speaking, stress is most likely to fall on the second-to-last syllable (the penultimate syllable), but frequently occurs in the final (ultimate) and third-to-last (antepenultimate) as well.

Arabic syllables can be categorized as light, heavy, and superheavy. This refers to the arrangement of vowels and consonants within the syllable.

With "C" representing a consonant, "V" representing a vowel, and "VV" representing a long vowel:

• Light:
  • A syllable containing a short vowel (i.e. CV), such as وَ /wa/ ('and').
• Heavy:
  • A syllable containing a long vowel (i.e. CVV), such as لَا /laː/ ('no').
  • A syllable containing a short vowel followed by one consonant (i.e. CVC), such as مِن /min/ ('from').
• Super-heavy:
  • A syllable containing a long vowel followed by one consonant (i.e. CVVC), such as بَاب /baːb/ ('door').
  • A syllable containing a short vowel followed by two consonants (i.e. CVCC), such as بِنْت /bint/ ('girl'), or a long vowel followed by a geminate consonant (i.e. CVVC_iC_i), such as مادّ /maːdd/ ('stretching').

Phonotactic constraints in Arabic ensure that syllables do not generally fall outside of these patterns.

A flowchart depiction of Modern Standard Arabic stress placement.

A flowchart depiction of Modern Standard Arabic stress placement.

The following description of Arabic stress patterns is adapted from the description provided by Halpern (2009).

1. Disregard all attached (prefixed) prepositions. If this leaves only one syllable, stress it.
2. If the final syllable is superheavy, stress it.
3. Otherwise, if the word has only two syllables, stress the first one.
4. Otherwise, if the second-to-last syllable is heavy, stress it.

When the above rules are insufficient to determine stress, speakers will employ different approaches to determine stress. These choices are influenced by the speaker's native dialect. Nearly all arrangements are possible. At least one source records four different stress placements for كتبتا /ka.ta.ba.taa/ ('two women wrote'): /ˈka.ta.ba.taa/ (Upper Egypt), /ka.ˈta.ba.taa/ (Jordan), /ka.ta.ˈba.taa/ (Cairo), and /ka.ta.ba.ˈtaa/ (Lebanon).

Local variations of Modern Standard Arabic

Spoken varieties differ from Classical Arabic and Modern Standard Arabic not only in grammar but also in pronunciation. this variation might affect the way Modern Standard Arabic is spoken in each country or region.

Some examples of variation:

Consonants

The standard pronunciation of ⟨ج⟩ in MSA varies regionally, most prominently Template:IPAblink in the Arabian Peninsula, parts of the Levant, Iraq, north-central Algeria, and southern Egypt, it is also considered as the predominant pronunciation of Literary Arabic outside the Arab world and the pronunciation mostly used in Arabic loanwords across other languages (e.g. in Georgian, Malay, Persian, Turkish and Urdu), and Template:IPAblink in Morocco, Tunisia, Libya, southern Algeria, most of the Levant, eastern Arabian Peninsula. Other pronunciations include Template:IPAblink in Egypt, in coastal Yemen, and Oman, as well as Template:IPAblink in Sudan and hinterland Yemen.

In Modern Standard Arabic (not when it's native), 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 (as in Arabian Peninsula and Northwest African dialects) or as a variant of (as in Egyptian and Sanaani and Omani dialects). It is also considered a separate foreign phoneme that appears only in loanwords, as in most urban Levantine dialects where is and is .

The dental was historically , a value it retains among older speakers in a few isolated dialects.

Mergers and mispronunciations

Regional modern dialects may influence the way Modern Standard Arabic is spoken, which sometimes causes mergers or mispronunciations in consonants:

• Speakers that merge and to in their respective dialects usually mispronounce as when speaking Modern Standard Arabic instead of the standard , e.g. 'harmful' is pronounced instead of .
• The voiced emphatic dental fricative is sometimes mispronounced as a voiced emphatic alveolar fricative depending on the speaker in Egypt, Sudan and Lebanon, e.g. 'governorate' is pronounced instead of .
• Speakers that lack the interdentals and in their respective dialects, may merge them with Template:IPAblink and Template:IPAblink or Template:IPAblink and Template:IPAblink, respectively.
• Some speakers especially in Lebanon and Egypt might pronounce the standard uvular as a plain velar Template:IPAblink.
• A number of speakers in Yemen and among Bedu pronounce the uvular as a velar Template:IPAblink when speaking Modern Standard Arabic, e.g. 'I told them' is pronounced instead of .

Foreign phonemes

The foreign phonemes , , , etc. are not necessarily pronounced by all Arabic speakers, but they can be pronounced by some speakers especially in foreign proper nouns and loanwords. and are usually transcribed with their own letters and but as these letters are not part of Standard Arabic, and they are simply written with and , e.g. The use of both sounds may be considered marginal and Arabs may pronounce the words interchangeably; both and , or "November", both and "caprice" can be used.

is a possible loanword phoneme, as in the word Template:Script/Arabic or Template:Script/Arabic (sandawitš or sāndwitš 'sandwich'), though a number of varieties instead break up the and sounds with an epenthetic vowel. Egyptian Arabic treats as two consonants () and inserts , as [C] or [C], when it occurs before or after another consonant. is found as normal in Iraqi Arabic and Gulf Arabic dialects. Normally the combination (tā’-shīn) is used to transliterate the . e.g. "Chad".

Vowels

• Development of highly distinctive allophones of and , with highly fronted , or in non-emphatic contexts, and retracted 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 . In conservative varieties of the Arabic peninsula, only 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 and have clear emphatic allophones as well (typically lowered, e.g. to and ).
• The diphthongs and have monophthongized into and in most the Mashreqi dialects, these mid vowels may also be present in loanwords when speaking MSA, such as ( Melbourne), ( '(male) secretary'), ( Rome) and ( 'doctor').
• Loss of final short vowels (with sometimes remaining), and shortening of final long vowels. This triggered the loss of most Classical Arabic case and mood distinctions.
• Change of nisba suffix > , the nisba suffix as ( '(male) Arabic') is usually mispronounced by many speakers.
• Shorten of final long > ( 'my love') is usually pronounced with a short final by many speakers.

Distribution

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

Phoneme	Frequency		Phoneme	Frequency
	24%			18%
	17%			17%
	17%			16%
	14%			13%
	13%			13%
	13%			12%
	12%			11%
	10%			9%
	8%			8%
	8%			8%
	7%			7%
	6%			5%
	5%			3%
	3%			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, 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, , , , , and .

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.

English Translation

The North Wind and the Sun were disputing which was the stronger, when a traveler came along wrapped in a warm cloak. They agreed that the one who first succeeded in making the traveler take his cloak off should be considered stronger than the other. Then the North Wind blew as hard as he could, but the more he blew the more closely did the traveler fold his cloak around him; and at last the North Wind gave up the attempt. Then the Sun shined out warmly, and immediately the traveler took off his cloak. And so the North Wind was obliged to confess that the Sun was the stronger of the two.