Learn how the pronunciation of words containing dark letters change
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| Mustu: Mustu here! Arabic Pronunciation Series Lesson 5 – Dark letters change words! |
| Hala: Hello, and welcome to ArabicPodOD101.com, the fastest, easiest, and most fun way to learn Arabic! |
| Mustu: I''m Mustu, and thanks again for being here with us for this Pronunciation lesson. |
| Hala: In this lesson, you will learn the answer to a very common question we always get about the sound of some letters. |
| Mustu: You mean other than the soft, dark letters, and the letters that are merged as one and stressed? |
| Hala: Yes, other than all of that, but this time, we will see how the dark letters affect the sound of the entire word. |
| Mustu: Which means, the soft letters will have less effect? |
| Hala: Yes, the word will be pronounced much faster, and each letter will keep its original sound. |
| Mustu: That sounds interesting, how does it work? |
| Hala: Okay, I will focus now on “ā”, the long vowel, and see how it’s pronounced in some words. |
| So the 2 words are: “zāhir” and “ẓāhir” |
| Mustu: I’m hearing the difference, but not very sure where it is! |
| Hala: Well, the “ā” here is pronounced differently, so you get it in the first word as “ā”, and the second word “ā”. |
| Mustu: Why is that Hala? |
| Hala: The first word didn’t start with a dark letter, so the sound is all the same, but with the second one, it started with a dark letter, so the sound has changed here, you can’t start with a dark letter, and finish softly. |
| Mustu: And does that happen if the dark letter came in the middle of the word? |
| Hala: Good question, let me give you the answer with some examples! |
| “masār” and “ḥiṣār” |
| Mustu: Okay, the letters before the dark letter were affected slightly by it, but I can hear the difference very clearly. |
| Hala: Allow me to repeat them again “masār” and “ḥiṣār” |
| Mustu: So basically, it’s the same letter, but it was affected by the dark one. |
| Hala: Yes, and just as it happened with the “ā“, it could happen with any other long vowel, and even the consonants! |
| Mustu: Of course by now you know I will ask for… |
| Hala: An example. Yes, and I’m ready with it! |
| “maktab” and “maṭlab” |
| Mustu: Okay, I see what you mean, the last two letters were also affected, it took a deeper sound! |
| Hala: Yes, and in another example “muẓhir” and “muzhir” |
| Mustu: Even more clear now, but just to be sure, let me repeat it. |
| Hala: Please go for it! |
| Mustu: “ muẓhir” and “ muzhir” |
| Hala: Great Job Mustu! So what everyone needs to remember is that it’s very easy to notice when a dark letter is in the word, because the sound of the entire word will change, to a deeper sound! |
| Mustu: That’s very clear. |
| Hala: And another point before we wrap up the pronunciation series, there are two letters I would like to focus on, since they doesn’t exist in most Latin languages, and for sure not in English! |
| Mustu: Which letters? So far, I have many letters in Arabic that doesn’t exist in English! |
| Hala: Yes, but we got them covered, so don’t worry, the first one is “ḫ” |
| Mustu: “ḫ” |
| Hala: Si, como juta en Español! |
| Mustu: Ahhh! Its also in German and Dutch¡ |
| Hala: Yes, which will make it easy for the speakers of these languages, otherwise, you just need to learn how to pronounce it, “ḫ”. In a word the sound will be “ḫarūf” |
| Mustu: Okay, let me try it “ḫarūf” |
| Hala: Great, one more example “ḫifyh” |
| Mustu: “ḫifyh” |
| Hala: Great, and the final letter is “ġ” |
| Mustu: Correct me if I’m wrong Hala, but isn’t this one very similar to the French ( r )? |
| Hala: For sure, its nearly the same, I like to call it the ( gargle ) letter. |
| Mustu: Why the funny name? |
| Hala: Well, the best way to practice producing this letter, is by imagining you’re doing the morning gargle, cleaning your throat! |
| Mustu: That’s a very nice trick, ok, so please, say it again, then in a word |
| Hala: “ġ”, and the word is “mašġūl” |
| Mustu: “mašġūl” |
| Hala: Another word is “ġālī” |
| Mustu: “ġālī” |
| Hala: Very good, but you need to stress it just a little bit! |
| Mustu: “ġālī” |
| Hala: Great, now that you have mastered this, I think its time to move on for more Arabic lessons! |
| Mustu: Yes! That just about does it for today. |
| Hala: Don''t forget that you can leave us a comment on this lesson. |
| Mustu: So if you have a question, or some feedback, please leave us a comment! |
| Hala: It''s very easy to do. Just stop by ArabicPod101.com, |
| Mustu: Click on comments, |
| Hala: Enter your comment and name, |
| Mustu: And that's it. |
| Hala: No excuses. We're looking forward to hearing from you! |
| Mustu: Bye! |
Comments
Hide:shock: This last "gargle" letter is very hard to get! I will constantly study this to get all the dark letters but some are very confusing. Why is the "z" with the dark symbol pronounced with almost an "m" like sound? I don't think I am hearing this right!
Hi Oksana,
لأ
isn't a letter. It is a combination between
ل
and
أ
--------
ئ
is a combination between the
ء
and the
ى
basically a glottal stop with a kasra after it.
Nora
Team ArabicPod101.com
I don’t understand what these letters are
لأَ
ئ
Please tell me into which lesson should I look
Hi wout,
That sounds great and we are happy we can help you with our podcasts!
When you have questions or you would like to add some effective explanation :smile:, please feel free to leave a comment!
Thank you very much,
Sincerely,
Ofelia
Team ArabicPod101.com
Thank you, Nora
But what else would you expect if you've given yourself the challenge to be conversational in 30 languages before 30.
Right now I'm fluent in Dutch and English, Intermediate in Japanese and German and a beginner in Spanish, Korean, Chinese, Hebrew, Turkish and well a little Arabic. So that means about 7 languages per year and with a little bit of effort I should be able to make this years workload work. next year will be for next year So Russian, Hindi, Urdu (well if you know the Arabic script and you know Hindi it's easy), Farsi, Vietnamese, Thai, Indonesian, Tagalog, Czech, Polish, Gujarati, Punjabi, Marathi, Mongolian, Esperanto, Hungarian, Ijslandic, Khmer, Akkadian and Dothraki will have to wait until later. Yes a lot of these languages are also available as podcasts from innovative language learning, So they'll will see my name pop-up quite a few times in the next couple of years. As you can see I'm not avoiding any of the more Difficult languages. Although for Akkadian I have absolutely no idea how to due that one.
Well thank you for the comment anyway,
Wout.
Hi Wout,
Wow, I really like the way you put it! You seem very knowledgeable about many languages! I say go for it! :thumbsup:
Nora
Team ArabicPod101.com
salam aleyukum. The Kha is indeed the same g in Dutch (I'm Dutch), kh in Hebrew and ch in German although my Spanish not good enough yet for me to know but I'll take your word here. However I have noticed that 荷兰 the he from Mandarin here is pronounced the same in Dutch and the hya comes pretty close in for example 百 and Korean might also get quite close too.
If you still can't do it you try imaging your a cat with a hair ball stuck in the throat. Now try and imitate that sound, when a cat does it the mouth is wide open. Now curl up your tongue so it points to the roof of your mouth and start closing it. As you close it you should notice that the more you close it it starts to resemble the sound. For me to get the right sound I can put the tip of my finger between my lips.
Hope it helps.
So Arabic pod what did you think about the explanation would that work for English speakers? (I'm considering becoming a language tutor in Dutch, German, Japanese and English)
Kind regards,
Wout.
Hi Aleksandra,
Try our Arabic Alphabet series, Carole gives many pronunciation tips there :D
https://www.arabicpod101.com/index.php?cat=46
Nora
Team ArabicPod101.com
Hello,
Are there going to be more lessons of pronounciation? I really enjoyed this one :-)
Hi Duale
Thank you for your message. Yes, you can. Simply download our ILL app -> https://www.arabicpod101.com/ill-app/ , install it and onward you should be able to use inApp purchase.
Sincerely
Piotr
Team ArabicPod101.com
Can I pay by App Store if I can tell me please
Hi Viny,
Thanks for your kind words :D. And umm I just want to make sure I understand this. You mean that we should add the words and the letters, in Arabic, to the lesson notes, right?
Oh and while we're at it, you should check our new Arabic writing series :D! It has more in-depth details about the alphabet and pronunciation tips.
https://www.arabicpod101.com/2013/07/12/arabic-alphabet-made-easy-1-alef-and-nun/
Hope you like it!
Nora
Team ArabicPod101.com
Hi, I grew up in Saudi and studied very very basic Arabic in an expat school. So coming to this site and learning and relearning my Arabic is fun. This pronounciation series is very helpful. But i feel that it would have been extremely helpful if I had the letters in question & their corresponding examples written out in Arabic & in their English transliteration. It would have really helped in lessons 4 & 5. Hope you'll consider it.
Once again , thank you for the fantastic work you do! You should be proud of it! :smile: :thumbsup:
Hi Simon,
Actually we started a new series dedicated to Arabic Alphabet! Check the link below:
https://www.arabicpod101.com/2013/07/12/arabic-alphabet-made-easy-1-alef-and-nun/
Let us know what you think!
Good luck!
Nora
TeamArabicPod101.com
Hi! Having lived as a child in Saudi Arabia but never learnt Arabic (until now) finding these lessons very useful. At the beginning of the Pronunciation series, i would find it really useful to have a simple lesson focused on the alphabet - profiling the easy as well as the hard ones! That way, easier to see where the dark letters and tricky letters fit in the overall picture. Onwards and upwards! Simon, London UK
Hi Leila,
That is actually a great suggestion!I will modify the lesson notes accordingly.
Thank you for taking the time to tell us what you think! We really appreciate it!
Nora
Team ArabicPod101.com
Hi,
I just finished the pronunciation series. I think the series is great but in my opinion it would have been greater if the meaning of the words used as example was given. That would have nicely emphasized the difference of meaning in a sentence when using the wrong pronunciation.
I also would have loved the use of the Arabic letters not just their corresponding "romanization" ones.
Hi Alanna,
I kind of know what you mean by the "m" like sound. It's actually more like an "n" sound. The reason behind that is that two letters "n" and "dark z" are close to each other on the phonetical chart(tip of the tongue).
Dark letters can be a bit hard to pronounce at first. Even Egyptians sometimes pronounce it as a d or a normal z because it's hard to pronounce!
Try to think of the dark z(ظ) as a deeper and stronger version of the normal z(ز). Also the dark z has a bit of a d sound in it.
I hope that helped! Good luck!
Nora
Team ArabicPod101.com