Guide to Arabic Pronunciation Pronunciation There are several regional pronunciation variants. The following gives the most standard version. The letters are given in their isolated form; there are different forms for initial, medial, and final positions. Transliteration
Name
Character
Pronunciation
long a [a!] (historically ["])
! (or " )
"alif
!
b
b!"
as expected: [b]
t
t!"
# or th
#!"
" # $ %
like j : [$]
&
like whispered h: [%] like ch in German auch: [x]
$ or j &
$% m (j % m) m) &!"
kh
'!"
'
d
d!l
( or dh
(!l
r
r!"
z
z!y
s
s % n
) or sh
)% n
( ) * + , -
as expected: [t] like th in thing: [#]
as expected: [d] like th in these: [&] like a Spanish r: [r] as expected: [z] as expected: [s] like sh in shoe: [ ' ]
*
*!d
+
+!d
,
,!"
- or +h .
-!" .ayn
. / 0 1
emphatic s: [s(] emphatic d : [d(] emphatic t : [t(] emphatic dh or z:
[&(] / [z(]
2
not found in English: [)]
/ or gh
/ayn
3
not found in English: [*]
f
f !"
4
as expected: [f] not found in English: [q]
q
q!f
5
k
k!f
l
l!m
m
m % m
n
n0n
h
h!"
6 7 8 9 :
w, 0 y , %
w!w y!"
; <
as expected: [k] as expected: [l] as expected: [m] as expected: [n] as expected: [h] like w or long u: [w]
, [u!] like y or long i: [j] ,
[i!]
Standard Arabic only has three vowels (a, i, u) and short vowels are not
written. Also short 'a' often sounds more like English short 'e'. (Persian, discussed below, has more vowels). Three letters do double duty as either consonants or long vowels (long vowels sound like long European vowels, not like long English vowels). Example: Sanskrit ardha-jiva (half-chord) was shortened to jiva. Since Arabic does not have the v sound, it was changed to jiba ( !") and without short vowels, was written with two letters in Arabic: jb ( !"). European translators (around the 12th century) thought that jb ( !") was jayb, meaning cavity, bay . The Latin word sinus was used to translate this word since it also means bay, fold . From this we get our word sine . Another example: #$%&'()* +,-) .&/0 12 +345() .&467) is the title of alKhwarizmi's most famous book (Arabic is written right to left). The fifth word of the title is +,-) which can be transliterated as ! l-jbr. With the unwritten vowel i this gives ! l-jabr which could be interpreted as ! l-jebr . This ultimately gave us our word algebra Notes: In Egyptian Arabic, 'j' might be pronounced 'g'. Some dialects pronounce it 'zh'
[+]. The glottal stop " (["] ) the hamza ( 8) is used, but it is not an official letter.
Persian modifications After the Arab conquest, the Arabic alphabet was adopted for Persian (F!rs % , P !rs % , Dar % , and Tajik). Since Persian has sounds that are not in Arabic, new letters were added. Transliteration
Changes
Character
Pronunciation
p
peh
ch
tcheh
zh
zheh
9 : ;
[p] [t ' ] [+]
g
gaf
<
[g]
Other letters are modified. Only some of the changes are listed below. Transliteration
Changes
Character
! (or " )
alef
s
se
h
he
z
z!l
) or sh
)% n
* z , -
s!d
-!
! $ & ) . / 0 1
.
eyn
2
v or u
v!v
;
z!d t!
Pronunciation
[", ,, æ] or silent [s] [h] or silent [z] like sh in shoe: [ ' ] [s] [z] [t] [z] ["] also lengthens a preceding vowel
[v] , [u], [o]
Before the Arab Conquest, the Persians used a different alphabet based on the Aramaic Alphabet called the Pahlavi Alphabet. In old Persian, before Alexander the Great, cuneiform was used. (Note: the Hebrew and Arabic alphabets descend from the Aramaic alphabet, which descend from the Phoenician alphabet or a close relative thereof). (Developed 2005-2006 by Professor Wayne Aitken for Math 330).
