Categories: uncategorized
Date: 15 October 2005 23:49:11
One of the interesting things, to me at least, about learning languages is looking at the sounds present in other languages that are not present in my dialect of English -- like the German "ch", though the Scots have it. And also sounds present in English that aren't present in another language -- such as the "th" in "three" that many of my European friends get frustrated with.
Arabic, at least thus far!, has a one-to-one correlation between the letter and the sound. A ﺏ will always be a ﺏ -- "b" in English. A ﺱ will always have a 'sss' sound. (I hope these Arabic letters appear on your computer: I can see them on mine.) One way in which Arabic differs from English is with our letter "t". ﺏ (taa) is always "t", which for us is generally produced at the front of the mouth. But yesterday, among others, we learnt ﻁ (tah), which has a "t" quality, but is produced at the back of the throat. Such letters are termed emphatic. Our teacher likes to call them the "angry sister" of the corresponding letter, because it sounds deeper and a bit harsher. She's always got a way of making us smile when we first encounter these strange letters.
Tah is not the only emphatic counterpart. Saad (ﺹ) is the emphatic counterpart of siin (ﺱ) -- while the latter's "sss" sound is produced at the front of the mouth, the former is produced at the back. And other frontal/back "sisters" are ﺩ (daal -- our "d") and ﺽ (daad), and ﺫ (thal -- our "th" in "that") and ﻅ (thaa). It takes a lot of practice, for me at least, to produce the sound from the back of the throat.
An interesting thing is that you can far more readily identify the difference by the change in the vowels affected by these emphatic consonants. For example, a frontal consonant followed the vowel 'a' results in the 'a' sounding like the 'a' in 'bad'; an emphatic consonant followed by the vowel 'a' results in the 'a' sounding more like the 'a' in 'father'. It takes a keen ear, at least for me, but it is a great help.
We also learnt the letter ayn (ﻉ) yesterday. Another deep consonant, I have no idea how to explain it. I can't produce it yet either. This week will seem my throat muscles getting a big workout!