Arabic

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This demo takes some Arabic examples from the IPA illustrations to show places of articulation unfamiliar to English or German speakers. Note that the speaker is born and raised in Palestine and Beirut.

1. Velar vs. uvular stop


kalb ("dog")	qalb ("heart")

2. Velar fricatives in initial position

IPA suggests that the voiceless velar fricative can be accompanied by uvular trill.


xilaaf ("dispute")	ɣilaaf ("cover", noun)

3. Voiceless pharyngeal fricative vs. glottal fricative

The sound symbolized [ħ] below is traditionally referred to as pharyngeal. However, there is much evidence, summarized in Ladefoged & Maddieson (2008, p.169) and Esling (1996), that epiglottal may be a better term. Following Esling (1996), the constriction mechanism may involve the arytenoids approximating the base of the epiglottis.


ħuruwb ("wars")	huruwb ("escape", noun)

4. Voiced pharyngeal fricative [ʕ] vs. glottal stop

The [ʕ] symbol is traditionally used for a sound in Arabic that based on the IPA table should be labelled voiced pharyngeal fricative. However, there is a fair concensus that this sound is very rarely a fricative. Ladefoged (2005, p. 163) suggests that it may often be an approximant with considerable laryngealization (creaky voice). Ladefoged & Maddieson (2008) also suggest that (like the voiceless pharyngeal fricative) this sound is likely to have an epiglottal rather than a pharyngeal constriction. International Phonetic Association (1999, p. 53) refers to it as a pharyngealized (or retracted tongue root) glottal stop, and lists it together with the other pharyngealized consonants of Arabic (traditionally referred to as emphatic). In fact, this designation is not so far from Ladefoged’s since an approximant with aryepiglottic constriction and concomitant creaky voicing can readily be expected to include glottal stopping in its realizations.


saʕala ("coughed")	saʔala ("asked")

5. The ‘ʕ ajn’-sound again, in initial position

The quality of the sound comes out particularly well in initial position before front vowels.


ʕajn ("eye")	ʕijd ("feast")

Further Material

See demo on secondary articulation for contrasts involving the emphatic (pharyngealized) sounds of Arabic.

See Esling (1996) for a proposal for systematizing articulations over the pharyngeal and epiglottal region. Videos with fiberendoscopic views of laryngeal and pharyngeal activity in these sounds are available.

See !Xoo voice-quality demo for trilled aryepiglottic constriction functioning as a kind of phonation type.

Secondary Articulations: Emphatic (pharyngealized) consonants in Arabic

The so-called emphatic consonants of Arabic provide a good example of pharyngealization (though in fact some dialects are said to show velarization rather than pharyngalization).

saara
("walked")

balla
("recovered")

sˤarf
("exchange")

alˤlˤaa
("God")

Audio Source:
Illustrations of the IPA.

References:
Esling, J. (1996): Pharyngeal consonants and the aryepiglottic sphincter. J. Int. Phonetic Association 26(2): 65-88.
International Phonetic Association (1999): Handbook of the International Phonetic Association: A Guide To The Use Of The International Phonetic Alphabet. Cambridge University Press.
Ladefoged, P. (2005): A Course in Phonetics. Thomson/ Wadsworth Publishers.
Ladefoged, P. / Maddieson, I. (2008): The Sounds of the World's Languages. Malden, MA: Blackwell.