Arabic phonology

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

The classical ḍād pronunciation of pharyngealization /ɮˤ/ still occurs in the Mehri language, and the similar sound without velarization, /ɮ/, exists in other Modern South Arabian languages.Other changes may also have happened.

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.

For example, the phoneme that derives from Classical Arabic /ɟ/ has many different pronunciations in the modern spoken varieties, e.g., [d͡ʒ ~ ʒ ~ j ~ ɡʲ ~ ɡ] including the proposed original [ɟ].

The differentiation of pronunciation of colloquial dialects is the influence from other languages previously spoken and some still presently spoken in the regions, such as Coptic in Egypt, Berber, Punic, or Phoenician in North Africa, Himyaritic, Modern South Arabian, and Old South Arabian in Yemen and Oman, and Aramaic and Canaanite languages (including Phoenician) in the Levant and Mesopotamia.

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.

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.

[11] The short vowels [u, ʊ, o, o̞, ɔ] are all possible allophones of /u/ across different dialects; e.g., قُلْت /ˈqult/ ('I said') is pronounced [ˈqʊlt] or [ˈqolt] or [ˈqɔlt], since the difference between the short mid vowels [o, o̞, ɔ] and [u, ʊ] 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 [i, ɪ, e, e̞, ɛ] are all possible allophones of /i/ across different dialects; e.g., مِن /ˈmin/ ('from') is pronounced [ˈmɪn] or [ˈmen] or [ˈmɛn] since the difference between the short mid vowels [e, e̞, ɛ] and [i, ɪ] 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 can be used in Modern Standard Arabic in dialectal words or in some stable loanwords or foreign names,[16] as in روما /ˈroːma/ ('Rome') and شيك /ˈʃeːk/ ('cheque').

[17] The long mid vowels /eː/ and /oː/ are always rendered with the letters ي and و, respectively, accompanied by a preceding hamzah sitting above (أ) and below (إ) an alif (ا) respectively word-initially.

[26] Loanwords can break some phonotactic rules like allowing initial consonant clusters (with an initial epenthetic /i/ or often another repeated vowel from the word being optional inserted after the first consonant) like in پلوتو /pluː.toː, bu.luː.toː "Pluto" and پراج /praːɡ, be.raːɡ/ "Prague" or allowing CVVC syllables non-finally without geminates like in روسيا /ruːs.jaː/ "Russia" and سوريا /suːr.jaː/ "Syria", which can be modified to /ruː.si.jaː, suː.ri.jaː/ to fit the phonotactics better.

[26] The placement of word stress in Arabic varies considerably from one dialect to another, and has been the focus of extensive research and debate.

Inside the Arabian peninsula and in Iraq, the two types are less distinct; but the language of the urbanized Hejaz, at least, strongly looks like a conservative sedentary variety.

In Modern Standard Arabic (not in Egypt's use), /ɡ/ is used as a marginal phoneme to pronounce some dialectal and loan words.

It is also considered a separate foreign phoneme that appears only in loanwords, as in most urban Levantine dialects where ق is /ʔ/ and ج is /d͡ʒ~ʒ/.

The dental ض [dˤ] was historically [ɮˤ], a value it retains among older speakers in a few isolated dialects,[29] the voiced emphatic dental fricative ظ [ðˤ] is sometimes pronounced as a voiced emphatic alveolar fricative [zˤ] depending on the speaker in Egypt and Lebanon.

[17][31] /t͡ʃ/ is another possible loanword phoneme, as in the word سندوتش‎ or ساندوتش‎ (sandawitš or sāndwitš 'sandwich'), though a number of varieties instead break up the [t] and [ʃ] sounds with an epenthetic vowel.

[33] Normally the combination تش (tā’-shīn) is used to transliterate the [tʃ], while in rural Levantine dialects /k/ is usually substituted with /t͡ʃ/ while speaking and would be written as ك.

Otherwise Arabic usually substitutes other letters in the transliteration of names and loanwords like the Persian character چ which is used for writing [tʃ].

Cairene has also merged the interdental consonants with the dental plosives (e.g., ثلاثة /θalaːθa/ → [tæˈlæːtæ] 'three') except in loanwords from Classical Arabic where they are nativized as sibilant fricatives (e.g., ثانوية /θaːnawijja/ → [sænæˈwejja], 'secondary school').

جيب [ɡeːb] 'pocket' + -نا [næ] 'our' → collapsing with [ˈɡebnæ] which means (جبنة 'cheese' or جيبنا 'our pocket'),[37] because Cairene phonology cannot have long vowels before two consonants.

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.

Baʻdaʼidhin saṭaʻat al-shams bi-difʼihā, fa-mā kāna min al-musāfir illā an khalaʻa ʻabāʼatahu ʻalá al-taww.

Wa-hākadhā iḍṭurrat rīḥ al-shamāl ilá al-iʻtirāf bi-an al-shams kānat hiya al-aqwá.

baʿdaʾiḏin saṭaʿati š-šamsu bi-difʾihā, famā kāna mina l-musāfiri ʾillā ʾan ḵalaʿa ʿabāʾatahu ʿalā t-tawwi.

wa-hakaḏā ḍṭurrat rīḥu š-šamāli ʾilā l-ʾiʿtirāfi biʾanna š-šamsa kānat hiya l-ʾaqwā.