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The Glottal Cease in Arabic

In IPA phonetic transcription and in Lingualism’s phonemic transcription, the glottal cease is represented by the image ʔ. (In another transcription, transliteration, and romanization methods, it’s represented by an apostrophe.) In Arabic script, it is the letter hamza (ء), which (based on relatively advanced orthographic guidelines we’ll sort out in one other article) may be written independently or ‘seated’ on one other letter (أ إ ؤ ئ).

Arabic learners typically mistakenly imagine that the glottal cease is a wierd, quintessentially Arabic sound that’s troublesome to pronounce. In actuality, the glottal cease exists in most languages ​​to some extent, so all of us produce the glottal cease sound regularly. We simply might not be conscious of it as a result of it isn’t a phoneme in lots of languages ​​(together with English). Individuals aren’t typically conscious that the glottal cease exists in English because it does not have a letter of the alphabet to signify it. Nevertheless it does. And it is price having a look at its utilization in English first to assist us higher perceive cope with it in Arabic.

The glottal cease is usually defined to Arabic learners utilizing an instance like ‘uh-oh’ or the Cockney pronunciation of ‘water’ (“wa’er”), the place there is a ‘catch within the throat’ that stops two vowels from flowing collectively .

One other instance is the Hawaiian pronunciation of Hawai’i [həwɐjʔi], the place a glottal cease separates vowels within the ultimate two syllables. Evaluate this to the extra widespread English pronunciation of the state, the place the vowels are related with a y-glide [həwɐji].

However this is one other instance of a glottal cease in English: Apples [ʔæpəlz]. And this is an instance of a phrase and not using a glottal cease: apples [æpəlz]. Let me clarify.

Phrases that (seemingly!) start with a vowel (in the beginning of a sentence or after a pause/comma) are literally pronounced with an preliminary glottal cease. (Okay, if we needed to be pedantic about terminology, we must always name it a ‘glottal plosive’ since you’ll be able to’t begin with a cease… however we’ll stick with ‘glottal cease’ for simplicity.)

It’s bodily troublesome to begin an utterance with a pure vowel sound; we really start with a slight plosive sound, a ‘glottal cease.’

However, in English, the ultimate sound of a phrase hyperlinks to the next phrase when it begins with a vowel. So, ‘pink apples’ is pronounced re-dapples [rɛ dæpəlz]. For those who had been to throw in a ‘break’ between the phrases to keep away from linking the sounds, you’d primarily be inserting a glottal cease to make this occur: [rɛd ʔæpəlz].

Apples are apples. [ʔæpəl za ræpəlz] So, in English, the preliminary utterance ‘apples’ begins with a glottal cease, whereas the opposite ‘apples’ begins with the ultimate sound of the earlier phrase.

The takeaway from the above is that this: When a glottal cease comes in the beginning of a phrase, we could not understand it, however we additionally needn’t do something particular to pronounce it accurately.

We are able to say that each Arabic and English phonology comply with the rule that each syllable begins with a consonant, whether or not that consonant is a glottal cease or one other consonant sound. A syllable can’t begin with a vowel sound. It’s a daring assertion as a result of when you requested English audio system if a phrase can begin with a vowel sound, 99% of individuals would, with certainty, say sure and even provide you with examples, having no concept that they had been, in reality, producing a glottal cease in the beginning of every of those phrases for the reason that glottal cease just isn’t a acknowledged phoneme in English. However higher. (Nonetheless, good luck amassing from others on that guess!)

Now, let’s check out Arabic. The glottal cease is a acknowledged phoneme. Arabs are conscious of the sound as a result of it’s represented by the letter hamza (ء). An Arabic phrase that sounds prefer it begins with a vowel to an English speaker is written with a hamza (ء) seated on an alif (ا).

أ ʔa-
أُ ʔu-
إِ ʔi-
آ ʔā-

The distinction right here between English and Arabic is that Arabic phrases that start with hamza retain the glottal cease no matter whether or not the phrase is utterance-initial or not.

أُريدُ أَنْ أَكْتُبَ.

ʔurīdu ʔan ʔaktub.

(I need to write.)

Within the instance above, all three phrases start with a glottal cease. The ultimate sound of 1 phrase doesn’t hyperlink to the following phrase as a result of it doesn’t start with a vowel.

To an English speaker’s ear, all three phrases sound like they begin with a vowel. And, for all intents and functions, they do. Simply watch out to keep away from linking the phrases collectively (ʔurīdu wa naktub). Pronounce every phrase with a definite separation from the phrase earlier than it, and you will routinely be announcing glottal stops.

Bear in mind to retain the glottal cease when including the particular article to a phrase starting in hamza-alif: الأطْفالٌ alʔaʈfāl (the kids). With out the glottal cease, the l of the particular article would turn into the preliminary consonant of the next syllable (a-laʈ-fāl), which is inaccurate pronunciation. After all, the particular article, when preliminary utterance, begins with a glottal cease, so we might write ʔalʔaʈfāl, however in our phonemic transcription system, we solely write ʔ when a phrase begins with a written hamza and retains would retain its glottal cease when non-utterance preliminary.

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