Re: Arabic (Arabiya)

On Sunday, November 23, 2003, at 04:00  AM, Adam Walker wrote:
> --- David Peterson <ThatBlueCat@...> wrote:
>> The Arabic "s" that is neither "s" (siim) nor "sh"
>> (shiim) is called "saad",
>> and it's *not* retroflex; it's pharyngealized.   If
>> you know how to pronounce
>> "ayn", try pronounce an "s" while pronouncing an
>> "ayn".  Or, while making the
>> [A] vowel (as in, "Stick out your tongue and say"),
>> try pronouncing an "s"
>> *without* stopping the [A] sound.   That will
>> approximate the sound.   Once
>> you've got that, now try pronouncing it without an
>> [A] vowel, and you're set.
>>
I like to think about it as pronoucing a /s/ while pulling the back of
your tongue back and down.

>> The Arabic "gh", called "ghayn", can be pronounced
>> like a French /r/, since I
>> *believe* one of the allophones for French /r/ is a
>> voiced, velar fricative.
>>  Anyway, if you can pronounce Arabic "khaa" (looks
>> like a "haa" with a dot
>> underneath), then just voice it, and you've got
>>
>> -David
>>
|khaa| has the dot on top;  |jiim| has it on the bottom.


-Stephen (Steg)
  "dos iz nit der šteg!"