dark letters

"Dark" letters are pronounced with the back of the mouth more open than usual.

The exact pronunciation of these letters depends upon the dialect, and if I try to read the wikipedia article about them I get a headache. But the basic difference is that in a "dark" consonant the back of the mouth is relaxed, while in a "clear" consonant, it is tighter.

Most dialects of English outside Ireland have a "dark L" and a "clear L". In words like "hell", the final ell-sound is dark, because the back of the mouth is unusually open, while in words like "leg", the initial ell is "clear", i.e. the back of the mouth is in the normal position. In these dialects of English, all initial ells are clear and all final ells are dark, so the difference never affects meaning.

In Arabic, however, the difference between dark and clear affects meaning, and changes the spelling, is the following eight letters are concerned:

dark letters corresponding clear letters

ص س

ض د

ط ت

ظ ذ

So #assaif السف means the sword, and #aSSaif الصف means the summer. The main difference between the two is that the long s of the second is darker: the back of the mouth is higher in #assaif السف, lower in #aSSaif الصف.

dark letters	corresponding clear letters
ص	س
ض	د
ط	ت
ظ	ذ

coloring of nearby vowels

Many Arabs cannot hear any difference between the English words "eye" and "aye", or "mile" and "male". In fact the only difference between these is that the beginning of "eye" and "mile" is darker than in the other two; the back of the tongue is lower for eye and mile, higher for aye and male.

You may hear that saif سف sounds more like "safe", and Saif صف more like "sife". An Arab cannot hear any difference between the vowel sounds indside these two words saif سف and Saif صف. But we can hear it, so imitate it. If you don't, the S ص and the s س won't sound good.

ocluded letters

When pronouncing the letters ص ض ط ظ, the tongue must be wider ttan usual, so it covers the back teeth. The tongue is not widened in the other letters of the alphabet, not even for the dark sounds r ر etc. described below.

automatic darkening

The four dark letters mentioned above, and also the letters r ر, ª ع, q ق and some others, are always dark letters, and darken the vowels around them. The exact list of "darkening letters" depends on the dialect.

Curiously enough, the letter L is always clear in Arabic, so the word mayl ميل must never be pronounced with the dark L of English "male", but with a clear L like the L of "lame".

The only exception to this rule is the word #allaah الله, which has a long ll ل. In classical Arabic, this ll ل must sound dark when it follows an a as in subHaana llaah سبحان الله and when it follows an u as in laymu llaah ليم الله. It must sound clear after an i, as in bismi llaah بسم الله, in good Arabic. But in some dialects, this ell is always dark, even after an i.

the darkening in dialects

In some maghrebi dialects, a single dark letter in a word darkens the whole word. So, the word #addaar الدار "house" is often pronounced as aDDar, because the dark R "contaminates" the d د.

Most maghrebis do not realize that they do that. They do it automatically when they speak fast. But if you ask them what's Arabic for house, they will pronounce slowly and carefully, using the standard pronunciation #addaar الدار.

Copyright (c) 2001-2009 Jordi Mas Trullenque.
email: jordimastrullenque at gmail dot com
http://purl.oclc.org/net/arabe/engoladas.en.html
Last revised: 2008-09-09

Arabic-o-matic

some notes on Arabic pronunciation

writing_arabic -> dark letters