General structure of words in Modern Standard Arabic

EDSL 470 Theory and Practice of L2 Acquisition

Instructor: Dr. Sara Trechter

10/12/2014

The syllable structures in Modern Standard Arabic (MSA) and in English language.

In MSA, the syllable structure may be expressed by the following formula: CV(V)(C)(C).

Therefore, the following syllable types are admissible:

a. CV

b. CVV

d. CVVC

f. CVVCC

There is some difference between MSA syllable structure and that of the participants(Jordan)

Ammani dialect of Arabic; for example, the syllable CVVCC does not exist in Ammani Arabic

while CVCC is not a common one. Another syllable structure, namely, CCVC is found in

Ammani Arabic but not in MSA.

English syllable may be expressed by the formula: (C)(C)(C)V(C)(C)(C)(C). The following

syllables exist in English:

a. V

b. CV

d. CVC

f. VCC

h. CCVCC

i. CCCV

j. CCCVCC

k. CCCVCCC

l. CVCCCC

Arabic speakers from different areas may have different problems with English, especially pronunciation. The incorrect articulation of phonemes is not likely to cause miscommunication with native speakers of English, but they will result in a foreign accent.

Consonants

/p/ and /b/

There are two consonant sounds that are from phonemes not present in Arabic, /p/ and /v/, and for this reason, they are likely to cause trouble. Arabic does not have the voiceless bilabial stop /p/, but the voiced counterpart /b/ is present in the phoneme inventory. An article published by the Australian Government (1978) says that the phoneme /p/ may sometimes occur in loan words in Arabic, such as .Poland,. however, the /p/ will be always replaced by its voiced counterpart /b/ (i.e. Bulanda = Poland). Even where Arabic speakers give the more learned pronunciations of foreign words and names with .p., they are likely to have trouble hearing the difference between

/p/ and /b/. Words such as “park”, “pin”, “pack”, and “peach”, were often pronounced

as “bark”, “bin”, “back”, and “beach”.

The problem with phoneme /v/ is very similar to that of /p/. In Arabic this phoneme is absent, but its voiceless counterpart /f/ exists. The “v” sound will sometimes occur in loan words, but again, there will be the strong tendency to substitute “f” for “v”. Therefore, it may take some time for learners of English to overcome this tendency. Words such as “vine”, “veil”, “vary”, and “live” will often be misinterpreted for “fine”, “fail”, “fairy”, and “life

According to Kharma and Hajjaj (1989), although the sounds “n” and “ŋ” exist in Arabic, they are

both allophones of the same phoneme /n/. In English, on the other hand, /n/ and /ŋ/ are distinct phonemes differentiated by minimal pairs such as sin/sing. The velar nasal /ŋ/ never occurs at the end of a word in Arabic, but only occurs before a velar stop. This may explain why all Arabic students may added the sound /k/ at the end of words finishing with /ŋ/. For example: mispronouncing “buying” [bayɪŋ], for [bayɪŋk].

[l]

Another sound that represented a major problem is the “l” sound. According to an article published by the Australian Government (1978), in Arabic this sound has two allophones: the plain “l” [l], and the valorized “l” [ɫ]. In American English there is only the dark “l” /ɫ/ which is used in every position. In Arabic, the valorized “l” only occurs before a following emphatic (emphatic consonants refer to a set of obstruent’s with a secondary articulation usually valorization, pharyngealization or glottalization). As in English there are no “emphatics”, Arabic speakers will have the strong tendency to use the plain [l] for every occurrence of the phoneme /l/. Therefore, the pronunciation

of these words will often sound foreign.

/d/

The phoneme /d/ is present in English and in Arabic. However, its manner of articulation is different. In English the consonant “d” at the end of words is often unreleased but retains its voicing. In Arabic the “d” is always released in word final position, and it is voiceless in this position. This allophonic difference may cause the native speakers of Arabic to mispronounce the “d” sound as

a “t” sound. This way, words such as “bed”, “cod”, “rod”, “mad”, will often be pronounced as “bet”, “cot”, “rot” and “mat” by native speakers of Arabic.

/r/

Another phoneme which is present both in Arabic and English is the phoneme /r/. However, Kharma & Hajjaj (1989) note that the Arabic /r/ is an alveolar trill, whereas the English /r/ is a frictionless retroflex continuant. The English sound of /r/, which is often phonetically represented /ɻ/, is not familiar to the Arabic speakers and they will have the strong tendency to produce this sound the way they know it in Arabic. This mispronunciation may not cause misinterpretation by the English native speakers, however it will strongly contribute to the foreign accent.

According to Kharma & Hajjaj (1989), difficulties with the consonant sounds /ʤ/ and /ð/ are typical problems of the Egyptian Arabic. In standard classical Arabic the consonant sound /ʤ/ exists and is used, whereas in some modern spoken varieties, including that of Egypt, /ʒ/ is substituted for /ʤ/. This way, words such as “job” and “jam” would respectively sound like [ʒab] and [ʒæm], in English and in the Egyptian variety of Arabic. The consonant sound /ð/ is common in the standard classical Arabic, and therefore, Arabic speakers should not encounter problems in producing them. However, in some modern spoken varieties of Arabic, such as that of Egypt, this sound is replaced by its plosive equivalent /d/. Consequently, words such as “their”, “they”, “then”, and “though”, would espectively sound like “dare”, “day”, “den”, and “dough”, in English and in the Egyptian variety of Arabic.

Vowels in English and Arabic have similarities and differences. They are different in number; English has more vowels than Arabic. They also differ in distribution; English words can begin with vowels, whereas Arabic words can only begin with consonants. Both languages have some common vowels, but at the same time, there are some vowels that are restricted to each one of them.

Contrary to English which has a larger vowel system containing about nine simple vowels and seven longer vowels, Arabic has only three short and three long vowels. (Kara, 1976).
One of the basic distinctions in Arabic sounds is that between short and long vowels that it may make the difference between: singular and plural; as in colloquial: gamal (s.) and gima:l (pl.) “camal”, in formal: musa:firun (s.) musa:firu:n (pl.) “traveler.” Vowels also indicate object and absence of object; as in katabu “they wrote” and katabu:h “they wrote it.” Finaly, they indicate one meaning and another as in; gamal “camel” and gama:l “beauty.” (Hanna and Greis, 1972).
English vowels constitute the most serious phonological problems that Arab students face.

Arabic dialects have a more limited number of vowel phonemes. Some of these have a number of

allophones that have equivalents in English, but because of their restricted phonetic environment,

[æ(:)] and [ɑ:]

Arab learners of English fail to equate them to their English counterparts. For example, many Arab students find difficulty in using the right vowel quality in a minimal pair like ant /ænt/ and aunt /ɑ:nt/ although both [æ(:)] and [ɑ:] exist in Arabic. This is due to the fact that both vowels are considered by speakers of Arabic as phonologically one vowel phoneme, i.e. /a:/ which has allophones varying between [æ:] and [ɑ:].

Similarly, Arab learners find some difficulty in distinguishing between English /ɪ/[ɪ] and in sit and set although both vowels exist in Arabic as allophones of /i/ in /bint/ [bInt] (girl) and /qif/ [qɛf] (stand up!). The most significant allophonic variations in Arabic vowels occur as a result of juxtaposed “emphatic” consonants together with /r/ and the velar/uvular consonants. They

modify the neighboring vowels to a great extent making these vowels retracted and/or lowered in quality, depending upon the original vowel quality and the degree of emphasis of the consonants. Thus the Arabic /a:/ is (1) [æ:] in /sa;m/ “poisonous” or (2) [ɑ:] in /sɭa:m/ “he fasted”

This means that an Arab student will be able to pronounce the [ɑ:] in the English word ‘bath’ or the [æ] in the English word ‘bad’ if he were instructed to ‘velarize’ the /b/ in ‘bath’ and keep it ‘plain’ in ‘bad’. In vowels, two types of difficulty are identified. First, certain diphthongs are

replaced by other sounds due to L1 interference for example, /eə/ →/e/; /ʊə/ → /u:/;/ə/ →

/:/; and /əʊ/→ /:/. Second, the distinction between certain pairs of vowels as

in // and /e/ as in sit and set; /!/ and /"/ as in luck and lock; /əʊ/ and /:/ as in coat and

caught (Kharma & Hajjaj, 1989, p. 16). The sound /æ/ is also substituted for /ᴐ:/, /fæls/ for false /fᴐ:ls/. The vowel letter e is pronounced as /i/ even when it is silent letter, thus the students tend to say /a:skid/ for asked /a:skd/, /bilᴐɳid/ for belonged /bilᴐɳd/. The vowel letter i often pronounced as /i/. The students might say /bit/ for bite /bait/, and /sit/ for site /sait/. The vowel letter o comes out as /ᴐ/ in most cases. /hᴐni/ for honey /hᴧni/, and /kᴐnfju:z/ for confuse /kə nfju:z/. The vowel letter u is pronounced as /u/ where the sound is shwa /ə /, /but/ for but /bə t/. The students also pronounce /ɜ:/ as /u/, e.g. /turbain/ for turbine /tɜ:bain/.

Ana Marina do Val Barros (2003) Pronunciation difficulties in the consonant system Experienced by arabic speakers when learning English after The age of puberty from: http://wvuscholar.wvu.edu:8881/exlibris/dtl/d3_1/apache_media/L2V4bGlicmlzL2R0bC9kM18xL2FwYWNoZV9tZWRpYS82NTk1.pdf