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:party-blob: Yalla, let's learn some Arabic :party-blob:
The letter ع is a tricky one because it is foreign to English and all European languages.
The letter’s name is عَين (عayn) which also means ‘eye’.
It is produced from the middle section of the throat by restricting the flow of air. You should be able to feel the muscles contract when you put your hand on your throat. In a way, it is the voiced counterpart of ح i.e. the vocal cords vibrate.
If you practice enough, you will be able to pronounce عarab, عumar(Omar) and عalii (Ali) correctly.
The ع is NOT a vowel.
| Final | Medial | Initial | Independent / Isolated |
|---|---|---|---|
| ـع | ـعـ | عـ | ع |
By looking at all the forms, is it clear which is the core and which is the tail?
What is going on with the medial and final shapes you ask? It’s written this way so we don’t take the pen off the paper, which is an important consideration when it comes to the Arabic script lol. See the spoiler 👇
spoiler
It's commonly transliterated as 3 because it kinda looks like a mirrored ع.
| Pronunciation | Eng | عَرَبي |
|---|---|---|
| 3uud | Oud | عود |
| 3aamil | worker, laborer | عامِل |
| wa3d / wu3uud | promise(s) | وَعد ، وُعود |
| ra3d / ru3uud | thunder | رَعد ، رُعود |
| juu3 | hunger | جوع |
| naw3 / ’anwaa3 | type(s) | نَوع، أَنواع |
| 3arD / 3uruuD | presentation, show, offer(s) | عَرض ، عٌروض |
You can also watch this video
Exercises
Use spoilers
ش + ع + ل + و = ؟
1) ثعلو
2) شعلو
3) شملو
م + و + ع + ج = ؟
1) ممعج
2) موعج
3) مرعج
Q3 Which one means door?
1) باب
2) توت
3) بَيت
Q3 Which one means animal?
1) روحي
2) حَيَوان
3) حَياتي
homework
Question 1
شعلو (2
Question 2
2) موعج
Question 3
(from lesson 1! Baab)
Question 4
3) حَيوان
(from a previous lesson, Hayawaan!)
Sorry for the funky formatting I'm on phone so having a hard time fiddling
query
What do English background speakers usually substitute or approximate with if they can't pronounce ع ? I'm not saying I want to cop out and default to that, but I want to make sure I'm not thinking I'm doing it right when I'm actually just using an English consonant in its place. I watched the video and tried to centre the place of articulation in my throat, kind of where a glottal stop would be. I'm reading up on the phonetics of the sound here too though https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Voiced_pharyngeal_fricative
spoiler
All answers are correct!
They do it just like the examples عarab, عumar(Omar) and عalii (Ali), basically they pronounce it as a glottal stop followed by one of the short vowels. This is why I said it's not a vowel, because it gets substituted by a vowel in English writing, since there is no glottal stop letter in English after all.