Vowels in English and Arabic What is a

Vowels in English and Arabic

What is a vowel sound? • Consonant sounds are mostly articulated via closure or obstruction in the vocal tract, • vowel sounds are produced with a relatively free flow of air. They are all typically voiced.


Front 1. /iː/ as in cream, seen, sea, see, 2. /ɪ/ as in bit, silly, pin, sit 3. /e/ as in bet, head, get, beg 4. /æ/ as in cat, dad, act, fact

Central 5. /ɜː/ as in earth, burn, firm 6. /ə/ as in about, clever, ago, teacher 7. /ʌ/ as in cut, note: the vowel sound in not and what is not the same as that in cut and nut

Back Vowels 8. /u: / as in boot, glue, moon 9. /ʊ/ as in put, soot, would, wood 10. /ɔː/ as in corn, born, horse 11. /ɒ/ as in pot, dog, plot, what, not 12. /ɑː/ as in hard, far, car, farm

Diphthongs & Triphthongs

Diphthongs: The term diphthong is derived from Greek. - It means “double sound” which is a glide from one vowel to another in the same syllable. - It behaves like a simple vowel in other respects. - They are called falling diphthongs because in them, the first element is more prominent. - Like long vowels, all of them are relatively longer when they occur before voiced sounds or finally.

There are 8 English diphthongs: They can be subdivided into 2 categories: 1 - Closing diphthongs: Those diphthongs which have the close vowels /ᶷ/ & /ᴵ/ 2 - Centering Diphthongs: Those diphthongs which have the central vowel /ᵊ/


Examples: 1 /eɪ/ Day, eight, afraid 2 /aɪ/ Buy, high, night, write 3 /ɔɪ/ Boy, toy, voice, enjoy 4 /əʊ/ Close, know, low 5 /aʊ/ Town, now, how, out 6 /ɪə/ Hear, here, ear /ɪə/ 7 /eə/ Hair, there, parent 8 /ʊə/ Sure

Triphthongs: -A triphthong is a vowel glide with three distinguishable vowel qualities. - Triphthongs can be looked on as being composed of the five closing diphthongs described with /ᵊ/ added at the end.

Triphthong ( Closing Diphthong + /ᵊ/) Ending in/ᴵ/+ /ᵊ/ Ending in /ᶷ/+/ᵊ/

- In English, there are, said to be, five triphthongs formed by adding /ᵊ/ to the closing diphthongs. Layer, player, mayor Fire, higher, liar royal, loyal Lower, mower Power, hour

English vowels vs Arabic vowels • Short vowels • English /i/ – This short vowel is produced when the front of the tongue is in the half-close position, and the lips are spread. We find it in the word "hit". • Arabic /i/ – This vowel is called "kasrah" in Arabic. It appears under the alphabet in this shap ) as in, " ﺭ secret". The tongue in the half-close position forms /i/ vowel in Arabic. Here the lips are unrounded. This short vowel refers to the genitive case. 17

• English /ʊ/ – It is a short vowel. The central-back of the tongue is in half-close position and the lips are slightly rounded. It occurs in words like "book". • Arabic /u/ – This is the Arabic ﺿﻤﺔ , which is produced by the tongue in the half -close position with the rounded lips. In Arabic it is written a ) above the alphabet like the word " ﻡ deaf". It is used to express the nominative case. 18

• -Arabic /a/ –This short vowel is represented by ) ﻓﺘﺤ in Arabic. It signals accusative case as in ﺃﻜﻞ ﺍﻟﺘﻔﺎﺣ 19

• Long vowels • English /iː/ q. If the front of the tongue is in close position, lips are unrounded. This comes out with the long vowel / iː/ that occurs in the word “see, sea, police". • Arabic- /ii/ q. This vowel is formed when we have the letter (y) ﻱ preceded by the notatio ) "kasrah'. For example, "fiil" " ﻓﻴﻞ elephant". 20

• English-/uː/ – This is a long vowel as in moon, rude. • Arabic-/uu/ – This long vowel is formed by the prolongation letter (w) ﻭ preceded by the notatio ) ammah. We find it in the word "t uul" " ﻃﻮﻝ length". • Arabic /aa/ – The third Arabic long vowel is formed by the prolongation letter (a) ﺍ preceded by the notatio ) fathah. It occurs in the word "qabala" ﻗﺎﺑﻞ "met 21


Exercise 1: • Write the symbol for the underlined vowel sounds: 1. here 6. sure 2. learn 7. worm 2. worn 2. going 2. fate 8. air 9. wash 10. hour

Exercise 2: - How many centering diphthongs are there in English? - Give two examples of the two back closing diphthongs? - Give two example of two Arabic long vowels which correspond to two English long vowels.
- Slides: 22