The Emphatic Letters in Arabic

As is evident to students of Arabic, there are several sounds in the Arabic alphabet that have no equivalent in English and other Indo-European languages.  After all, Arabic belongs to the Afro-Asiatic Language family which has a different set of distinguishing characteristics that are unique to its members.

Arabic has 4 emphatic letters, which correspond with 4 non-emphatic letters which are familiar and very similar to sounds present in the English alphabet and other Western languages.

These 4 emphatic letters are pronounced by pressing the tongue against the edge of the upper teeth, and then forcefully withdrawing it. 

Watch this video from online language instructor Polyglot Ed to gain a practical understanding of how the emphatic letters are spoken using the vocal chords and throat muscles:

Another way of explaining this process is exemplified by the linguistic term for these letters -- they are velarized letters.

Velarized sounds are produced by changing the pronunciation of a sound by bringing the back of the tongue up or near the soft palate in the mouth.

I usually inform my beginning Arabic students to bring the tip of the tongue up towards the roof of the mouth, and the result is the emphatic letter sound.  These 4 have the effect of causing any neighborhood vowels to take on a ‘fuller, almost lower’ tone than they would in an environment without any emphatic letter.

                  ص      ض      ط      ظ 

And these four letters correspond to the following four letters for which there is a comparable sound in English:

            س        د        ت        ذ \ ز

The first four are transliterated as the capitalization of the second four:

S       D       T         Dh/Zh  ------------->  s        d        t         dh/zh

There are two options for the last letter,  ظ  because in standard Arabic the pronunciation of it differs according to the region and dialectical influences.

So, I also emphasize to my new learners that there are enough words in Arabic that have similar, even identical spelling but for the emphatic vs. the non emphatic letter. Students need to learn to distinguish this difference both in listening and in speaking in order to be properly understood.

Some common words which include emphatic letters:

صبور          مضادة              طالب            ظلم

              Dhulm                         Taalib                             muDaadda                    Sabuur

             Injustice                (male) student              contrast, opposite          (very) patient

What’s your take on emphatic letters? As you build your Arabic language speaking skills, do you find these letters to be difficult to pronounce?

Let me know in the comments.