Lesson 10

Double Consonants in Arabic

A characteristic feature of Arabic phonetics is the presence of doubled (long) consonants. In English, when we see two identical consonants together, we pronounce only one of them, e.g. ‘tt’ in ‘little’. In Arabic, we need to pronounce both of them.

In Arabic writing, a doubling is indicated not by the repetition of a letter, as in English, but by a special superscript above the letter to be pronounced as a doubled sound.

The phenomenon of doubling a consonant sound is called in Arabic تَشْدِيدٌ /taʃdīdun/ — intensification, and the mark of doubling ـّـ — شَدَّةٌ /ʃaddatun/. This mark is a reduced in size head of the letter sheen (the first letter of the word شدّة) with the last prong unfinished and without dots. The ـّـ mark, like other superscripts, is placed after the whole word is written. In the texts with no vowel marks, the doubling mark may be omitted.

The vowel marks ـَ, ـُ, ـٌ and ـْـ are placed above the doubling mark, and the vowel mark ـِ is placed below the letter or under the doubling mark.

Here are examples of words with a doubled consonant:

Doubling of the obstruent consonants and the consonant /ʤ/ is achieved by silent lengthening of the moment of closure and more energetic opening (e.g. /sukkarun/); doubling of the fricative, nasal, as well as /r/ and /l/ is achieved by lengthening of their sound and more energetic pronunciation. It should be borne in mind that when words containing doubled consonants are divided into syllables, the syllabic division passes as if in the middle of the doubled consonant, and the doubled consonant itself appears simultaneously in two syllables: in one it is the last sound, and in the other — the first (e.g. /ʃad-da-tun/, /suk-ka-run/, /baw-wa-bun/).

Exercise 1. Read and write it down, transcribe, divide into syllables and mark the stress.

Exercise 2. Write down the transcribed words in Arabic letters.

/mudarrisatun, sajjа̄ratun, rūsijjatun, hirratun, ʃubbа̄kun, lahunna, sukkarun, rūsijjun, turkijjatun, maʤallatun, sikkīnun, lakunna, hirrun, turkijjun, mudarrisun, ʤajjidun/

Consonant ‘Hamza’

The consonant sound called in Arabic هَمْزَةٌ /hamzatun/represents the glottal stop. It is pronounced by closing the vocal cords (closing of the vocal cleft) and their instantaneous opening (explosion), the organs of the oral cavity being at rest or preparing for the pronunciation of the next sound.

Such a light explosion in English carries no meaningful distinction, while in Arabic this sound is a ‘full-fledged’ consonant sound. For its designation they use not a letter, but a special sign. This sign, like the sound itself, is called hamza. It consists of a small hook drawn counterclockwise and a straight stroke drawn obliquely from right to left:

ء

In our transcription, an apostrophe is used to denote hamza /’/, however, you may find another sign in dictionaries for this purpose: /ʔ/.

Hamza Spelling

Hamza can be written in a word either on its own or (more often) with a so-called base or ‘seat’. It can ‘sit’ on one of the three letters: ى و ا. Acting as a ‘seat’, these letters themselves do not denote any sounds, and the letter ى is written without dots.

The spelling of hamza (choice of base) is determined by a number of rules. Here are the most important of them.

A. In the beginning of a word, alif always serves as a base for hamza. In this case, if hamza has the vowel /a/ or /u/, it is written above alif, and the vowel mark is written above hamza; in case of the vowel /i/, hamza is written below alif, and the vowel mark is written below hamza. In all cases, the vowel refers to hamza, not to the base; the base (as in this case alif) does not indicate any sound, for example:

B. In the middle of a word, the choice of the base is determined by the so-called seniority rule, according to which /i/ is considered to be the ‘senior’ vowel, followed by /u/, /a/ and, finally, sukoon.

The vowel I corresponds to the base ى
The vowel U — و
The vowel A — ا

For hamza in the middle of a word, a base is chosen that way that it corresponds to the more ‘senior’ of the two vowels: the vowel of the hamza itself and the vowel of the preceding letter, for example:

C. At the end of a word after a long vowel, hamza is written without a base, directly above the line, as in the word مَاءٌ /mа̄’un/ - water, and the letter preceding hamza has the final form.

Exercise 3. Write down the transcribed words in Arabic letters choosing the base of hamza correctly. Read it by pronouncing hamza correctly.

/’asadun, ’usūdun, ra’sun, ’imra’atun, su’ila, sa’ala, maʤī’un, mi’atun, bu’sun, ra’īsun, ’anta, ’abun, ’ustа̄ðun/

The words for the text of lesson 10

Exercise 4. Make at least 10 sentences using the given words.

Text of Lesson 10

١) هل أنت مهندس أو مدرّس؟ أنا مدرّس. وهل هي مهندسة؟ أجل، هي مهندسة ماهرة. هي مرأة جميلة.
٢) من أنت؟ أنا مدرّسة. لي تلميذة جديدة.
٣) من هو؟ هو أستاذ مشهور. هو هنا.
٤) من هو؟ هو مهندس روسيّ. له سيّارة جديدة. هي جميلة.
٥) هل لكنّ مجلّات تركيّة؟ لا، ليس لنا مجلّات تركيّة. وهل لكنّ مجلّات روسيّة؟ أجل، لنا مجلّات روسيّة. هل هي جديدة؟ أجل، هي جديدة.
٦) هل لهنّ ماء بارد؟ لا، ليس لهنّ ماء بارد.
٧) هل لها شاي وسكّر؟ أجل، لها شاي وسكّر. هل هذا ماء أو شاي؟ هذا شاي.
٨) هل لك شوكة وسكين؟ أجل، لي شوكة وسكّين.
٩) هل هذا باب أو شبّاك؟ هذا شبّاك كبير.
١٠) هل لكم مائدة كبيرة؟ لا، ليس لنا مائدة كبيرة.
١١) هل هذه أسود أو كلاب؟ هذه أسود كبيرة.
١٢) هل هذا كلب أو هرّة؟ هذه هرّة جميلة.
١٣) هل هذا سؤال سهل؟ أجل، هذا سؤال سهل.

Exercise 5. Read and translate the text. Write it down with vowel marks. Transcribe passages # 5-9.

Exercise 6. Translate from English into Arabic.

1) Do you (f) have a house? Yes, we have a big house. There is a door and a window. There is a big table.
2) I have tea, sugar and milk. Is this cold milk? Yes, this is cold milk, and this is cold water.
3) Who are you? I am a new pupil (f.), and he is a new pupil (m.). We have a good teacher.
4) Is he a famous professor? Yes, he is a famous professor.
5) Do they (m.) have a car? Yes, they have a new and beautiful car.
6) What is this? This is a library. And what is this? These are new Turkish magazines. They are here.
7) Is there a knife and a fork? Yes, there is a knife and a fork.
8) Do you (f.) have dogs? No, we don’t have dogs. And do you have a cat? Yes, we have a cat.
9) These are lions. Are they big? Yes, these are big lions.
10) Who is she? She is a Russian teacher.

Exercise 7. Memorize the table of singular personal pronouns and make 5 questions and answers using these pronouns.

Exercise 8. Memorize the given table of possession phrases for all persons and make 10 questions and answers with them.