Expert: Sirine Malas - 1/16/2011

Question
QUESTION: Hello.  I plan on going to Egypt this summer for vacation.  I can speak German, French, Italian fluently and can I also speak Chinese and Japanese at an intermediate level.  So now I have begun arabic.  I am learning modern standard and the egyptian dialect.  I understand everything so far that I have been reading except I do have one question about short vowels.  The fatHa (a) can sound like "ahh"  or "ehh"  and sometimes even like "uu" (as in foot).  The books I have read says it all depends on what comes before the fatHa to determine what sound it gets but none of books explain the rules.  Could you give me an idea of what sound to use with fatHa?  When do use the "ahh" sound, when do I use the "ehh" sound, etc.?

ANSWER: Dear Vincent,

Sorry your question is a bit confusing.

Is the question related to Arabic (as in classic) or Egyptian dialect?Coz as you may have noticed both are completely different when it comes to phonetics and pronunciation.

Now let's start by classic Arabic which you refer to as modern standard. The Fatha is more of an accent like ones used in Greek and French.Example(French) : é = accent aigu and è= accent grave each is pronounced in a special unique way every time even though they may sound a bit similar.
Similarly the Fatha َ– accent which is a tick that looks like a short line drawn sideways and always found on top of a letter is always pronounced as an "ahh" never anything else.

This is how the short vowels work :

Sign Name      Transliteration Symbol   Approximate pronounciation


َ–          Fatha - A   As in mat  always above a letter(be it a consonant or a vowel)

ِ–          Kasra - I    As in fin  always below a letter(be it a consonant or a vowel)   

ُ–          Damma – U   As in put  always above a letter(be it a consonant or a vowel)


As for Egyptian as it is a dialect you should get one on one help coz it is very difficult to learn a dialect through a book. This is what I would recommend, coz dialect is all about slang and common language it differs even from city to city or region to region not only from one country to another.

I hope this answers your question.
If it doesn't please send me an example where you were told that the Fatha is an "ehh" or an "
uhh"

All the Best,

Sirine


---------- FOLLOW-UP ----------

QUESTION: Thank you so much for the answer.  I am learning modern standard arabic and the egyptian dialect.  I learn the language for when I visit a country, however, I continue to work until I become fluent.  That is hwo I have learned so many languages.  An example of the question I was asking would be the phrase "as-salaamu"  How do you pronounce the "a" and how do you pronounce the "aa"?  The obvious assumption is that you would pronounce the "a" like "ah" as in mama.  And pronounce the long vowel "aa" longer.  However, when I listen to speakers, the "aa" sometimes sounds like an "ehh" as in bed or aaa as in "mat".  Is this how you pronounce the "aa" (alif)sound?  So is the short vowel pronounce "ahhh" as in father or "aaaa" as in fat?"    I know this sounds confusing but I hope you get the general idea of the question.  Thanks so much and I hope I am not being too much of nuisance.

Answer
Hi again Vincent,

Don't worry you are not bothering me at all, in fact this is why I m here ;to answer such questions :-)

Now about your confusion ;now I get what you mean.

You are absolutely right as a foreigner to the language you ought to be confused by this.

As I said before the fatha is always an "ah" it is very short like half a count of 1. it is just an accent and not a letter - (I m repeating this coz it is very significant as accents in Arabic language are something extra and not mandatory-that they did not even write them -people sort of guessed them! . They seldom wrote them in a script a couple of thousand years ago actually, even the Quran which is the base of all Arabic was not with accents at first - in its original script I mean. Nowadays they do write them coz the level of the average Arabic speaker is not as good as it was at that time due to limited use of it I guess)

Now in the case of "as-salaamu" which is written like this السلام the first "a" sound is of a fatha accent however the second one is of an Alef =letter A in Arabic this is why you think it is longer or hear it more obviously.The Alef is longer than the fatha it is as long as the count of 1. There is also something called the "Madda" like in the word Aaadam = which is Adam in English same word same meaning, only the A in Arabic is prolonged. Just like music notes you count how long you need to hold that sound like Aaadam would be :1 2(2 counts). This is how the letter Alef would look with a Madda (Madda means an "extension") "آ" .

About the fact that you sometimes find it sounds more like an "Ehh" this is very much like the T in English. For example to a foreigner (to English language ofcourse) the Ts in the word "totally" if you use the american accent for example, sound like two different letters all together. The first one sounds like a T proper T as in "Tea" while the second one sounds more like an R or a light D. (Think about it)
So what you are talking about is identical with this T case it is just the way people choose to say or pronounce things.  Even two people who speak the same accent or dialect may sound a little tiny bit different when pronouncing sound letters or what is called "vowels". Which is like the difference between Mat and Met.

Certain dialects usually tend to pronounce specific vowels in a certain manner. Like Damascene people would pronounce the A as in Fat with the British accent - very open A like in French. While Egyptians would pronounce the A in Fat with the American accent - mild A sounds a bit like Eh.

I know it is complicated but I hope you got my point.

As long as you've got the basics right the rest doesn't really matter.

If you need any further help with your Arabic this is my email sirin_malas@yahoo.com I will be glad to help.

Cheers for now.
Sirine