Arabic-L:LING:'r' pronunciation

[Dilworth Parkinson]

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Arabic-L: Wed 02 Aug 2006
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1) Subject:'r' pronunciation
2) Subject:'r' pronunciation

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1)
Date: 02 Aug 2006
From:dstewar at learnlink.emory.edu
Subject:'r' pronunciation

The pronunciation of r in Fez, Morocco that several contributors have  
noted--it
is also found in the old, urban dialects of several cities in the  
North of
Morocco, like Tangiers, Tetouan--is not a speech defect, but neither  
is it a
-w- as has been implied.  It sounds nearly like the American English - 
r-.

The other cases, found throughout the Arab world, usually involve the
pronunciation of -r- as gh, less commonly as -w- -y- or -l- as has  
been noted.
Similar phenomena occur in all languages with trilled r's, like  
italian and
Spanish.  A certain portion of the population is physically unable to  
produce
the trilled -r-; I don't agree with the contributor who suggested  
that this can
be fixed by a speech pathologist.  the classical term for it is  
althagh [fi
'r-ra']; this becomes aldagh, fem. ladgha in Egyptian and perhaps other
dialects.  It is actually the default meaning, I believe, of aldagh-- 
that is,
if one does not specify the letter affected by being aldagh, the  
assumption is
that it is ra', and not sin.  The most famous althagh in history was  
of course
Wasil b. `Ata', the eighth-century founder of the Mu`tazili school  
theology,
who was famously asked to repeat the statement: amara amiiru l- 
umaraa' bi-Hafri
bi'rin fi S-SaHraa' yashrabu minha l-waaridu wa'S-Saadir, which he  
did, but
paraphrasing it so as to avoid any word with the letter -r-.   Many  
people know
this phrase from highschool in the Arab world, but don't knoow that  
it is
attributed to WaaSil.

Best wishes,

Devin Stewart, Winship Distinguished Research Professor of Arabic and  
Islamic
Studies
Department of Middle Eastern and South Asian Studies
Emory University
Atlanta, GA 30322
(404) 727-4625 ; fax (404) 727-2133

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2)
Date: 02 Aug 2006
From:Alex Bellem <alex at bellem-hussein.demon.co.uk>
Subject:'r' pronunciation

Although vocalised or velarised 'r' is noted as a 'speech peculiarity'
(i.e. ideolectal feature), 'luthgha', it is a characteristic sound
change of Jewish and Christian Baghdadi, as well as apparently in Mosul
and Tikrit (until the 1960s at least) - cf. Blanc's 1964 'Communal
Dialects in Baghdad'. He observes that the phenomenon was first noted by
al-JaHiZ in the 9th century CE, when it was apparently prestigious.

Blanc states (p. 22) that for his informants for dialects having 'gh'
(<etymological 'r'), the 'gh' is sometimes produced with little or no
audible velar constriction, making it thus impressionistically similar
to 'w'. Cf. also Abu-Haidar (1991) on this feature in Christian Baghdadi
Arabic, where she discusses 'gh' as the reflex of 'r'.

Blanc notes reports of this phenomenon outside Iraq 'as a stable
phonetic feature' (rather than an individual speech peculiarity) in some
Nth African areas (Marcais reports it for Djidjelli [town only, not
surrounding countryside] and suggests the same also for Tunis,
Constantine, Algiers, Fez, Meknes  - calling it 'une maladie des
villes'). Blanc concludes due to its prevalence in Iraq that there may
be traces of a 'r' > 'gh' shift in the older sedentary dialects of Iraq.

I have to comment that it seems a very common feature of (urban 'gilit')
Iraqi Arabic generally, although speakers themselves will tell you it's
a 'luthgha' or speech peculiarity (presumably due to external or MSA/CA
influence). In striking contrast, I don't remember hearing it among
Syrian or Palestinian speakers very much, and always thought it was
characteristically Iraqi. It seems to me much more prevalent amongst
Iraqi men than women. I have heard a clearly dorsal 'gh', although more
often it seems somewhat between an alveolar approximant and a labio-
velar glide (i.e. somewhat more labialised than RP English 'r').

Grrrreetings,
Alex.
-- 
Alex Bellem (Ms)
Tutor / PhD Candidate
Dept of Linguistics
SOAS, University of London
alex at bellem-hussein.demon.co.uk
ab12 at soas.ac.uk

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End of Arabic-L:  02 Aug 2006