A Linguistic Approach to Arabic Pronunciation/ي's short= ـِ

ِـ>


makes the "ee" sound in "greet" or the "ih" sound in "kit".

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The English Speaker's Guide

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You know this sound already. Just say ي>. The difference is that ـِ >is pronounced much more quickly.

To understand this difference, say "I object!" Then say "My object!"

The significance of this exercise is that the verb in "I object!" has a short sound for the "o". The noun in " My object!" has a long sound for the "o". The difference between ـِ> and ي >is the same, respectively.

ـِ >is finicky. You'll need to hear the word out loud to know if the native speaker makes it an "ih" sound instead.

Sometimes, ـِ >takes on a "ih" sound, like "mit", "kit", "sip", or any other word with a short "i" sound.

ـِ >is finicky. You'll need to hear the word out loud to know if the native speaker makes it a short ي >sound instead.

The Linguist's Guide

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This section will need help from a professional.

Additional Notes

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This letter is written below any letter in the Arabic alphabet. It is not usually written in text.

Practice

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Read the following out loud. Try to figure out what the English word would be. (For the purposes of this quiz, the ـِ should be pronounced as "ih" in "tip".)


1

(p) ي >(t)

2

(p) ـِ >(t)

3

ـِ ي >(p)

4

(fl) ي >(t)

5

(fl) ـِ >(t)

6

(b) ـِ >(l) ي>


Encouragement

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Letter number two. That wasn't so bad, was it? You are well on track for learning Arabic sounds!

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