How do I learn to say words with a gutteral sound

[ArabicTongue]

Bismi Ellaah

 

Modern phonetics references rarely use the term 'guttUral'; they prefer to use 'glottal'. On the contrary, Arabic phonetics references tend to use 'guttural' term when they translate such a term into English.

 

David Crystal defines 'glottal' as:

"A term in the classification of consonant sounds on the basis of place of articulation: it is a sound made in the larynx, du e to the closure or narrowing of the glottis, the aperture between the vocal crods. The audible release of a complete closure at the glottis is known as a glottal stop, transcribed [?]. This is often used in English; e.g. it may be heard before a forcefully articulated vowel, as in ARE YOU, or between adjacent vowels as in CO-OPERATE. In several accents of English (e.g. those influenced by Cockney) the sound has phonemic status, being used in some positions where received pronunciation has a voiceless plosive ([t] and [k] especially), e.g. BOTTLE /bo?l/ for /botl/....".

 

There are 6 glottal sounds/letters in Arabic [to view them use Encoding Unicode (UTF-8)]:

al-hamzah : أ

al-haa: هـ

al-7aa: ح

al-'aain: ع

al-'7aa: خ

al-'ghain: غ

>> http://www.abouttajweed.com/articulationth.htm

When you pronounce those letters/sounds, make sure that the tongue is flat and relaxed and your lips and teeth are slightly opened. Put two fingers on your throat, try to articulate the letters by controlling the end lower part of the tongue; you should feel soft move in the throat while saying the letters.

You can find some audio files here: http://dspace.dial.pipex.com/falah/

I am searching for audio-vedio media. I will update you once I find it.

 

Ahmad

www.arabictongue.net

 

"I'llGetItRightSoonerOrLater" <agpmai...@yahoo.com> wrote in message news:bb1b3a5e.03032...@posting.google.com...

> X-No-archive: yes
>
> I'm trying to learn German and Arabic, which both require making a
> gutteral sound, but I just can't do it.
>
> Does anyone know of any drills (especially with audio) that would help
> a native English speaker make a gutteral sound?
>
> Thanks in advance.

[Tomasz Dryjanski]

> Does anyone know of any drills (especially with audio) that would help
> a native English speaker make a gutteral sound?

But you already do make them!
When I visited England I was surprised that native speakers make sudden
stops in many words. E.g. "technical" sounded to me like "te-chnical", or
"cc:Mail" sounded like "c-c-Mail". I think that's it.

T. D.

[Einde O'Callaghan]

These "sudden stops" aren't gutteral sounds. They are a glottal stops.
Gutteral sounds are sounds like the "ch" in the Scottish word "loch".
Irish, Welsh and Scottish people have no great problems with gutteral
sounds as they exist in place names, e.g. "Lough Neagh" (the "gh" in
"lough"), "Llanelli" (the first L in the double L) or "Loch Ness".

Regards, Einde O'Callaghan

[Tomasz Dryjanski]

> These "sudden stops" aren't gutteral sounds. They are a glottal stops.
> Gutteral sounds are sounds like the "ch" in the Scottish word "loch".
> Irish, Welsh and Scottish people have no great problems with gutteral
> sounds as they exist in place names, e.g. "Lough Neagh" (the "gh" in
> "lough"), "Llanelli" (the first L in the double L) or "Loch Ness".

Well, it becomes more and more confusing...
"Arabic Tongue" has written that the term "glottal" is a better replacement
for "gutteral". So what is the contradistinction really?
And, BTW, how do you make those glottal stops? I couldn't realize.
I even asked one of my British colleagues, but he didn't know he makes any.
;)

T. D.

[ArabicTongue]

It is not a replacement.
I just mentioned a note that the reader shall consider when reading En or Ar
refrences.
Anyhow, guttUral [not guttEral] is more precise description for the produced
sound in the throat or by the back of the tongue and palate.
Glottal is an adj. of what is produced by the glottis which is the space at
the upper end of the windpipe and between the vocal cords, affecting voice
modulation through expansion or contraction. [Re. Oxford English Reference
Dictionary]. So the definition doesn't really talk about the movement of the
TONGUE.

ArabicTongue

"Tomasz Dryjanski" <tdryjans...@hotmail.com> wrote in message
news:kp10m-...@fliwarsln02.warsaw.intl.fritolay.pvt...

[Owain]

"Einde O'Callaghan" wrote

| "Llanelli" (the first L in the double L)

There aren't any Ls in Llanelli. There are two LLs though, which is a
separate letter in Welsh, and a complete pain in the * when doing crosswords
:-)

Owain

[Einde O'Callaghan]

Tomasz Dryjanski wrote:
>
> > These "sudden stops" aren't guttural sounds. They are a glottal stops.
> > Guttural sounds are sounds like the "ch" in the Scottish word "loch".
> > Irish, Welsh and Scottish people have no great problems with guttural

> > sounds as they exist in place names, e.g. "Lough Neagh" (the "gh" in
> > "lough"), "Llanelli" (the first L in the double L) or "Loch Ness".
>
> Well, it becomes more and more confusing...
> "Arabic Tongue" has written that the term "glottal" is a better replacement
> for "gutteral". So what is the contradistinction really?
> And, BTW, how do you make those glottal stops? I couldn't realize.
> I even asked one of my British colleagues, but he didn't know he makes any.
> ;)
>

Glottal stops are uncommon in standard English. However they are common
in the form known as Estuary English (spoken allong the coast of the
Thames Estuary). Here the glottal stop is often used to replace "t" in
the middle of a word.

In German, on the other hand, glottal stops are quite common, e.g.
between the "e"s in "geeignet" (ge'eignet) or "beenden" (be'enden).

In the glottal stop the throat is briefly constricted cutting off the
flow of air, and hence cutting off the sound of the voice. With a
guttural sound, on the other hand, the flow of air through the throat
isn't cut off completely, producing a sort of hissing sound in the case
of a voiceless guttural (written "ch" in Scottish names or in German).

Another guttural sound is the sound you make when clearing your throat
before spitting the resultant gunge on the pavement, in your hankie or
whatever - called "hawking" where I come from.

Regards, Einde O'Callaghan

[Einde O'Callaghan]

I realise that in Welsh the "ll" represents one sound, but so does "th"
in English (which comes in two varieties - voiced and unvoiced), but I
still describe the symbol of this as consisting of two letters. And so
it would appear to many English speakers.

In Irish (Gaelic) we have far more sounds represented by two letters
(perhaps almost as many as are represented by a single letter),
including a voiced guttural sound represeented by "dh" and occasionally
by "gh". ;-)

Regards, Einde O'Callaghan

[Owain]

"Einde O'Callaghan" wrote

| Owain wrote:
| > | "Llanelli" (the first L in the double L)
| > There aren't any Ls in Llanelli. There are two LLs though, which is a
| > separate letter in Welsh, and a complete pain in the * when doing
crosswords
| > :-)
| I realise that in Welsh the "ll" represents one sound, but so does "th"
| in English (which comes in two varieties - voiced and unvoiced), but I
| still describe the symbol of this as consisting of two letters. And so
| it would appear to many English speakers.

I shall vote for any political party that brings back the Eth.

Owain

[Tomasz Dryjanski]

Thanks for the explanation.

T. D.

[I'llGetItRightSoonerOrLater]

Thanks for all the responses. I'll start hawking and counting to
khamsa (5 in Arabic) right away.

"Owain" <owai...@stirlingcity.co.uk> wrote in message news:<104957209...@iapetus.uk.clara.net>...