Pronunciation of ع/ע
Thursday, July 7th, 2011 01:38 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
lethargic_manHere's one for the the Arabists and Sephardim amongst my readership: what's the correct pronunciation(s) of ع/ע?
When I hear Sephardim who distinguish ע from א pronounce it, they make a sound like their epiglottis is trying to become intimately familiar with their uvula (ETA: or, as the apostate Guglielmo Franchi described it in 1599 (see below) "twisting the deepest part of one's throat almost to the point of strangling oneself, with the help of one's nose"). I read somewhere about how in the nineteenth century sometimes Ashkenazim would transliterate (and sometimes pronounce) ע as "ng", e.g. shemang for שְׁמַע (as the last vowel is an example of the wonderfully named furtive pataḥ (not to be confused with
furtivepatach)); trying to pronounce "ng" without the "ng"-ness seems to get me close to this pronunciation (but hurts my throat).
However, my Arabic alphabet teach-yourself book tells me to make a different sound: like in the French pronunciation of "Marie", only without the contact at the back of the mouth.
And The Koran: A Very Short Introduction recommends a third pronunciation altogether: like ح (ḥ, pronounced /ħ/) but voiced. Wikipedia concurs with this pronunciation, but from the small amount of Arabic I've heard spoken I don't hear the level of breathiness that this would imply.
So which of these second two pronunciations is correct in Arabic? Or are they both correct, but in different places; or is neither correct? And would the first pronunciation be wrong if you said it in Arabic, and the second two if you said it in Hebrew?
When I hear Sephardim who distinguish ע from א pronounce it, they make a sound like their epiglottis is trying to become intimately familiar with their uvula (ETA: or, as the apostate Guglielmo Franchi described it in 1599 (see below) "twisting the deepest part of one's throat almost to the point of strangling oneself, with the help of one's nose"). I read somewhere about how in the nineteenth century sometimes Ashkenazim would transliterate (and sometimes pronounce) ע as "ng", e.g. shemang for שְׁמַע (as the last vowel is an example of the wonderfully named furtive pataḥ (not to be confused with
furtivepatach)); trying to pronounce "ng" without the "ng"-ness seems to get me close to this pronunciation (but hurts my throat).However, my Arabic alphabet teach-yourself book tells me to make a different sound: like in the French pronunciation of "Marie", only without the contact at the back of the mouth.
And The Koran: A Very Short Introduction recommends a third pronunciation altogether: like ح (ḥ, pronounced /ħ/) but voiced. Wikipedia concurs with this pronunciation, but from the small amount of Arabic I've heard spoken I don't hear the level of breathiness that this would imply.
So which of these second two pronunciations is correct in Arabic? Or are they both correct, but in different places; or is neither correct? And would the first pronunciation be wrong if you said it in Arabic, and the second two if you said it in Hebrew?
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no subject
Date: 2011-07-07 12:41 pm (UTC)ETA: Google suggests it may have been "Dickdook Leshon Gneebreet" (1735)
no subject
Date: 2011-07-07 01:10 pm (UTC)Ah, I've found this article (http://sefarad.revistas.csic.es/index.php/sefarad/article/download/461/559), which says the "ng" pronunciation is an Italic-Sephardic thing, and quotes the apostate Guglielmo Franchi in 1599 as saying the pronunciation is produced by "twisting the deepest part of one's throat almost to the point of strangling oneself, with the help of one's nose" (si pronuncia con l'aiuto del naso, quasi che si strangola arrivando fino all'estrema parte della canna della gola). :o)
no subject
Date: 2011-07-08 12:16 pm (UTC)I saw something about that subject on TV last night. Nice article.
Date: 2011-07-12 10:56 am (UTC)furtive patahh
Sorry about the anonymity--haven't used LiveJournal in a while and can't remember my password, and am too impatient at the mome to request it.
Mike Koplow, Skokie, IL, WP (west of the pond) (formerly of Chicago, IL, WP)
Re: furtive patahh
Date: 2011-08-25 05:53 pm (UTC)