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Pronouncing the Voiced Pharygeal Fricative

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Cynthia_Rosenweiss

PostPosted: Sat Sep 27, 2008 2:55 am


OK, this may be an unusual request, but I have no idea how to pronounce the Voiced Pharygeal Fricative, aka the `Ayin in Semitic languages. First, I have a hard time even perceiving it. I don't mean I'm deaf or anything, it's like it either sounds like nothing, or sounds like something akin to a Parisian /r/. I've read a number of so-called instructions over the years but none of them seem to help or even make much sense. So I'm wondering if there's anyone here familiar enough with Arabic who can actually show how to pronounce this sound.
PostPosted: Mon Oct 06, 2008 10:50 pm


The only Arabic I'm familiar is what the "bad guys" speak in Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare (an Xbox 360 video game, for anyone who doesn't know). So, I'm no reliable source, but maybe I can help a bit...

From what I can tell on Wikipedia and my limited familiarity with the sounds of Arabic, this does seem to be just a sort of "throaty R" which is what I guess you mean by Parisian /r/. If I'm not wrong, to pronounce this sound, put the 'base' of your tongue back into the back of your throat as if to make a regular "American R" but pull the tongue up in the back so that you're almost in the "hawk a loogey" position. Then just make the sound as if it were an R. Another way might be to be in the "ng" position as if saying the word "singing" or "banging" but open the back of the throat JUST enough to STOP airflow from entering the nose becoming nasal) and to ALLOW air to flow through the mouth.

In anatomical terms, the root of the tongue must be up against the pharynx. Fricative means it's a "flowing" sound that doesn't have an abrupt start or stop sound. Voiced means your vocal chords vibrate. Wikipedia says it's basically an approximant like English's L or R.

For comical reference, I imagine that if you trilled the Voiced Pharyngeal Fricative in the same way a Spanish speaker trills the R sound, it would sound a lot like a Wookie from Star Wars.



Hope that helps....?


EDIT:

Apparently, the "pharyngeal" version is very ambiguous and hard to pinpoint. The "voiced epiglottal stop" is the supposedly more common sound in Arabic, and is equally as confusing in pronunciation... confused

Also, check out these wiki pages if you haven't yet:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ayin
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Epiglottal_consonant
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Epiglottal_stop
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Epiglotto-pharyngeal_consonant

And you might check on the Foreign Language Guild and try to track down a Gaia-friendly Arabic speaker.

Xeigrich
Vice Captain


Henneth Annun

PostPosted: Sat Jan 10, 2009 1:49 am


Xeigrich

From what I can tell on Wikipedia and my limited familiarity with the sounds of Arabic, this does seem to be just a sort of "throaty R" which is what I guess you mean by Parisian /r/. If I'm not wrong, to pronounce this sound, put the 'base' of your tongue back into the back of your throat as if to make a regular "American R" but pull the tongue up in the back so that you're almost in the "hawk a loogey" position. Then just make the sound as if it were an R. Another way might be to be in the "ng" position as if saying the word "singing" or "banging" but open the back of the throat JUST enough to STOP airflow from entering the nose becoming nasal) and to ALLOW air to flow through the mouth.

Okay I will try to explain this the best I can....

Make sure you don't arc your tongue up when you do it, make sure it's pulled back. You do not want anything obstructing your airflow past the inital arc of your tongue created once it's been pulled back.

The American 'R' position might not be far enough back depending on where you are in America. It's a little farther back, remember, it needs to get close to the pharanx (that soft squishy part in the far back of your mouth that you hit if you move your tongue all the way back.) Just make sure it leaves room for air so that it doesn't become nasal like Xeigrich said.

When you're voicing it, make sure to push air out of your lungs, and by push I mean push. Not ridiculously hard though, but push it. Make sure you have a nice vibration going on in your vocal cords when you do it.

I hope this helps, and I hope I explained it correctly.
PostPosted: Tue Feb 09, 2010 8:20 pm


It's easier to pronounce when you're forming an open, unrounded back vowel. Keep in mind what others have said, of course.

EDIT: Oh, whoops. VERY old thread. redface

Dukonnaire

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