# Levantine pronunciation of 'a'



## Martin78

Starting to learn spoken Levantine Arabic, I'm wondering about the allophones of 'a'. I know the general rule, front 'a' in most cases but back 'a' with emphasized consonants, but I wonder how this is realized in practice in different areas.

1. As for the short front 'a', I'm hearing rather different allophones. In my course Speaking Arabic (Jerusalem Palestinian), the front 'a' sounds very much like [æ] as in Standard British English "cat". In both Parlons Arabe Libanais and Manuel de Parler Libanais (both of which are Beirut Lebanese), the front 'a' sounds quite different, like the [a] in Northern English, not unlike our ordinary 'a' in Swedish (and in French). However, listening to some Lebanese artists, such as the singer Melissa (from South Lebanon), I can hear the [æ] quite clearly. So the question is whether this difference between [æ] and [a] for Levantine front 'a' is different from person to person, or is it instead so that Palestinians and Southern Lebanese say [æ] while people in Beirut say [a].

2. As for the long front 'a', it is of course much easier, and there seems to be a clear distinction between Palestinian [æ:] and Lebanese [ɛ:] in most cases. Still, in some words the Lebanese speakers have a long front a, [a:] that is different both from [ɛ:] and the back [ɑ:]. In which cases does this happen.

Very grateful for all help I can get. I realize these are quite small differences, but I would still be interested in the answers.


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## Martin78

Martin78 said:


> 1. As for the short front 'a', I'm hearing rather different allophones. In my course Speaking Arabic (Jerusalem Palestinian), the front 'a' sounds very much like [æ] as in Standard British English "cat". In both Parlons Arabe Libanais and Manuel de Parler Libanais (both of which are Beirut Lebanese), the front 'a' sounds quite different, like the [a] in Northern English, not unlike our ordinary 'a' in Swedish (and in French). However, listening to some Lebanese artists, such as the singer Melissa (from South Lebanon), I can hear the [æ] quite clearly. So the question is whether this difference between [æ] and [a] for Levantine front 'a' is different from person to person, or is it instead so that Palestinians and Southern Lebanese say [æ] while people in Beirut say [a].



I found a partial answer to the question myself. In a Finnish book about Arabic dialects, the writer says that the front 'a' is always between the Finnish a ([a]) and ä ([æ]) but that it's closer to 'a' in Syria and Lebanon but closer to 'ä' in Palestine and Egypt. Still, it would be nice to hear a bit more from someone who know the area and the dialects.


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## barkoosh

It's really hard to set a rule regarding the pronunciation of "a" in dialects. It depends on accents even in the same city, on other consonants in the word, etc...  In the modern Beirut Lebanese, that is, the Lebanese that you hear on Lebanese TV's, the short "a" can sound like the French "a" or the French "è". The long "a" can sound like a long French "a" or a long French "é", depending on the other consonants or just how people are used to say it.

You mentioned Melissa. Check the different sounds of the short and long "a" in a part of one of her songs (I'll use capital letters for the long "a")

لو بتكون مع مين بتكون
law bitkoon ma3 meen bitkoon
بدك ترجعلي شي نهار
bèddèk* tirja3 li shi nhAr
متل الشاطر واقف ناطر
mitl sh-shAtir wÈ2if# nAtir
قلبي يسامح يللي صار
2èlbi ysÈmi7# yèlli sAr

(* Some pronounce it bèddak)
(#although in the song she pronounces them "wÈ2if" and "ysÈmi7", they're usually pronounced "wÉ2if", "ysÉmi7" in normal conversations).


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## Martin78

Thanks a lot Barkoosh, that is really really helpful. If you don't mind, I'd have some further questions below. First, I went to that same Melissa song, and here is how I hear the beginning of it in simple IPA, with special attention to /a/. I use "j" and "sh" as in your version.

l*a*w bitku:n m*a*3 min bitku:n
b*ə*d:*ə*k tirj*a*3li: shinh*ɑ:*r
mitli sh-sh*ɑ:*tir w*æ*2if n*ɑ:*tir
2*ɛ*lbi ys*ɛ:*mi7 y*ə*l:i s*ɑ:*r

aw nidm*ɑ:*n 3*a*l:i k*æ:*n
y*ɑ*'*ɑ*l:*ɑ:*h l*a*x*ɑ*t*ɑ*:y*ɑ *kt*a:*r
j*æ*:yi nh*ɑ:*r wr*æ*7tenh*ɑ:*r
j*æ*:yi nh*ɑ:*r*a*k y*ɑ*h*ɑ*d:*ɑ:*r

So quite a bit of variation, right  I think all the back a's, both the short and the long, make sense to me, they come where I'd expect them to. For the front a, both long and short, I'm struggling to make much sense.

1. For the short front a, I hear four different sounds, or perhap three. I only have one *ɛ* (in 2*ɛ*lbi) and it's really close to *æ *in my ears. *ə *I only hear in 'baddak'. Then, there are a lot of [*a*] and a lot of [*æ*]. In the two Lebanese courses I have in French, I hear almost only [a] all the time, no [*æ*]. In the Palestinian course, I hear almost only [*æ*], with [a] only at the at the end of words or in 'a3'. Barkoosh, I see you live in Beirut. Would you say that Melissa's pronunciation here is typical of Beirut as well, or is it more Southern?

2. For the long front 'a' I was a bit surprised at hearing so many [*æ*:] and only one [*ɛ:*] - and even that one sounded very close to [*æ*:]. All the books I've read say that the long imala [*ɛ:*] is typically Lebanese, so I would have expected to hear [k*ɛ:*n] and [j*ɛ:*yi]. So same question as above, is Melissa's pronunciation "Southern" and therefore closer to Palestinian, or would I hear the same thing in Beirut?

Those were the general questions, then a few short and practical ones.
3. The speakers on my courses are from Achrafiyeh, to be very precise geographically. Is that a "typical" Lebanon pronunciation?
4. Would you happen to know from which place Melissa comes? I know nothing about her, so to me "Southern" could be anything between Beit Al Dine and Bent Jbail.
5. Are differences in pronunciation in Lebanon only geographical, or do different population groups have different accents?
6. Finally, for me as a beginner who want to progress, will I sound 'off' in Lebanon if I adopt the pronunciation of my course and always use [*a*] for the short front a and [*ɛ:*] for the long front a. In other words, would I sound strange if I pronounced those same lines like this:

l*a*w bitku:n m*a*3 min bitku:n
b*ə*d:*a*k tirj*a*3li: shinh*ɑ:*r
mitli sh-sh*ɑ:*tir w*a*2if n*ɑ:*tir
2*a*lbi ys*ɛ:*mi7 y*a*l:i s*ɑ:*r

aw nidm*ɑ:*n 3*a*l:i k*ɛ:*n
y*ɑ*'*ɑ*l:*ɑ:*h l*a*x*ɑ*t*ɑ*:y*ɑ *kt*a:*r
j*ɛ:*yi nh*ɑ:*r wr*a*7tenh*ɑ:*r
j*ɛ:*yi nh*ɑ:*r*a*k y*ɑ*h*ɑ*d:*ɑ:*r

Thanks a lot for your help, I really appreciate it!!


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## Schem

Melissa? 

Couldn't you go with someone more refined, like Haifa?


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## Finland

Hello!

Just as a reminder, songs aren't necessarily the best way to discover authentic ways of speaking. Firstly, Arabic singers routinely sing in a dialect other than their own, and secondly, pronunciation may vary for reasons such as meter and rhythm.

When learning dialects, I have never really had great ambitions about learning precise ways of pronouncing the vowels; vocabulary is more important, I would say. It always happens that one friend from, say, Beirut tells you "XYZ is how _everyone_ in Beirut pronounces this word", and the day after another Beiruti friend pronounces it differently. Vowel qualities vary a lot between areas, classes, and even families.

But a good thing you're into learning dialects! Have fun!

HTH
S


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## Martin78

Moi, hyvä vinkki ja olen täysin samaa mieltä - and I'll stick to English but nice meeting someone else from Finland 

First, Schem - I didn't pick Melissa for any musical qualities. I simply did a quick google search on Lebanese music. Now that you bring it up, I did find Melissa quite good-looking when I found that video, but let me assure you that I'm here to discuss Lebanese pronunciation and nothing else! 

Then, I agree with my fellow countryman Finland - songs are usually a good way to learn words, but a quite bad way to learn the finer details of pronunciation such as the ones I discuss in both my first post and my longer post this afternoon. That is precisely why I asked my questions, and why it would be great Barkoosh also finds the time to answer my six questions above. I really appreciated his detailed answer to my first post.

It's very true that there is seldom such a thing as _the_ pronunciation, not when we are talking about the realization of an allophone. As a matter of fact, in the same song I quoted, I noticed that the second time the singer sings the same first sentences, her [2ɛlbi ysɛ:mi7] turns into [2ælbi ysæ:mi7]. So the two things you guys comment on, my lack of knowledge about Melissa as well as the sometimes unnatural pronunciation when singing is just why I'm so interested in the answers to those six questions I posed above.


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## clevermizo

Some of these are easy to explain phonologically, but I agree that songs are stylized pronunciation and may also involve idiosyncracies that are not predictive of dialectal phonology on the whole. Still:



> 1. For the short front a, I hear four different sounds, or perhap three. I only have one *ɛ* (in 2*ɛ*lbi) and it's really close to *æ *in my ears. *ə *I only hear in 'baddak'. Then, there are a lot of [*a*] and a lot of [*æ*]. In the two Lebanese courses I have in French, I hear almost only [a] all the time, no [*æ*]. In the Palestinian course, I hear almost only [*æ*], with [a] only at the at the end of words or in 'a3'.



In the Northern Levant, the vowel in بدّ can vary on ə ~ a so bəddak is not surprising. In any case, I would not expect æ in this position. You should also realize that at least in Damascene speech, ə is considered phonemic by phonologists making the set of short vowel phonemes as high as 6.



> 2. For the long front 'a' I was a bit surprised at hearing so many [*æ*:] and only one [*ɛ:*] - and even that one sounded very close to [*æ*:].



[ɛ:] or even [e:] is much more typical of actual speech than song. This is where song is more stylized. I commonly hear æ: instead in songs for the fronted allophone. Similarly, the typical Lebanese ـي pronounced [ɛ] like بدّي [badde] is often pronounced [badd*i*] in songs. That's unrelated, but I'm trying to illustrated that songs are stylized.



> All the books I've read say that the long imala [*ɛ:*] is typically Lebanese, so I would have expected to hear [k*ɛ:*n] and [j*ɛ:*yi]. So same question as above, is Melissa's pronunciation "Southern" and therefore closer to Palestinian, or would I hear the same thing in Beirut?



Again, I would *not* expect this in song, only in actual speech.



> 6. Finally, for me as a beginner who want to progress, will I sound 'off' in Lebanon if I adopt the pronunciation of my course and always use [*a*] for the short front a and [*ɛ:*] for the long front a. In other words, would I sound strange if I pronounced those same lines like this:



You might sound weird as a foreigner trying to sound so _local_. I've run into the same thing myself in Jordan, though not in Lebanon. It would be as strange as learning American English and adopting a highly specific accent from a specific region. It's harder to pinpoint what one should do in Arabic, because you have to speak a colloquial of some kind, but you can converge on a more neutral sound by using æ instead of the more Lebanese-specific ɛ: at these positions and sound less marked.


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## Martin78

clevermizo said:


> You might sound weird as a foreigner trying to sound so _local_. I've run into the same thing myself in Jordan, though not in Lebanon. It would be as strange as learning American English and adopting a highly specific accent from a specific region. It's harder to pinpoint what one should do in Arabic, because you have to speak a colloquial of some kind, but you can converge on a more neutral sound by using æ instead of the more Lebanese-specific ɛ: at these positions and sound less marked.



I fully see and share your point in general. Though as almost all of my learning material is specifically Lebanese (with some Syrian and Palestinian) it just that I'm trying to be coherent. So I'm not trying to fit one particular Lebanese dialect (that would be pointless, as I'll always sound foreign in any case) but just to come as close as possible to the variety I'm learning. As the people I hear on my recordings speak Lebanese Arabic, and the expressions I learn are also Lebanese, it's simply a matter of being consistent. I imagine that just as it would sound really weird if someone had an Australian English vocabulary but with a cockney pronunciation, it would also sound weird to use Lebanese expressions with a non-Lebanese pronunciation. So that's the reason behind this thread, as I want to have as good a picture as possible of the pronunciation of the Arabic I'm learning.


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## barkoosh

Hi


As everybody said above, pronunciations of vowels in songs follow the meter and rhythm. They can't be taken as a basis to know how to pronounce vowels. For example, she says in the song "wæ2if", with a short "æ". However, it should be a long one. But here she had to make it short for the sake of the rhythm.

Regarding the vowels, at least we agree on the sound of [a] (whether short or long [a:]). However, there's no distinction in Arabic between [æ],[ɛ], and [ə] in your example. For us, they're all the same as [e] of the English "bed". (The same thing applies to the long form of the sounds). Such things happen in every language. Europeans can't tell the difference between the Arabic "k" and the Arabic "q", although that difference is distinct in Arabic.

So, to make things easier for both of us, let's stick to the sound of [e] (or what we in Lebanon represent with the French "è") for all those cuties: [æ],[ɛ], and [ə].

The sound of the French "é" was not used in the song. But it's well used in modern Beirut Lebanese.

Regarding your questions, and in addition to what clevermizo said...
1. No it's not always [a]. It could be:
([short]/[long:])
[a]/[a:],
[é]/[é:], or 
[è]/[è:].
The singer's pronunciation is typical of modern Beirut Lebanese. This is the case with most of the songs.

2. I think it was answered above. If not, please let me know.

3. Achrafieh residents generally (there are always exceptions) speak this modern Beirut Lebanese, that is, the Lebanese that you hear on Lebanese TV's.

4. I know nothing about her.

5. Geographical location, population group, you name it. As Finland said, "Vowel qualities vary a lot between areas, classes, and even families."

6. Every Arabic native will appreciate the efforts of any non-native who's trying to speak Arabic, even if his accent seemed "off".
I can't set a rule here.  _Maybe_ it's ok to replace your [é]/[é:] with [è]/[è:]* and _sometimes_ the short [a] with short [è] (except with certain letters that require a [a] sound) as a beginner if this helps, but generally (there are always exceptions) it's better to stick to the long [a:] sound. For example, the word "na:r" (fire) can never be pronounced "nè:r" or "né:r". However, the word "bé:b" (door), can be pronounced "bè:b" if it's easier for you, but "ba:b" is not modern Beirut Lebanese at all.

* This applies to the [é:] of the alef only, not to the [é:] of "ey". For example, "beyt" (house) is pronounced "bé:t" in modern Beirut Lebanese. It can't be pronounced "bè:t".


The best way to learn the accent is to expose yourself to it.


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## Martin78

Hi,

Thanks for another helpful answer, Barkoosh. Answers 1-5 I think are good (we have no answer to question 4, but that hardly matter) and I see I made a mistake in question 6, so I'd like to come back to that one.

When I talked about whether I can use a front [*a*] instead of [*æ*], I meant it only when the sound is short _and_ when it's a front a. So I would of course still pronounce[n*ɑ:*r] with a long 'back a' (*ɑ*, as in English f*a*ther ) instead of a front a (*a*, as in Italian p*a*dre). So my question only concerns the cases where there is a short 'front a', as in m*a*3, 2*a*lbi and wr*a*7. Would it sound ok in Beiruti ear to pronounce these sounds with the 'a' in French/Italian/Spanish 'la' instead of the 'a' in English 'man'?


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## barkoosh

It's really hard to tell. Some words can't be pronounced with [a], such as "bèrd بَرْد" (cold). It can't be pronounced "bard" in modern Beirut Lebanese. Others have to be pronounced with [a], esp. some letters like Sad ص, Dad ض, Tah ط. The word "Sabr صَبْر" (patience) should have [a] as a vowel; pronouncing it with [è] will make the ص look like س, that is, "sèbr سَبْر". Likewise, "Darb ضَرْب" (hitting) is different from "dèrb دَرْب" (path).

So you have to get acquainted to both of them.


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## Martin78

Barkoosh, I start to think we're not really talking about the same sounds 

As I said in my posts, I'm talking about the front a, and the front a only. The vowel in "Sabr صَبْر" and "Darb ضَرْب" is a back vowel ([*ɑ*] and not [*a*]). I realize the distinction between [*æ*] (South English 'cat'), [*a*] (North English 'cat') and [*ɑ*] (South English bath, but shorter) make not be meaningful for most Arabs as these are all allophones of the same vowel. I have no problem when knowing when to use [ɑ], for instance in صَبْر and ضَرْب. What I'm less sure about is the distribution between [æ] and [a].

I've now listened to some more recordings of different courses. In Living Language's Ultimate Arabic, there are recordings for four dialects (Lebanese, Egyptian, Iraqi and Saudi). Listening to the Lebanese sentences (two different speakers), I hear only [*a*] and [*ɑ*], never [*æ*] - just as in the recordings for Parlons Libanais and for Manuel de Libanais. So based on that, I assume it might be ok to always use [a] for the front a, and of course [ɑ] for the back a.


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## clevermizo

All it means is that you are hearing [a] in the same positions that Barkoosh is (sometimes) hearing è ([ɛ]). Which means the real value varies on that axis or is otherwise not distinguished and idiosyncratically varies on that axis. And I think that that's okay and that the precision with which you seek can only be learned through lots of experience and interactions with native speakers and will be more visceral and less technical.

By the way, مع would only have [a] (though not *ɑ*) and not [mæʕ] or [mɛʕ] because of the a-coloring quality of [ʕ] (ع). You would expect similarly from ء/ق,ح,ه  and sometimes ر. Also keep in mind that the voices you hear in a language course will also not be entirely natural.

I think that you would be fine keeping the fronted version of /a/ as [a] and the backed version as [ɑ] and let the rest sort itself out with experience.


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## barkoosh

Thanks clevermizo. It seems that only non-Arab natives can understand those subtle differences. I listened to the sounds of [ɑ] and [a] on this Wikipedia page. Believe me, the difference is insignificant and negligible to us. Use whichever you want; no one will notice the difference. As I said in my posts , there are three sounds of "a" in Beirut Lebanese that are represented (maybe with too much simplification) with: French "a", French "è", and French "é" (in addition to their long versions). Any variation to these three that is found in other languages is disregarded. As clevermizo said, any precision you seek "can only be learned through lots of experience and interactions with native speakers".


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## Martin78

Clevermizo and barkoosh, thanks to you both. First of all, barkoosh, I fully understand you - I have the same thing when I listen to ط and ت. I know that there is a difference, but I certainly don't hear it. What I hear is how the vowel following them sound differently. A logic consequence of me being a Scandinavian used to languages with loads of different vowels and but far fewer consonants than Arabic.

Clevermizo, I also noticed that even in the Palestinian recordings, I only heard [a] before ع and never [æ], thanks for confirming it!  Moving from the theoretical level to the very practical (trying to sound as natural as possible), do you guys think I should try to go for consistently using [æ] instead of [a] for my front a? Excepct when with ع. Since barkoosh says he doesn't find much of a difference between  [ɑ] and [a] (but perhaps you hear the difference between [a] and [æ] on the same page clearer), then using [æ] and [ɑ] - as Palestinians seem to do - would make the difference more audible to all Arabs, I guess?


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## clevermizo

barkoosh said:


> Thanks clevermizo. It seems that only non-Arab natives can understand those subtle differences.



Not even all!  In English (I can't speak for Swedish these are all separate phonemes, in most dialects, so we perceive the differences. This is actually in my experience teaching ESL a hard thing to teach Arabic native speakers learning English  . For others though it may also take experience in phonetics classes.  A Spanish speaker for example would also have a hard time following this discussion, without training in phonetics, so for them this would be a non-issue.



Martin78 said:


> Clevermizo and barkoosh, thanks to you both. First of all, barkoosh, I fully understand you - I have the same thing when I listen to ط and ت. I know that there is a difference, but I certainly don't hear it. What I hear is how the vowel following them sound differently. A logic consequence of me being a Scandinavian used to languages with loads of different vowels and but far fewer consonants than Arabic.
> 
> Clevermizo, I also noticed that even in the Palestinian recordings, I only heard [a] before ع and never [æ], thanks for confirming it!  Moving from the theoretical level to the very practical (trying to sound as natural as possible), do you guys think I should try to go for consistently using [æ] instead of [a] for my front a? Excepct when with ع. Since barkoosh says he doesn't find much of a difference between  [ɑ] and [a] (but perhaps you hear the difference between [a] and [æ] on the same page clearer), then using [æ] and [ɑ] - as Palestinians seem to do - would make the difference more audible to all Arabs, I guess?



I think that's a decent way to go about it, and let future experience with speakers modify them subtly, in a more natural way, even though this way lacks precision. This also has the benefits of sounding more neutral to speakers of other dialects. What we are calling IPA [ɑ] I think Barkoosh is classing with his orthography as 'a' with the back pronunciation. Finally, I would add that if you are pronouncing the consonants correctly, you'll find the vowels 'modify themselves' - as in all the consonants have their own qualities in affecting surrounding vowels and this is largely where the allophonic variation comes from in the first place.


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## Martin78

clevermizo said:


> I think that's a decent way to go about it, and let future experience with speakers modify them subtly, in a more natural way, even though this way lacks precision. This also has the benefits of sounding more neutral to speakers of other dialects. What we are calling IPA [ɑ] I think Barkoosh is classing with his orthography as 'a' with the back pronunciation. Finally, I would add that if you are pronouncing the consonants correctly, you'll find the vowels 'modify themselves' - as in all the consonants have their own qualities in affecting surrounding vowels and this is largely where the allophonic variation comes from in the first place.



Thanks  Though I'm probably pronouncing some consonants very badly. Just as a Arab doesn't hear the difference between many of our Swedish vowels, we don't hear the difference between many of the Arab consonants. To take an example: for the four different sounds that are /s/, /z/, /S/ and /Z/, we only have one sound in Swedish, /s/. Needless to say, this makes it extremely hard to both hear and pronounce these four consonants.


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