Similarities and dissimilarities of English and Arabic 94

Similarities and dissimilarities of English and Arabic

Alphabets in Phonetic and Phonology: A Comparative
Study

MD YEAQUB
Research Scholar
Aligarh Muslim University, India
Email: [email protected]
Abstract:
This paper will focus on a comparative study about similarities and
dissimilarities of the pronunciation between the syllables of English and Arabic
with the help of phonetic and phonological tools i.e. manner of articulation,
point of articulation and their distribution at different positions in English and
Arabic Alphabets. A phonetic and phonological analysis of the alphabets of
English and Arabic can be useful in overcoming the hindrances for those want
to improve the pronunciation of both English and Arabic languages. We all
know that Arabic is a Semitic language from the Afro-Asiatic Language Family.
On the other hand, English is a West Germanic language from the Indo-
European Language Family. Both languages show many linguistic differences
at all levels of linguistic analysis, i.e. phonology, morphology, syntax,
semantics, etc. For this we will take into consideration, the segmental features
only, i.e. the consonant and vowel system of the two languages. So, this is better
and larger to bring about pedagogical changes that can go a long way in
improving pronunciation and ensuring the occurrence of desirable learners’
outcomes.

Keywords: Arabic Alphabets, English Alphabets, Pronunciations, Phonetics, Phonology,

manner of articulation, point of articulation.

Introduction:
We all know that sounds are generally divided into two i.e. consonants and
vowels. A consonant is a speech sound, which obstruct the flow of air through
the vocal tract. A vowel is the class of sound, which makes the least obstruction
to the flow of air. Vowels are usually found at the center of a syllable, and it rare

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to find any sound other than a vowel, which is able to stand alone as a whole
syllable (Roach, 1992). Each vowel has a number of properties that distinguish
it from other vowels. These include the shape of the lips, which may be rounded
neutraphl or spread. The second property is the position of the tongue, which
can be front, middle or back. Finally, the tongue may be raised giving different
vowel qualities.

Vowels in English and Arabic have similarities and dissimilarities. They are
different in numbers. English has more vowels than Arabic. They also differ in
distribution. English word can generally begin with vowels, whereas Arabic
word can only be formed from consonants. Both languages have some common
vowels. But at the same time, there are some vowels that are restricted to each
one of them. First of all, we have to know about the definition of phonetic and
phonology which deals with sound system of language.

Definition of Phonetic and Phonology:

Cannorn (1967) and Ekundare (1993) give a definition about phonetics as
sounds, which is the basis of human speech as an acoustic phenomenon. It has a
source of vibration somewhere in the vocal apparatus. According to Varshney
(1995), Phonetics is the scientific study of the production, transmission and
reception of speech sounds. It studies the medium of spoken language. On the
other hand, phonology concerns itself with the evolution, analysis, arrangement
and description of the phonemes or meaningful sounds of a language
(Ramamurthi, 2004). Phonology, according to Simpson (1972), is the statement
or description of the lingual stoically relevant supra-segmental features, the
phonetic system, Allophones, their distribution and the phonological structure.
Ekundare (1993) simply puts phonology as “the study of the properties of the
sound system of a language which speaker have mastered or internalized by the
time they are competent users of it”.
However, the entire sound system works towards the production of what we
know as language. Language has been various defined. Some of them are listed
here:
 ‘Language is a system of conventional spoken or written symbol by
means of what human beings, as members of a social group and
participants in its culture.' – Encyclopedia Britannica

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Similarities and dissimilarities of English and Arabic 96

 ‘Language is a set of (Finite or infinite) sentences, each finite in length

and constructed out of finite set of elements.’ – Noam Chomsky (1957:
syntactic Structure)
 ‘Language is the institution whereby humans communicate and interact
with each other by means of habitually used oral-auditory arbitrary
symbols.’ – Hall (1969)
 ‘Language is purely human and non-instinctive method of
communicating ideas, emotions and desires by means of a system of
voluntarily produced symbols.’ – Sapir (1921)
 ‘Language is undoubtedly a kind of means of communication among
human beings. It consist primarily of vocal sounds. It is articulation,
symbolic and arbitrary.’- Derbyshire (1967)
 ‘Language is the expression of ideas by means of speech sound
combined into words’. – Henry Sweet (an English phonetician and
language scholar).
 ‘A language is a system of arbitrary vocal symbols by means of which a
social group cooperates.’ – Bloch and Trager (American linguists).

The consonant Sounds of English & Arabic Languages:

We all know that English language differs from Arabic language in its linguistic
system entirely. Both are descendants of two typical families. English is a scion
of the Germanic sub-family of Indo-European languages and Arabic belongs to
the Semitic family. They have differences in phonology, morphology, syntax
and semantics. “The English phonology system, especially segmental features,
is accordingly different from that of Arabic” (Abbas, 2011).
At the beginning, we have known that every language has two sound system,
i.e. consonant sound and vowel sound. Like this, English has 24 consonant
sounds and 20 vowel sounds while Arabic has 29 consonant sounds and 6 vowel
sounds. Both English and Arabic languages classify the sounds in the way into
consonants and vowels which I have shown with the help of Table. Firstly, I will
discuss about the consonant sounds of both languages.
In the field of the voicing, English and Arabic voiceless and voiced consonants
are as shown in the following table:
English Arabic

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Voiceless Voiced Voiceless Voiced

Consonants Consonants Consonants Consonants

f b ? b
θ d f d
s g t ḍ
ʃ v ṭ m
h n θ n
p ŋ s l
t l ṣ r
k r ʃ ‫ع‬
tʃ ʒ h γ
ǒ k y
q w
z ħ ǒ
j x ǒ.
w z
dʒ dʒ
Table (1): English and Arabic voiced and voiceless consonants
Table: (1) shows the following:
1. It is clear that there are no voiceless consonants / tʃ, p / in the Arabic
language but at the same time the English language does not have /?, ṭ,
ṣ, q, ħ, x / that are Arabic voiceless consonants.
2. The English voiced consonants / g, v, ŋ, ʒ / do not exist in the Arabic and
similarly there are no voice Arabic consonants / ḍ, ‫ ع‬γ, ǒ. / in English.
3. Aspirated plosive consonants in both English and Arabic languages
affect the following vowels by making them loss of their voicing. They
also devoice the following voiced consonant sounds.
4. Assimilation affects the voicing of the consonant sounds in both English
and Arabic languages. Thus, the voiced consonants may be pronounced
as voiceless and vice versa.

English Alphabetical Verities:

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The English alphabet starts with the letter A and finishes with the letter Z. It is
always written in the same order. This is called “alphabetical order”. Generally,
English alphabets are written from left to right and include 26 letters.
a b c D e f g h i j k l Mn o p q R s t u v w x y z
A B C D E F G H I J K L MN O P Q R S T U V WX Y Z

Arabic Alphabetical Verities:

The Arabic alphabet (Arabic: ‫‘ عربية أبجدية‬abjadiyyah ‘arabiyyah) or Arabic abjad
is the Arabic script as it is codified for writing the Arabic language. It is written
from right to left, in a cursive style, and includes 28 letters.
‫م ن ه و ي‬ ‫ذ ر ز س شصض ط ظ ع غ ف ق ك ل‬ ‫أ ب ت ث ج ح خ د‬
y wh n ml k q f g ‘ ẓ ṭ ḍ ṣ s s Z r d d k ḥ j t t B ,
h h h h h

Phonetic Differences:
Phonetic differences refers to the natural regularities because the phonetic
patterns arise from physical (articulation, aerodynamic, acoustic and auditory)
restrictions. Such factors belongs to natural patterns.
1. Plosives
a) English voiceless plosives / p, t, k / are aspirated in initial position but
when they occur between vowels their aspiration may be less
noticeable or even absent. In final position (before a pause), they are
aspirated in emphatic speech and shorten the vowels before them
(O’Connor, 1980: 41). Arabic voiceless plosives / k, t / can be
aspirated before stressed vowels or a pause but not as evident in the
English. So the Arabic learners tend to pronounce unaspirated / p, t, k
/ wherever they occur regardless of the nature of the speech.
b) The voiceless / t / and the voiced / d / are alveolar plosives in English
and dental plosives in Arabic. Therefore, the Iraqi Arab learners
replace the alveolar by the →dental because of the interference of the
mother tongue on target language. They pronounce voiced / d / instead
of voiceless / t / in the past tense of the regular verbs. For example
‘walked’ /wɔ:kt/ → /wɔ:kd/.
c) The English voiced velar plosive /g/ has no counterpart in Arabic. So
Iraqi Arab learners confuse between voiced affricate /dʒ/ and voice

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plosive /g/ in the following words ‘exaggerate’ /ɪgzӕdәrɪt/ →

/ɪksӕgәrɪt/ or ‘edge’ /edʒ/ → /eg/. They sometimes pronounce the
voiced /g/ as voiceless /k/ especially in the words that have (ex) because
they have not mastered the rules of assimilation and they have not
recognized the stressed vowels. For example, ‘exist’ /ɪkzɪst/. Thus, the
interference of the mother tongue is on the target language of the Iraqi
Arab learners.
d) Some of the Iraqi Arab learners pronounce the voiceless velar plosive
/k/ as voiceless palato alveolar affricate /t∫/ especially when (ch)
represent /k/ in th e spelling. For example, ‘chemistry’ /kemɪsrti/ →
/t∫emɪstri/ and ‘headache’ /hedeɪk/ → /hedat∫/.
2. Affricates:
The voiced English affricate /dʒ/ is palato- alveolar while the voiced
Arabic affricate /dʒ/ is palatal. Some of the Arabic linguists consider
the Arabic voiced palatal /dʒ/ plosive because of that the Iraqi Arab
learners pronounce Arabic /dʒ/ instead of English /dʒ/.
3. Lateral /l/:
Lateral /l/ is voiced alveolar in English. It may be voiceless after the
aspirated /p, t, k /. Arabic is voiced dental lateral. Iraqi Arab learners
tend to pronounce voiced dental /l/ wherever it occurs.

4. Gliding:
a) English /r/ is voiced, retroflex or post-alveolar and gliding (semi vowel)
or frictionless continuant. Arabic /r/ is voiced, alveolar and rolled. Iraqi
Arab learners often replace English /r/ by Arabic /r/. They tap the tongue
tip very quickly several times towards the alveolar ridge not towards the
hard palate like English /r/. They pronounce it when the tongue tip is
lower than its sides (not curved).
b) English /w/ is voiced bilabial while Arabic /w/ is voiced labio-velar. Iraqi
Arab learners pronounce it from the area between the back of the tongue
and the soft palate at the same time two tips are rounded.

Phonological Differences:

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Phonological differences refers to the regularities that control the phonetic

realizations and the functions of sounds in the words of a language.
1. Plosives:
a) The voiceless bilabial consonant /p/ has no counterpart in Arabic. It
is problematic sound for Iraqi Arab learners. Arabic has emphatic
/ḅ/ under the influence of the neighboring consonant sounds such as
/ṣaḅr/ ‘patience’ and /muḅtakir/ ‘creator’. Therefore, they will
substitute voiceless /p/ by voiced /b/ because they are almost similar
to each other. For example ‘push’ /bʊ∫/ → /bʊ∫/ and ‘people’ /’pi:
pḻ/ → /bⅰ:ḅu l/.
b) In the articulation of the voiced plosive consonants in the final
position of the some English words, the voiceless /h/ sound is heard
after the explosion especially when the closure is open and the voice
plosive consonant is preceded by another voiced consonant as in
‘bulb’ /bʌlbh/. Arabic /h/ compared with English voiceless /h/ is
voiced and changed from consonant to a short central vowel.
2. Fricatives:
a) The voiced /v/ has no counterpart in Arabic. It is problematic sound
for Iraqi Arab learners. Therefore, they will substitute /v/ by the
voiceless /f/ especially in the initial and medial positions. Such as,
‘variety’ /vәraɪәti/ → /fәraɪәti/ and ‘savour’ /seɪvәr/ → /seɪfәr/.
b) Although English voiceless /s/ and voiced /z/ have counterparts in
Arabic, Iraqi Arab learners confuse them especially in the medial
and the final positions because of English irregular spelling. Due to
lack of training to master of rules of pronunciation, the learners
confuse the sound /s/ as /z/ in the regular plural nouns and third
person singular (s) in the present tense including the rules of
assimilation and stress. For example ‘teasing’ /ti:zɪŋ/ → /ti:sɪŋ/,
‘please’ /pli:z/ → /pli:s/ and ‘gas’ /gæs/ → /gæz/.
c) The English voiced palate-alveolar /ʒ/ does not occur in initial
position of the English words. It is pronounced as palatal /dʒ/ or /ʃ/
by the Iraqi Arab learners because it does not have a counterpart in
Arabic such as /ʒ/ in the word ‘decision’ /dɪ’sɪʒәn/ → /dɪ’sɪʃәn/,
‘garage’ /gæra:ʒ/ → / gæra:dʒ/ and ‘beige’ /beɪʒ/ → / beɪdʒ/.

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d) English voiceless /h/ occurs initially and medially while Arabic

voiceless /h/ can occur initially, medially and finally.
3. Affricate:

English affricate /tʃ/ has no counterparts in Arabic. Iraqi Arab learners

substitute it by affricative /ʃ/ because both /tʃ/ and /ʃ/ are voiceless palato
alveolar. For example, ‘question’ /kwestʃәn/ → /kwesʃәn/ and ‘sandwich’
/sændwɪdʒ/ or /sændwɪtʃ/ → /sændwɪʃ/.
4. Nasals:
There are three (3) nasal consonants in English /m, n, ŋ /, while there are
two (2) in Arabic /m, n /. There is no /ŋ/ phoneme in Arabic, Iraqi Arab
learners pronounce /ng/ instead of /ŋ/ or they sometime pronounce /ŋ/
followed by /g/ in both medial and final positions. For example, ‘racing’
/reɪsɪŋ/ → / reɪsɪng/ or / reɪcɪŋg/. Although they pronounce /ŋ/ as an
allophone of /n/ before voiceless velar plosive /k/ or uvular plosive /q/ in
the medial position, as in /minka/ → /miŋka/ ‘from you, single’ or /?inqaaǒ/
‘rescue’, hey face difficulty to pronounce English /ŋ/ because of its irregular
distribution.

5. Gliding:
a) English /r/ has specific rules required in its pronunciation. It is
pronounced in pre-vocalic position of the English words or in the final
position of a word followed by another that begins with a vowel sound.
Arabic /r/ is pronounced wherever it is written. Iraqi Arab learners
pronounce their rolled /r/ instead of English frictionless continuant /r/.
They also pronounce /r/ in all position in the English words.
b) English /r, w, j / are voiced gliding consonants but they lose the voice
that they usually have and become voiceless after the voiceless
aspirated /p, t, k /. Iraqi Arab learners pronounce voice /r, w, j /
everywhere because aspiration in Arabic is not as evident as in English.
6. Lateral /l/:

English voiced /l/ has two allophones: light in pre-vocalic position and
heavy before consonants and in final position of the word. Arabic /l/ is light
but there is only one Arabic word containing heavy (emphatic) /l/ that is

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‘Allah’ /?alaah/ and its derivatives. Iraqi Arab learners often confuse light
/l/ and heavy /l/. they pronounce light /l/ everywhere.

The Vowel Sounds of English & Arabic Languages:

In fact, there is a clear disparity in the number of vowels between the English
and Arabic languages. Table (2) shows English and Arabic vowels.
The vowels English Arabic
Short ɪ, e, æ, ǝ, ʌ, u, ɒ i, a, u
Long i:, ɜ:, ɑ:, u:, ɔ: ii, aa, uu
Diphthong eɪ, aɪ, ɔɪ, ǝu, ɑu, ɪǝ, eǝ, uǝ aw, ay
Triphthongs eɪǝ , aɪǝ, ɔɪǝ, ɑuǝ, ǝuǝ
Table (2): English and Arabic vowels
The pure vowels are classified in English and Arabic languages similarly. Their
description is based on the criteria of the part of the tongue, the height of the
tongue and the shape of the lips. Table (3) presents the classification of English
and Arabic vowels.
Vowel Tongue Height Tongue Part Lips Shapes
s Hig Mid Lo Fron Centra Back Rounde Unrounde Sprea
h w t l d d d

Englis ɪ, i:, e, ǝ, æ, ɪ, i:, ǝ, ʌ, ɜ: u,u:,ɔ u,u:,ɔ: e, æ, ʌ ɪ, i:

h u, u: ʌ, ɑ: e, ɑ: : ɒ ǝ, ɜ:,ɑ
ɜ:,ɔ:, æ ɒ
ɒ

Arabic i, ii, a, a, i, Aa u, uu u, uu a, aa i, ii
u, aa ii
uu
Table (3): Classification of English and Arabic vowels
Table: (2) shows the following:
1. According to the height of the tongue, English and Arabic vowels are
classified as follows:
a) English close (high) vowels are / ɪ, i:, u, u: / while Arabic close vowels
are /i,ii,u, uu /.
b) English between half close and half open (mid) vowels are /e, ǝ, ʌ, ɜ:,
ɔ:, ɒ/. There are no Arabic mid vowels.

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c) English open (low) vowels include / æ, ɑ: / and Arabic include / a,

aa /.
2. According to the parts of the tongue, English and Arabic are classified
as follows:
a) English front vowels include / ɪ, i:, e, æ /, whereas Arabic front
vowels include / a, i, ii/ .
b) English central vowels are / ǝ, ʌ, ɜ:, ɑ: /, while Arabic has only one
central vowel that is /aa/.
c) English back vowels are / u, u:, ɔ:, ɒ /, while Arabic back vowels
are / u, uu/.
3. According to the shapes of the lips, English and Arabic vowels are
classified as:
a) English rounded vowels involve / u, u:, ɒ, ɔ: /, while Arabic rounded
vowels involve / u, uu /.
b) English unrounded vowels are / e, æ, ʌ, ǝ, ɜ:, ɑ: /, while Arabic are /
a, aa /.
c) English spread vowels are / ɪ, i: / and Arabic are / i, ii /.

Similarities between Arabic and English:

 They are two different languages.
 They also have different alphabets. The English alphabets has 26 letters
while the Arabic alphabet has 28 letters.
 English is written or read from left to right while Arabic is written or
read from right to left.
 Some Arabic letters/sounds are not found in English. Like ‫ح خ ص ض‬
‫ط ظ ع غ ق‬.
 The English sounds /p/ and /v/ are not found in Arabic.
 The Arabic sentence may not contain a verb.
 The usual word order in English is SVO (i.e. subject then verb then
object), while the usual word order in Arabic is VSO (i.e. verb then
subject then object).
 Most words in Arabic have different forms for male/female and
singular/plural.

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Conclusion:
As we have seen in this research, there are many similarities and dissimilarities
between the phonetic and phonological system of both English and Arabic
languages. This research explains these differences and similarities to
accommodate one’s language who want to learn English or Arabic as a second
language with the correct pronunciation. This research also tries to distinguish
between these two systems, and it shows many thing about English consonants
and vowels. It gives many of information about classification of consonants and
description of speech sounds of both consonants and vowels. In addition to these
things, this research gives us a clear comparison between these two systems, as
there are some consonants restricted to English and others restricted to Arabic.
There is another comparison for vowels and diphthongs between Arabic and
English. We have to devote time to recognize the different sounds of hard and
soft letters. In conclusion, the purpose of this research which is to help people
to pronounce sounds properly is fulfilled through this kind of comparative study
between the sound system of English and Arabic.

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