Arabic consonants – derivation + writing

You may have noticed that there are quite a few extra letters in the Arabic language, compared to the basic Semitic alphabet.  These are derivatives of the basic letters:

• ذ ð
• خ x
• ظ ẓ/ðˤ
• غ ɣ
• ض ḍ
• ش ʃ
• ث θ

There are quite a few modified Hebrew letters too, but these exist mostly to allow the writing of non-indigenous phones, such as /p/ and /v/.  The Semitic alphabet actually fits the Hebrew language much better than the Arabic language, because it was designed to transcribe North-West Semitic languages (i.e. Canaanite, Phoenician) whose modern descendent is Hebrew.  Arabic is a Central Semitic language which has retained the above consonants from Proto-Semitic.

Proto-Semitic had 5 triads of voiced/voiceless/emphatic consonants:

• Dental stops: d t tˤ
• Velar stops: g k kˤ (phonetically g k q)
• Interdental: ð θ θˤ
• Dental sibilants: z s/ʃ sˤ
• Lateral: l ɬ ɬˤ (also written l ś śˤ)

As Proto-Semitic evolved into North-Western Semitic, several of these consonant sounds coalesced.  The dental stops remained separate (although in modern Hebrew, taw t and teth tˤ are pronounced the same), as did the velar stops.  Among the sibilants (dental, interdental and lateral):

• the voiced ð and z coalesced to make zayin z, but l lamed remained separate.
• the unvoiced θ, ʃ and ɬ coalesced to make shin ʃ, but s samekh remained separate.
• the emphatic θˤ, sˤ and ɬˤ coalesced to make sadhe sˤ (modern hebrew pronounced ts).

The case of shin is the only case where Ancient Hebrew and earlier North-Western languages such as Phoenecian where not in alignment.  While the Ancient Hebrew script followed the Phoenician example, having only one letter for the coalesced θ, ʃ and ɬ, in the spoken language, θ and ʃ had coalesced to ʃ while ɬ had transformed into s.  Later diacritics were invented to mark this difference.

The Central Semitic languages such as Arabic retained all the distinctions of the Proto-Semitic language, except for the loss of samekh.  By and large the Arabic sounds are the same as those in Proto-Semitic.  Exceptions include:

• ɬ -> ʃ and ʃ -> s (the opposite of Hebrew)
• θˤ -> ðˤ~zˤ
• ɬˤ -> dˤ

The origin of the “extra” fricative letters in Arabic is obscured by the fact that these letters are largely not based on the letters with which the sounds coalesced in North-West Semitic, but on the letters which they most ressemble phonetically, hence:

• ð is spelt ذ, derived from daleth, not zayin (ð -> zayin in Hebrew)
• θ is spelt ث, derived from taw, not shin (θ -> shin in Hebrew)
• ðˤ~zˤ (PS θˤ) is spelt ظ , derived from teth, not sadhe (θˤ -> sadhe in Hebrew)

But the following letters do reflect derivation:

• ʃ (PS ɬ) is spelt ش, derived from shin (Arabic ʃ corresponds to shin in Hebrew)
• dˤ (PS ɬˤ) is spelt ض. , derived from sadhe (Arabic dˤ corresponds to sadhe in Hebrew)

Proto-Semitic also had a voiced and unvoiced pair of velar/uvular and pharyngeal fricatives:

• voiced: ɣ/ʁ, ʕ
• unvoiced: x/χ, ħ

These coalseced on the basis of voicing in North-Western Semitic, but not in Central Semitic.

PS	North-West Semitic		Central Semitic
	Phoen.	MH	MSA
t	t taw	t	t ت
tˤ	tˤ teth	t	tˤ ط
d	d daleth	d	d د
ð z	z zayin	z	ð ذ from daleth z ز
l	l lamed	l	l ل
θ ʃ ɬ	ʃ shin	ʃ ʃ s	θ ث  from taw s س ʃ ش
s	s samekh	s	–
θˤ ʃˤ ɬˤ	sˤ sadhe	ts	ðˤ~zˤ ظ  from teth sˤ ص dˤ ض
ʕ ɣ/ʁ	ʕ ayin	ʔ	ʕ ع ɣ غ
ħ x/χ	ħ heth	χ	ħ ح x خ

The Semitic alphabets

When I tried to learn the Arabic alphabet a few years ago I found it really hard because the ordering of the letters seems very haphazard.  However there is an alternate method of ordering which follows the original Semitic (e.g. Phonecian) alphabet.  It resembles the Greek and Latin alpabets closely.

Ph	Hebrew		pron (if dif)	Arabic		pron (if dif)	vars	Greek	Latin
/ʔ/	aleph	א	/Ø,ʔ/	‘alif	أ	/Ø,ʔ/		alpha	A
/b/	beth	ב		bā’	ب			beta	B
/g/	gimel	ג		jīm	ج	/dʒ/		gamma	C G
/d/	daleth	ד		dāl	د		ذ ð	delta	D
/h/	he	ה		hā’	ه			epsilon	E
/w/	waw	ו	/v (w)/	wāw	و			digamma, upsilon	F U V W Y
/z/	zayin	ז		zayn	ز			zeta	Z
/ħ/	heth	ח	/χ(ħ)/	ḥā’	ح		خ x	eta	H
/ṭ/	teth	ט	/t/	ṭā’	ط		ظ ẓ/ðˤ	theta
/j/	yod	י		yā’	ي			iota	I
/k/	kaph	כ/ך	/χ/	kāf	ك			kappa	K
/l/	lamed	ל		lām	ل			lambda	L
/m/	mem	מ/ם		mīm	م			mu	M
/n/	nun	נ/ן		nūn	ن			nu	N
/s/	samekh	ס						xi, chi	X
/ʕ/	ayin	ע	/ʔ(ʕ)/	‘ayn	ع		غ ɣ	omicron	O
/p/	pe	פ/ף	/f/	fā’	ف	/f/		pi	P
/ṣ/	sadhe	צ/ץ	/ts/	ṣād	ص		ض ḍ	san
/q/	qoph	ק	/k/	qāf	ق			koppa	Q
/r/	resh	ר	/ʁ/	rā’	ر			rho	R
/ʃ/	shin	ש		sīn	س	/s/	ش ʃ	sigma	S
/t/	tav	ת		tā’	ت		ث θ	tau	T

Types of on-reading for Japanese kanji

We all know about on and kun readings in Japanese.  But there are a few different types of on reading, reflecting the period in which the kanji was borrowed from Chinese.  Most kanji only have a kanon reading, but some also have a goon reading (which can be quite different).  The kanji which have goon readings tend to be those which describe very basic concepts, or which are connected with Buddhism.  A small few kanji only have goon readings (for example, the numerals).

goon 呉音	Wu sound	Southern and Northern Dynasties during the 5th and 6th centuries. Especially common in Buddhist borrowings.
kanon 漢音	Han sound	Tang Dynasty in the 7th to 9th centuries. The most common reading.
tooon 唐音	Tang sound	Later dynasties, such as the Song (宋) and Ming (明). They cover all readings adopted from the Heian era (平安) to the Edo period (江戸). This is also known as Tōsō-on (唐宋音).
kanyooon 慣用音	Idiomatic sound	Mistaken or changed readings of the kanji that have become accepted into the language.

Kanji	Meaning	Go-on	Kan-on	Tō-on	Kan’yō-on
明	bright	myō	mei	(min)	—
行	go	gyō gō	kō kō	(an)	—
極	extreme	goku	kyoku	—	—
珠	pearl	shu	shu	ju	(zu)
度	degree	do	(to)	—	—
輸	transport	(shu)	(shu)	—	yu
雄	masculine	—	—	—	yū
熊	bear	—	—	—	yū
子	child	shi	shi	su	—
清	clear	shō	sei	(shin)	—
京	capital	kyō	kei	(kin)	—
兵	soldier	hyō	hei	—	—
強	strong	gō	kyō	—	—
日	sun, day	nichi	jitsu	—	—

Vowel pronuncation in Brazilian Portugese

The pronunciation of vowels in Brazilian Portuguese is a little confusing, especially since the use of the acute accent and the circumflex is the opposite to that in French for the letter e.

	low vowel	high vowel	nasal high vowel
a	á, non-final a= [a]	â, final a = [ɐ]	ã, am = [ɐ̃]
e	é, e = [ɛ]	ê, e = [e]	em = [ẽ]
i		i, final e = [i]	im = [ĩ]
o	ó = [ɔ]	ô = [o]	om = [õ]
u		u, final o = [u]	um = [ũ]

Points to note:

• the circumflex indicates the stressed high (close) vowel – it is also nasal if followed by n or m
• the acute accent indicates the stressed low (open) vowel
• nasalised vowels are always high
• height is not usually marked, for example seco (adj.) has [e] while seco (n.) has [ɛ]
• however, non-marked a is always [ɐ] when final and [a] when non-final
• the exact pronunciation of e and o is only inferable without prior knowledge when the vowel is final
• height only differentiates in stressed syllables, in non-final unstressed syllables only [a, e, o] are possible