CSD 623
Arabic| ‫ﻋرﺑﻰ‬
Bridget Coneys, Aurelie Foster, Hannah Orlando, and Rachel Rinehart
Who speaks Arabic?
• Over 200 million native
speakers
• Primarily spoken in the
Middle East/North
Africa
• Official language in 20
countries
• Minority language in
Russia, Iran, and United
States among many
others
• Most Arabs are Muslims;
however, not all
Muslims speak Arabic
(e.g. Muslims in Pakistan
and India speak Urdu)
BBC (n.d.); Peña-Brooks & Hedge (2015)
FALL 2017
Cultural Considerations
for speakers of Arabic that are Muslim
• Physical contact and even prolonged eye contact between members of
the opposite gender may be considered inappropriate
o Instead of eye contact, an averted gaze is a respectful gesture from
a man to woman
o Children are not permitted to make direct eye contact with adults
• Home is considered private, and business is not carried out there (may
have implications for Early Intervention)
• Pragmatically appropriate distance between two speakers is about 2
feet, which is closer than the typical distance between conversational
partners in America
• Do not plan far in advance because only Allah knows the future
• High emphasis on educational excellence
• Family structure is patriarchal often with several generations of
extended family living together (eldest male is the head of household)
o Women are responsible for instilling cultural values in next
generation through their role in child-rearing
o Women do not give orders to men
o Family honor and harmony are important
o Often fear bringing shame on the family
o Clinicians should be careful in how they communicate concerns,
so as not to humiliate the family
Battle (2002)
Friendly Phrases
Hello Goodbye I don’t understand.
as-salām 'alaykum ma'a as-salāmah lā afham
What’s your name? Have a nice day. Please speak more
slowly.
mā ismak? atmna lk ywma
tyba takallam bibut'
min fadlak/ik
Arabic Language Resource Handout

Phonemic Inventories | Phonotactic Constraints

Arabic is diglossic in nature, meaning that there are different spoken and written forms with varying
degrees of formality. Consonant production may differ depending on context.

Consonants
• Arabic consists of 28 consonantal phonemes,
whereas English has 24
• Note that Arabic has several consonants that
English does not have:
o Emphatic: /t/, /d/, /s/, /ð/, and /q/
§ Produced with secondary
articulation in which tongue root
retracts into pharynx
§ Denoted in IPA using underscore
o Voiced and voiceless uvular consonants
§ Tongue base makes contact with
the uvula
o Pharyngeal fricatives

Shariq (2015); Amayreh (2003); Peña-Brooks & Hedge (2015)

Vowels
• Arabic consists of 5 vowels, and a total of 8
phonemes
• Standard Arabic contains three basic vowels
/a/, /i/, /u/, and their long versions
• Modern variations also include /e/ and /o/

Peña-Brooks & Hedge (2015)

Common Errors
• Consonants: Arabic speakers may substitute or omit several phonemes that are present in English, but not
in Arabic. Some common error patterns include:
o Substitutions:
§ vàf
§ pàb
o Phonological error patterns: epenthesis, deaffrication, cluster reduction, vowel distortions
• Vowels: Arabic speakers may have difficulty distinguishing vowels in English because the Arabic language
has fewer vowels.
o E.g. Bed vs. Bad
Peña-Brooks & Hedge (2015); Shoebottom (2017); Al-Saidat (2010)

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Arabic Language Resource Handout

Consonant Production in Arabic

Influence of Diglossia on Consonant Production

• Arabic has different forms of spoken and written language including:

• Colloquial
o Dialectal variations

• Modern Standard Arabic (MSA)

o Used in formal contexts (i.e. religious purposes, literature)
o Used for writing
• Educated Spoken Arabic (ESA)
o Less formal than MSA, featuring less complex grammatical rules
o Spoken in schools, speeches, and professional conversations

• Children typically do not encounter MSA or ESA until they enter school

o MSA and ESA contain different phonemes than colloquial Arabic

o Because of Arabic’s diglossia, cross linguistic comparisons should be viewed with caution, and
some differences in acquisition are expected due to lack of exposure prior to school-age

o As an SLP, it is important to understand this distinction for diagnostic purposes when intelligibility
is a concern for bilingual children (L1 = Arabic, L2 = English):

§ SLP should always compare child’s speech with others who speak a similar dialect

Ages of Acquisition of ESA Consonants

Amayreh (2003)

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Arabic Language Resource Handout
Influence of Arabic on Standard American English Grammar
Syntax/Grammar
Syntactic Structure in Arabic:
• Arabic: Verb + Subject + Object
(English: Subject + Verb + Object)
• Adjectives follow the noun:
o English: “pretty house”
o Arabic: “house pretty”
• Arabic does not have present tense
verb “to be” or the auxiliary verb
“do”
o May cause difficulty with
auxiliary verbs for Arabic
native speakers learning
English
• Nouns and adjectives have gender
agreement
Reading and Writing in Arabic:
• No distinctions made between
upper and lowercase (only use
lowercase)
• Read and write from right to left
Shoebottom (2017); Khanis-Dakwar et al. (2012)
3
Vocabulary
• There are few English and Arabic
word cognates, which makes it
difficult to build a lexicon
o One of the few examples of
cognates are: sugar and
sukkar
• Arabic words have a different
lexical structure
o In English, words tend to be
derived from stable root with
added affixes
o Most Arabic words are based
on a root that consists of a
set of several consonants
combined with different
vowel patterns to create
words with similar meaning
o E.g. From the consonant root
d-r-s: mudarris = teacher,
madrasa = school, darasa =
to learn
o May be difficult for Arabic
speakers to infer word
meanings in English due to
this difference in lexical
structure
Shoebottom (2017); Ryan and Meara (1991)
 References

Al-Saidat, E. M. (2010). Phonological analysis of English phonotactics: a case study of Arab learners of
English. Buckingham Journal Of Language & Linguistics, 3(1), 121.

Amayreh, M. (2003). Completion of the consonant inventory of Arabic. Journal Of Speech, Language &
Hearing Research, 46(3), 517-529.

Amayreh (2003) seeks to provide normative data for the phonological development of Arabic-
speaking children. This article provides helpful background information regarding the forms of
Arabic and explains that the Arabic language is diglossic in nature, meaning that there are
differing spoken and written forms. In addition to the colloquial or dialectical spoken form, the
Modern Standard Form (MSA) and Educated Spoken Arabic (ESA) forms are typically taught
when children enter school. Because the phonemic repertoire varies amongst these forms,
Amayreh (2003) explores the impact of the diglossic nature of the Arabic language on
phonological development. Additionally, the article compiles previous and current research to
produce a useful table displaying the age of acquisition of ESA consonants, classifying them as
early, intermediate, and late emerging sounds. This information may have implications for
speech-language pathologists while making clinical diagnoses of articulation and phonological
disorders in native Arabic speaking children learning English.

Battle, D. E. (2002). Communication Disorders in Multicultural Populations (3rd ed.). Boston, MA:
Butterworth-Heinemann.

This textbook covers many of the most prevalent multicultural populations in the United States,
and discusses clinical implications for Speech-Language Pathologists that may be important
when working with individuals from these populations. Contained in the book is a specific
chapter on Middle Eastern and Arab American Cultures, in which Battle defines the population
and provides background information on the population’s history, including circumstances
surrounding the various waves in which they immigrated to America. Cultural factors such as
lifestyle and family structure are subsequently treated, with special emphasis on the ethnic,
religious, and dialectal diversity among American Arabic speakers. An elaborated discussion on
the clinical implications of Arab culture when it comes to assessment, intervention, and service
delivery is provided here, and would be very useful to reference when working with clients from
this population.

BBC. (n.d.). A Guide to Arabic - 10 facts about the Arabic language. Retrieved December 10, 2017,
from http://www.bbc.co.uk/languages/other/arabic/guide/facts.shtml

Harris, O., Mukati, A. S., & Ghandchi, N. (2012). What SLPs Need to Know when Working with
Muslim Clients. ASHA Leader, 17(13), online onl.

This article was published in the ASHA Leader in 2012 as a resource for SLPs working with
Muslim clients. Many individuals who speak Arabic are also Muslim, and thus practice the
religion of Islam. This resource provides a case example, the basics of Islam, and cultural
considerations. Within cultural considerations, the areas of greetings, food, gender roles, dress
code, and naming conventions are addressed. This resource was created by speech-language
pathologists from Howard University, who are experts in cultural diversity.
 Although this article only provides the basic customs around a subset of Arabic speaking people,
it is a quick, easy-to-read resource to start with. In building your cultural awareness, as an SLP, it
is important to feel well-versed in the basics before learning the cultural complexities that may
be specific to your client. Harris, Mukati, and Ghandchi provide brief, yet substantial
information on Muslim culture and its importance to the SLP’s practice. After reading this
article, you will feel confident in your ability to follow basic cultural customs and provide
appropriate treatment materials for clients who identify with this population.

Khamis-Dakwar, R., Alaskary, H., Benmamoun, A., Green, H., Ouali, H., & Cheung, T. (2012).
Linguistic Guidelines for Language Evaluation of Arab-American Children Using CELF-4 .
Lecture presented at Adelphi University in Adelphi University, Garden City.

Peña Brooks, A. & Hegde, M. N. (2015). Assessment and Treatment of Articulation and Phonological
Disorders in Children (3rd edition). Austin, TX: Pro-ed.

Ryan, A., & Meara, P. (1991). The Case of Invisible Vowels: Arabic Speakers Reading English Words.
Reading a Foreign Language, 7(2), 531-540. Retrieved from
http://nflrc.lll.hawaii.edu/rfl/PastIssues/rfl72ryan.pdf

Shariq, M. (2015). Arabic and English Consonants: A Phonetic and Phonological Investigation.
Advances In Language And Literary Studies, 6(6), 146-152.

In this article, Shariq compares and contrasts the consonants associated with English and Arabic.
He discusses the different manners and places of articulation of both languages and goes into
great detail for those that are unique to the Arabic language. For instance, he explains that the
Arabic language includes an additional place of articulation entitled “uvular” in which the back
of the tongue makes contact with the uvula. This place of articulation is represented by one
plosive and two fricative consonants. Throughout the article, Shariq goes into detail about these
different place-manner combinations in Arabic by providing both explanations and examples for
each. He also includes place-manner charts for both English and Arabic to facilitate the reader in
visualizing the similarities and differences of the consonants associated with the two languages.
Although it provides great detail regarding the similarities and differences for the consonants in
English and Arabic, this article did not discuss how the vowels of these languages compare with
one another.

Shoebottom, P. (2017). The differences between English and Arabic. Retrieved December 09, 2017,
from http://esl.fis.edu/grammar/langdiff/arabic.htm

This resource is a website page developed by the Frankfurt International School to assist
speakers of various languages in learning to speak English as a second language. This page
discusses Arabic in relation to English, the phonetic, grammatical, and semantic differences
between the two languages, and how these differences might affect the learning of English by
native Arabic speakers. One particular phonetic contrast is the relative lack of vowels in Arabic
as compared to English and the expressive and receptive difficulties as a result of this difference.
Grammatical differences, especially pertaining to stress patterns, pronoun rules, verb tenses, and
word order are discussed, along with examples of the resulting error patterns. Finally, difficulty
in semantic acquisition of English may be attributed to the limited number of Arabic-English
cognates. This resource is useful for speech-language pathologists providing services to Arabic
speaking children learning English as a second language.