Understanding the qaf and hamza: Challenging sounds in Arabic

The Letter Qaf

Two of the more challenging sounds of Arabic are the qaf (ق ) and the hamza (ء ).  These can be challenging indeed because there are no English or Western language equivalents.  On the other hand, these two Arabic sounds CAN BE learned from a competent instructor, with reliable audio examples and sufficient practice.

First, the qaf is a k sound that is produced from the back of the throat.  And because the point of articulation of the qaf is so far back in the throat, it tends to ‘flavor’ the sounds of neighboring vowel sounds to be deeper than they would sound in other contexts where the nearby consonants are more ‘frontal’ in the oral cavity. Students of Arabic who have not engaged in sufficient practice tend to produce words with the qaf as if it were a k sound which also exists in Arabic, and then run the risk of not being understood.

Examples of Arabic words with the letter, qaf included:

                                                                      

صَدِيقٌ  --  Sadiiqun — friend

لِقَاءٌ -- liqaa'un — meeting, encounter

القَاهِرَة -- al-qaahira — Cairo

The Letter Hamza

Secondly, the hamza is known as a glottal stop in linguistic terminology.  By itself, it has no sound -- it is a momentary pause of the air stream that normally comes out of the mouth in speech.  Even without sound, it must be acknowledged since Arabic views the hamza as a consonant -- just one with no sound of its own.  An example of how the hamza works is to think of any word in English which begins with a vowel, like ‘apple’.

The split second before the ‘a’ of apple is pronounced, there is a brief moment of silence.  Arabic does not allow such a phenomenon as a word beginning with a vowel sound, one reason being is that vowels are not letters in themselves.  So to the untrained ear, words that sound as if they are beginning with a vowel in Arabic are actually beginning with the hamza and a vowel marker.

Another strange thing about the hamza is that it is not considered to be one of the 28 letters of the Arabic alphabet -- it is the 29th letter which is always treated separately. This is due to the fact that hamza can occur in 4 different ways in a word.  

1. Hamza occurs at the beginning of a word sitting on the alif:  

أكل  [ ‘akala] -- he ate.

2, 3. Hamza occurs in the middle of a word, sitting on a waw or a yaa or even an alif:

شَأْفَة  --  root'  --  sha'fa'         فُؤَاد  --   heart'   --  fu'aad'  

4. And hamza occurs also at the very end of a word, and usually in this position, is by itself on the line, without any other letter supporting it, or serving as its chair:                                              

   قَضَاءٌ  --  qaDaa'un   --  judgment

In the transliterations provided , the hamza letter is represented by the apostrophe (‘).

Tell us in the comments:

Do you find the qaf and hamza sounds difficult to pronounce?

How do you go about practicing these sounds during your Arabic study?