Phonology
List of IPA phonemes & as transliterated in this article: 24 consonants:
| /b/ | /t/ | /dʒ/ | /ɡ/ | /ħ/ | /ʕ/ | /d/ | /p/ | /r/ | /z/ | /s/ | /ʃ/ | /sˤ/ | /dˤ/ | /tˤ/ | /ɣ/ | /f/ | /q/ | /k/ | /l/ | /m/ | /n/ | /h/ | /x/ | /w/ | /j/ |
| b | t | j | g | ḥ | ε | d | p | r | z | s | š | ṣ | ḍ | ṭ | γ | f | q | k | l | m | n | h | x | w | y |
| ب | ت | ج | ڨ | ح | ع | د | (پ) | ر | ز | س | ش | ص | ض | ط | غ | ف | ق | ك | ل | م | ن | ه | خ | و | ي |
Some pronounce the consonant q differently : g, k, ' (hamza) or voiced q .
vowels Arabic phonology
long vowels:
- short /a/ (as in "man"), e.g. سامح /sæməħ/ forgave
- /aː/ /sˤɑːħəb/ friend
- /iː/ (as in "ski") e.g. قريت /qriːt/ I read, in the past
- /uː/ (as in "flu") e.g. تِلِفون /tilifuːn/
and short vowels, esp in initial position
- /e/ (as in "men") e.g. قَهوَة, or a shorter version of a as in father
e.g., rɑbːi my God
- /i/ (as in sit) e.g. هِيَ /hijːɑ/ she
- /u/ (as in foot) e.g. قُبَّة /qʊbːɑ/ dome
plus the schwa which replaces /e/ in some positions e.g. انتَ /ənte/
Arguably one of the most notable features of Maghrebi Arabic dialects, including Algerian Arabic, is the collapse of short vowels in some positions. Standard Arabic كِتاب kitab (book) is /ktæb/
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- kalam كَلام (speech) is /klæm/
This feature is also present in Levantine Arabic to a lesser extent. Standard Arabic words containing three syllables are simplified
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- /ħɑdʒɑrɑ/ حَجَرة is /ħɑdʒrɑ/.
Note that Algerian Arabic is particularly rich in uvular, pharyngeal, and pharyngealized ("emphatic") sounds. The emphatic sounds are generally considered to be ṣ, ḍ, and ṭ.
Non-emphatic /r/ and emphatic /rˤ/ are two entirely separate phonemes, almost never contrasting in related forms of a word.
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- e.g. /ərrɑmle/ الرَّملة (sand), as in arrive
- /jədʒri/ يجري (he runs), as in free
Original /q/ splits lexically into /q/ and /ɡ/; for some words, both alternatives exist.
Read more about this topic: Algerian Arabic