Some Phonology of the Qur' N

The Phonology of nasal n in the Language of the Holy Qur'an, 2004

Tajweed - the tradition of the Holy Qur'an's recitation - is composed of about twenty-eight phonological patterns, which have an underlying semantic/pragmatic meaning of sacredness. Nasal n assimilation patterns of 'idghaam (gemination with & without nasalization), 'ikhfa' (nasal place assimilation), 'iqlaab (labial place assimilation) and 'iThhaar (zero nasal assimilation) are taken as representative of Tajwid in this work. The central theme of this thesis is two fold. First, the twenty-eight sounds of the language of the Holy Qur'an (LHQ) as used in the four patterns of nasal n assimilation are distributed among the three natural sound classes of sonorants, obstruents and gutturals, the latter of which crosscuts the other two.Second, the realization of the meaning of sacredness in the LHQ is best accounted for by Kurisu's (2001) Realize Morpheme Theory set in Optimality Theory (Prince and Smolensky 1993). Kurisu's (2001) Realize Morpheme constraint is expanded herein to encompass a variety of meanings; i.e., morphosyntactic and non-morphosyntactic. Like Kurisu (2001), I contend that faith is relativized to the meaning expressed in that each pattern is determined by ranking a particular faithfulness constraint in relation to RM. However, the meaning expressed in the LHQ is non-morphosyntactic.

Papers in Linguistics , 2023

In the Holy Quran, there are many phonological processes. One of these phonological processes is closed syllable shortening in which long vowels are shortened. This process occurs as a result of some morphological features which are included in the inflectional categories governing verbal forms in the Holy Quran. It is accomplished either in imperfective or perfective forms pertinent to verbs. Furthermore, this process is only concerned with hollow verbs which are intermediated by long vowels. Hollow verbs are shortened according to tense, voice, mood, and aspect. In the imperfective form, hollow verbs are shortened when they are preceded by the negative particle “lam”; furthermore, they are attributed to the first person singular/plural, second person masculine singular, and third person feminine singular/plural. As for the perfective form, hollow verbs are shortened when they are attributed to the first person singular/plural, second person masculine/feminine singular/plural, and third person feminine plural. Accordingly, there is an interaction between the morphological and phonological systems in the Holy Quran.

This study compares the phonetic rules of the Muslim's holy book, the Qur'an, to the phonetic rules of the English language in an effort to prove that the Qur'an's phonetic rules cannot be linked entirety to the holy Qur'an, nor the Arabic tongue; but rather they date back to the time the human tongue was created to function. The Qur'an's phonetic rules were discussed in detail under the subject known as " Tajwid " (pronounced " Tajweed ") but were not compared to the natural speech mechanism in other languages. In doing so, this study demonstrates the common features in the phonetic environment of some Arabic and English speech sounds when they co-exist in a connected speech pattern. Based on the several examples this study illustrates, the author suggests that the differences between the Qur'an's phonetic rules and our innate speech mechanism are only some melodic touches that help differentiate reciting the Qur'an from other sorts of Arabic literature.

The paper investigates the phonological features of the seven modes of reading the Qur'an. The source of the modes of reading is attributed primarily to the Prophet Muhammad. However, the feeling of who is more accurate in his reading than the others among Muslim Qur'an reciters has led to the abrogation of all personal codices which are replaced by the official Uthmanic canonical codex. The marathon journey of the modes of reading has started during the 1 st /7 th century in Medina, Makkah, Kufah, Basra, and Damascus. Variant modes of reading are either phonetically-oriented, or semantically-oriented. The phonetically-oriented mode of reading involves vocalic and diacritic differences. However, the semantically-oriented mode of reading focuses on within-the-text exegetical expressions. The major differences among the Qur'an reciters can be classified into: (i) differences in consonants, and (ii) differences in vowels. Differences in consonants involve assimilation, almutamāthilain (two adjacent sounds), tashīl alhamza (pronouncing the glottal stop between glottal stop and the glottal fricative), alibdal (substitution), alqalb almakāni (metathesis), alnaql (the process of pronouncing the glottal stop [Ɂ] as an open vowel [a]), alta'āt (the voiceless alveolar plosive) [t]), alra'āt (the voiced alveolar trill [r] and the voiced alveolar tap [ɾ]), and allāmāt (the voiced alveolar laterals). However, differences in vowels include alimālah (the deflection of particular vowels from the fathah towards the kasrah or alif towards the yaa' sound), al-ishmām (the rounding of lips without any sound at the same time of producing the unrounded vowel), al-ikhtilās (the close vowel is reduced to mid-close vowel), alrawm (the process of lip gesture alluding to the vowel in the pause position with an extra short vowel [ɪ̆ ], [ă], or [ŭ]), vowel lengthening, vowel elision, and vowel change.

Purpose: To generate generative phonological rules for the Quranic phonological rules of the Arabic mainly non-syllabic Nuun"s rules.

Arab World English Journal For Translation and Literary Studies, 2021

This paper investigates the Qur’ānic conditionally pharyngealized sounds which are /rʕ/, /l/, and /a:/. The Qur’ānic /rʕ/ sound undergoes a depharyngealization process. The Qur’ānic /l/ sound in the word Allah, on the other hand, exhibits pharyngealization, as does the Qur’ānic /a:/ sound. Hence, the study aims to provide a thorough examination of these phonological processes within the Optimality Theory framework. The study also attempts to answer the following questions: (1) What constraints are considered to account for the pharyngealization of the Qur’ānic sounds /l/ and /a:/ and the depharyngealization of the Qur’ānic sound /rʕ/ in the Holy Qur’ān? and (2) How does the grammar rank these constraints to achieve the pharyngealization of the Qur’ānic sounds /l/ and /a:/ and the depharyngealization of the Qur’ānic sound /rʕ/ in the Holy Qur’ān? Both questions have been fully addressed. In addition, this study has proven that the pharyngealized /rʕ/ is the underlying representation ...

Proceedings from the International Language Conference 2008 @ IIUM, Malaysia, Downloadable from http://www.iium.edu.my., 2008

The purpose of the study was to uncover the unfortunately neglected contributions made by Muslims to the modern linguistics by comparing and contrasting the descriptive framework of Tajweed of the Holy Qur'an and that of the generative phonology. The results of the study indicated that Tajweed and generative phonology were for the most part similar in terms of features, sound classifications and phonological processes. As for the features, it was observed that for any single feature given in generative phonology there was also one or more equivalent features in Tajweed. As for the sound classifications, they showed an amount of 83% as similarities in the assignment of sounds to their due features. As with respect to the phonological processes, both of them have recognized two levels of representations; phonemic representation (i.e. haq) 1 is the underlying representation and phonetic representation (i.e. mustahaq) is the surface representation after phonological rules have been applied to the phonemic representation. As the study demonstrated the high degree of similarities between the two frameworks is indicative of the fact that Muslim contributions to the study of linguistics is indeed eminent but efforts are need to introduce Islamic linguistics word-wide.

2014

v Acknowledgements vii Externals’ Reports of this thesis viii-ix INTRODUCTION 1 1.1 1.1.1 1.1.2 1.1.3 1.1.4 1.1.5 The Prefixed Letters:An Introduction Prefixed Letters as Letters Only 2 Declining the Alphabet 3 Alphabet as Verses 3 Use of Letters in Arabic Literature 4 Grouping the Letters 5 1 1.2 Background to the Study 8 1.3 Aims and Assumptions 10 1.4 Research Statement 11 1.5 Objectives of the Research 12 1.6 Significance of the Study 13 1.7 Organization of the Thesis 14 1.8 Qur’anic Text and Translation 15 1.9 Transliteration 16 1.10 Terminology used 16 1.11 Formatting Style 16 1.11 Limitation of Stylistic Approach 16 Chapter 2 LITERATURE REVIEW/THE PREFIXED LETTERS 18 2.1 2.1.1 2.1.2 2.1.3 2.1.4 2.1.5 2.1.6 2.1.7 2.1.7.1 2.1.7.2 General Introduction to the Chapter Context of the Prefixed Letters 19 The Traditionalists 20 Interpretation Not Possible 21 Specialty of the Qur’an 22 Non Textual Interpretations 24 Number Based Interpretation 24 Names of God 24 Names of the Qur’an 25...

The present research aims to discuss the phonological patterns in Quranic verse-final pauses (fawāṣil) in order to provide an insight into the phonetic network governing the symmetrical and the asymmetrical pauses (fawāṣil) in terms of concordance (al-nasaq al-ṣawti). The data are collected from different parts of the Quran and are investigated with focus on three major phonetic criteria: the phonetic features of the fawāṣil, the fāṣilah shift from the surrounding fawāṣil, and the semantically-oriented sounds. The discussion concludes that the Quranic fawāṣil are either completely symmetrical in the fāṣilah-final syllables, semi-symmetrical in the fāṣilah final syllables. It also reveals that some fawāṣil share the same foot (taf'ilah) and rhythm (al-iqā'), while others have different foot and rhythm, but they are similar in some sounds. Other fawāṣil are similar in the foot but different in sounds, while others are similar in the last two sounds. The last category is when the Surah ends with a different fāṣilah from all the previous fawāṣil. The analysis also reveals that the fawāṣil are semantically-oriented in the sense that they are not only concerned with ornamentation and undulation of the sounds but they also convey deep meanings which move the hearer to listen carefully and to abide by the Quranic teachings.

2016

The present research aims to discuss the phonological patterns in Quranic verse-final pauses (fawāṣil) in order to provide an insight into the phonetic network governing the symmetrical and the asymmetrical pauses (fawāṣil) in terms of concordance (al-nasaq al-ṣawti). The data are collected from different parts of the Quran and are investigated with focus on three major phonetic criteria: the phonetic features of the fawāṣil, the fāṣilah shift from the surrounding fawāṣil, and the semantically-oriented sounds. The discussion concludes that the Quranic fawāṣil are either completely symmetrical in the fāṣilah-final syllables, semi-symmetrical in the fāṣilah final syllables. It also reveals that some fawāṣil share the same foot (taf'ilah) and rhythm (al-iqā'), while others have different foot and rhythm, but they are similar in some sounds. Other fawāṣil are similar in the foot but different in sounds, while others are similar in the last two sounds. The last category is when...