Arap Dili Fonetiğinde Bazı Kavramların Yansıttığı ‘Ses Üretiminde Süre’ Olgusu Üzerine Bir Deneme
An Essay about ‘The Duration of Articulating’ Phenomenon That Reflected by Some Phonetic Terms of Arabic

Summary/Abstract: Almost all languages have included phonetics in language studies in some way. Arabic was one of the languages that had studied phonetics with more care. Phonetic studies are in general more likely to focus on qualitative articulation characteristics. Whereas either the need for an effort to produce a sound which implicit in articulation characteristics terms, or the ability of the vowels to be extended brings the relationship of sound and duration to the mind. In this work we are aiming, with the help of terms that reflect the duration of articulation, to clarify the aspect of sound duration within disciplines concerned with speech sounds. From some terms used in tajwīd works especially within the section which hold the subject of preserving the scales of sounds and from other phenomena, we concluded that, at least in its practical goals, tajwīd works directed a balanced concern toward both the preservation of the quality and the quantity of speech sounds. SUMMARY: Traditional phonetic studies generally focused on articulation characteristics. Nevertheless in some languages, especially languages that contain long vowels, sound durations were taken into a consideration. Phonetics of Arabic language first studied within linguistic studies but after a while it shared its subjects with tajwīd science and, it seems like other languages, focused on articulation characteristics in terms of topics. But, particularly in tajwīd works, some explanations about sound duration were made within the sections that contained practical strategies of previous data. In a study concerning the connection between sound and duration, preferring the empirical aspects of the sound, which is physiological phenomenon, is natural. Nevertheless speech sounds could be taken up as a study subject by excluding the empiric factors. In order to study the connection between sound and duration in traditional works, we planned to move from terms that supposed to reflect this connection. First we considered the duration of sounds separated from a syntactic unit, on the basis of the idea derived from terms used for articulation manners. In recent studies directed towards measurements of sound duration, articulation manner (ṣifah) were mostly taken into consideration as a distinguishing factor rather than the articulation places (makhraj). One of the four groups of Arabic sound’s articulation characteristics (jahr/hams), based on whether the sound mixed with a voice produced in vocal cords or not. In this group hams sounds, because of being lack of the vocal cord’s voice participation, needed to an additional effort or duration in order to be implied which make them suitable to be extended. The other group contains shiddah/rikhvah/bayniyyah characteristics. Even if they have different characteristics, rikhvah and beyniyyah express a generation of sounds through a kind of infiltration. In respect of the infiltration kind rikhvah sounds are more suitable to be extended, then comes bayniyyah sounds. Because of the iṭbâḳ/infitâḥ and istiʿlâ/istifâl groups are based on wideness of the space, the effects of them on sound duration should be studied with the articulation place (makhraj) effects. The most distinguished evident that shows the effect of makhraj on sound duration was dhâd sound. It has been stated that dhâd takes a time nearly to the long vowels because of its rikhvah characteristic and articulation place. Upon this data we could state that makhraj affects the duration of the sound when it is intertwined with the ṣifah. Although short (ḥaraka) and long vowels were separated according to their significations on the root of a word and this separation were influential on the constitution of the alphabet, it was known implicitly by all linguistic fields that ḥaraka is a phoneme. We can see this matter had been discussed in detail in early ages and proved that ḥaraka is a free sound not a symptom of the consonant. Regardless of the fact that there are confirmations pointing out that the phoneticians, morphologists and ʿarûḍ experts had the image of the proportion of short and long vowels, there is no data about any measurement system. The measurement system was established in the late ages and the units of this system were used especially to measure sound durations which are added to standard length of sounds The usage of the units like “one alif” or “two alif”, for the first time, in commentaries of al-Muḳaddimah of Ibn al-Jazaree which were contemporary with the original book, shows that such units have been used for a long time. About not mentioning these units in Ibn al-Jazaree`s own works, we could interpret it as an element used in teaching and no use of it in written works, or as a hesitation of scientists in the proses of reconciliation on certain terms. Even though the duration of consonants is overlooked because of its unnecessity in the recitation of the Qu’ran, it is an important data that the science of ʿarûḍ considers consonants to be equal to long vowels. On the other hand, divided alif units also were used in measuring over standard long vowels while it was not used in measuring ḥarakah. Grammar works did not focused on measuring itself; instead, it dealt with the conditions which lead to lengthening the sound. Some terms reflecting duration aspect in sounds within a syntactic unit had been used in grammar works also, but we pointed out that tajwīd works concerned in the quantitative aspect of these phenomena more than the other fields. However it seems that tajwīd neglected some very common lengthening or shortening phenomena that applied in everyday speaking. Some of terms like idghām, tashdīd, madd, tamkīn and ishbāʿ have been used mostly to express lengthening even if it was from different aspects, and terms like takhfīf, rawm, ikhtilās and ḳaṣr are used to express the opposite. Numerous terms and detailed explanations show that Arabic phonetics, especially within tajwīd, did not neglect the quantitative side of sound characteristics.

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