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While many languages have numerous dialects that differ in phonology, the contemporary spoken Arabic language is more properly described as a continuum of varieties. This article deals primarily with Modern Standard Arabic (MSA), which is the standard variety shared by educated speakers throughout Arabic-speaking regions. MSA is used in writing in formal print media and orally in newscasts, speeches and formal declarations of numerous types. Modern Standard Arabic has 28 consonant phonemes and 6 vowel phonemes. Consonant phonemes contrast between "emphatic" (uvularized) consonants and non-emphatic ones. Some of these phonemes have coalesced in the various modern dialects, while new phonemes have been introduced through borrowing or phonemic splits. A "phonemic quality of length" applies to consonants as well as vowels. ==Vowels== Arabic only has three vowel phonemes, which can be pronounced as long or short. It has two diphthongs (formed by a combination of short with the semivowels and ) in classic Arabic with no allophones. Allophony in different dialects of Arabic can occur, and is partially conditioned by neighboring consonants within the same word. As a general rule, for example, and are: * * * retracted to in the environment of a neighboring , or an emphatic consonant (one that is uvularized, though customarily transcribed as if pharyngealized): , , , , and in a few regional standard pronunciations also and ; * * only in Iraq and Persian Gulf: before a word boundary;〔 * * advanced to in the environment of most consonants: * * * labial consonants (, and ), * * * plain (non-emphatic) coronal consonants with the exception of (, , , , , , , , and ) * * * pharyngeal consonants ( and ) * * * glottal consonants ( and ) * * * , and ; * * Across North Africa and West Asia, the allophones and may be realized differently, either as , or both as * * In northwestern Africa, the open front vowel is raised to or . * * * Across North Africa and West Asia, may be realized as . can also have different realizations, i.e. . Sometimes with one value for each vowel in both short and long lengths or two different values for each short and long lengths. * * In Egypt, close vowels have different values; short initial or medial: , ← instead of . Unstressed final long are most often shortened or reduced: → , → , → . However, the actual rules governing vowel-retraction are a good deal more complex, and have relatively little in the way of an agreed-upon standard, as there are often competing notions of what constitutes a "prestige" form. Often, even highly proficient speakers will import the vowel-retraction rules from their native dialects. Thus, for example, in the Arabic of someone from Cairo emphatic consonants will affect every vowel between word boundaries, whereas certain Saudi speakers exhibit emphasis only on the vowels adjacent to an emphatic consonant. Certain speakers (most notably Levantine speakers) exhibit a degree of asymmetry in leftward vs. rightward spread of vowel-retraction.〔 The final heavy syllable of a root is stressed.〔 However, the pronunciation of loanwords is highly dependent on the speaker's native variety. The vowels , , and appear in varieties of Arabic and some stable loanwords or foreign names.〔Elementary Modern Standard Arabic: Volume 1, by Peter F. Abboud (Editor), Ernest N. McCarus (Editor)〕 E.g. ('Coca-Cola'), ('chocolate'), or ('doctor'), ('John'), ('Tom'), ('Belgium'), or ('secretary'), etc. Foreign words often have a liberal sprinkling of long vowels, as their word shapes do not conform to standardized prescriptive pronunciations written by letters for short vowels.〔Teach Yourself Arabic, by Jack Smart (Author), Frances Altorfer (Author)〕 For short vowels and , there may be no vowel letter written, as is normally done in Arabic (unless they are at the beginning of a word), or long vowel letters (for ) or (for ) are used. The letters or are always used to render the long vowels and . 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Arabic phonology」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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