About Arabic and the Transliteration

Arabic is an ancient language closely related to Hebrew and Aramaic, similar to English’s relationship to German and French. The Arabic script is perfect for the rendering of this divine language; however, rendering Arabic words into our Roman letters can be difficult. We are grateful to Shaykh Nooruddeen Durkee’s adaptation of a standard academic transliteration system to the purposes of spiritual recitation.

For ease of use on this website, we have further adapted the MESA system.

' is the glottal stop. Say any English word starting with a vowel: if you listen carefully, you should hear or feel a faint discontinuity of breath at the very beginning before the vowel. This is also the sound in the middle of uh-oh.

th is exactly like “th” in the English words thought and thing.

h is a rough aspirant made in the pharynx, like a cat’s hiss.

kh is a noisy sound like the Scottish loch or Hebrew l’chaim.

dh is exactly like “th” in the words this and that.

r is made lightly with the tip of the tongue, like Spanish pero; doubled (rr), it is rolled more strongly, like Spanish perro.

sh is exactly like “sh” in sheep and show.

s d t dh are “emphatic” counterparts to s d t and dh. Constrict the back of your mouth as you articulate the letters. This gives the vowels around the letters a heavy or dull sound.

‘ is distinctive of Arabic. You can articulate it by making a long “aaaah” tone and tilting your head back until you look straight up. The place where your tongue falls back in your throught is the seat of this sound. It will sound strangled.

gh is the voiced counterpart to kh and is similar to a heavy French or German r.

q is similar to “c” in cough, pronounced further back in the mouth and having a wet quality.

All other letters are similar to their sounds in English spelling: s as in seen, l as in lamb, etc.

A long vowel is marked with a bar (â î û) and is held for two beats, while a short vowel (a i u) is held for one beat.

a â are normally like the “a” in bat. After h kh s d t dh gh q and in the name Allâh, pronounced like “a” in father.

When the Name is preceded by an i, the long â is pronounced like in bat. This is indicated by italicizing a, as in al-hamdu li-llâh.

When w comes after a short a, the sound is like in tow or know, and so we indicate this with ow.

When y comes after a short a, the sound ranges from “i” in bite to “ai” in bait.

i î are like “ee” in beet. u û are like “oo” in boot.

Dashes indicate grammatically separate words or particles pronounced as one unit.
Bismi-llâhi-r-rahmâni-r-rahîm sounds like bismillâhir rahmânir rahîm.

Double consonants like in Allâh are both pronounced with a slight pause between them, like unnerve, irregular.

When n precedes certain letters, its sound becomes softened into a buzz, held for two beats. This is indicated with ñ.

When certain consonants are not followed by a vowel sound, they are pronounced emphatically, resulting in a slight ‘echo’ as the tongue changes position; you can think of this as a slight ‘uh’ sound. This is indicated with å.

Call or email SSC for more information about learning Arabic sounds and recitation.