Arabi is the Language of Ḍhāʾ: Arabic Phonetic Evolution and the Identity of the Arabi (Contemporary Standard Spoken Arabic CSSA)

Abstract

Arabic, encompassing its diverse linguistic varieties, is the tongue of the Ḍhāʾ- a sound uniquely articulated by Arabs, which non-Arabic speakers historically struggled to pronounce accurately. The letter Ḍhāʾ (ظ) has always been phonetically and articulatory closer to Ḍhād (ض) than any other letter. Historical sources examining Arabic phonetics largely agree that pre-codification Arabs either did not distinguish between the sounds of Ḍhāʾ and Ḍhād or did so with great difficulty. This ambiguity led to instances where Quranic verses, such as Ḍhanīn in "وما هو على الغيب بظنين" were also recited with Ḍhād ("بضنين"). This phenomenon prompted renowned Arab linguists like Al-Ṣāḥib ibn ʿAbbād (d. 385 AH), Abū ʿAmr al-Dānī (d. 444 AH), and Abū al-Barakāt al-Anbārī (d. 577 AH) to author numerous works differentiating the two sounds.

To this day, Arabic speakers - particularly in the Eastern Arab world (e.g., Iraq and the Gulf states) - face challenges in distinguishing these sounds both orally and orthographically. This is evident in the English transliteration of words like Abu Ḍhabi (أبو ظبي) and Riyaḍh (الرياض), where both sounds are represented by the same letter. However, in the early 20th century, some Egyptians in Cairo began differentiating the two sounds by altering the pronunciation of Ḍād. They shifted it from its traditional Arabic articulation as a voiced dental fricative to a new emphatic plosive sound, akin to the letter Dāl (د).

This paper investigates the phonetic evolution affecting some Arabs’ pronunciation of Ḍhād, the impact of this "linguistic shift" on contemporary Arabic orthography and the identity of the Arabic tongue, and the feasibility of redefining the Arabic linguistic identity through the distinctiveness of Ḍhāʾ rather than Ḍhād.