While many languages have numerous dialects that differ inphonology, contemporary spokenArabic is more properly described as acontinuum of varieties.[1] This article deals primarily withModern Standard Arabic (MSA), which is thestandard 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.[2]
Modern Standard Arabic has 28consonantphonemes and 6vowel phonemes, with four "emphatic" (pharyngealized) consonants that contrast with their non-emphatic counterparts. Some of these phonemes havecoalesced in the various modern dialects, while new phonemes have been introduced throughborrowing orphonemic splits. A "phonemic quality of length" applies toconsonants as well asvowels.[3]
Of the 29Proto-Semitic consonants, only one has been lost:*/ʃ/, which merged with/s/, while/ɬ/ became/ʃ/ (seeSemitic languages).[4] Various other consonants have changed their sound too, but have remained distinct. An original*/p/ lenited to/f/, and*/ɡ/ – consistently attested in pre-Islamic Greek transcription of Arabic languages[5] – became palatalized to/ɡʲ/ or/ɟ/ by the time of the Quran and/d͡ʒ/,/ɡ/,/ʒ/ or/ɟ/ afterearly Muslim conquests and in MSA (seeArabic phonology#Local variations for more detail).[6] An originalvoiceless alveolar lateral fricative*/ɬ/ became/ʃ/.[7]
Itsemphatic counterpart/ɬˠ~ɮˤ/ was considered by Arabs to be the most unusual sound in Arabic (Hence the Classical Arabic's appellationلُغَةُ ٱلضَّادِluɣatu‿ḍ-ḍād or "language of theḍād"). For most modern dialects, it has become an emphatic stop/dˤ/ with loss of the laterality[7] or with complete loss of any pharyngealization or velarization,/d/. The classicalḍād pronunciation ofpharyngealization/ɮˤ/ still occurs in theMehri language, and the similar sound without velarization,/ɮ/, exists in otherModern South Arabian languages.
Other changes may also have happened. Classical Arabic pronunciation is not thoroughly recorded and differentreconstructions of the sound system of Proto-Semitic propose different phonetic values. One example is the emphatic consonants, which are pharyngealized in modern pronunciations but may have been velarized in the eighth century and glottalized in Proto-Semitic.[7]
Reduction of/j/ and/w/ between vowels occurs in a number of circumstances and is responsible for much of the complexity of third-weak ("defective") verbs. Early Akkadian transcriptions of Arabic names show that this reduction had not yet occurred as of the early part of the 1st millennium BC.[citation needed]
The Classical Arabic language as recorded was a poetickoine that reflected a consciously archaizing dialect, chosen based on the tribes of the western part of theArabian Peninsula, who spoke the most conservative variants of Arabic. Even at the time of Muhammed and before, other dialects existed with many more changes, including the loss of most glottal stops, the loss of case endings, the reduction of the diphthongs/aj/ and/aw/ into monophthongs/eː,oː/, etc. Most of these changes are present in most or all modern varieties of Arabic.[citation needed]
An interesting feature of the writing system of the Quran (and hence of Classical Arabic) is that it contains certain features of Muhammad's native dialect of Mecca, corrected through diacritics into the forms of standard Classical Arabic. Among these features visible under the corrections are the loss of the glottal stop and a differing development of the reduction of certain final sequences containing/j/: Evidently, the final/-awa/ became/aː/ as in the Classical language, but final/-aja/ became a different sound, possibly/eː/ (rather than again/aː/ in the Classical language). This is the apparent source of thealif maqṣūrah 'restricted alif' where a final/-aja/ is reconstructed: a letter that would normally indicate/j/ or some similar high-vowel sound, but is taken in this context to be a logical variant ofalif and represent the sound/aː/.[citation needed]
Arabic phonology has evolved over centuries, influenced by language contact and historical expansion. Classical Arabic phonological features have shifted in modern dialects, partly due to the spread of Arabic through conquest and trade (Versteegh, 2014). These changes have resulted in both the preservation of classical features and significant innovations across dialects.
The "colloquial" spoken dialects of Arabic are learned at home and constitute the native languages of Arabic speakers. "Formal" Modern Standard Arabic is learned at school; although many speakers have a native-like command of the language, it is technically not the native language of any speakers. Both varieties can be both written and spoken, although the colloquial varieties are rarely written down and the formal variety is spoken mostly in formal circumstances, e.g., in radio and TV broadcasts, formal lectures, parliamentary discussions and to some extent between speakers of different colloquial dialects.
Even when the literary language is spoken, it is normally only spoken in its pure form when reading a prepared text out loud and communicating between speakers of different colloquial dialects. When speakingextemporaneously (i.e. making up the language on the spot, as in a normal discussion among people), speakers tend to deviate somewhat from the strict literary language in the direction of the colloquial varieties. There is a continuous range of "in-between" spoken varieties: from nearly pure Modern Standard Arabic (MSA), to a form that still uses MSA grammar and vocabulary but with colloquial influence, to a form of the colloquial language that imports a number of words and grammatical constructions in MSA, to a form that is close to pure colloquial but with the "rough edges" (the most noticeably "vulgar" or non-Classical aspects) smoothed out, to pure colloquial.
The particular variant (orregister) used depends on the social class and education level of the speakers involved and the level of formality of the speech situation. Often it will vary within a single encounter, e.g., moving from nearly pure MSA to a more mixed language in the process of a radio interview, as the interviewee becomes more comfortable with the interviewer. This type of variation is characteristic of thediglossia that exists throughout the Arabic-speaking world.[citation needed]
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Although Modern Standard Arabic (MSA) is a unitary language, its pronunciation varies somewhat from country to country and from region to region within a country. The variation in individual "accents" of MSA speakers tends to mirror corresponding variations in the colloquial speech of the speakers in question, but with the distinguishing characteristics moderated somewhat. It is important in descriptions of "Arabic" phonology to distinguish between pronunciation of a given colloquial (spoken) dialect and the pronunciation of MSA by these same speakers.
Although they are related, they are not the same. For example, the phoneme that derives from Standard Arabic/d͡ʒ/ has many different pronunciations in the modern spoken varieties, e.g.,[d͡ʒ~ʒ~ɟ~ɡʲ~ɡ]. Speakers whose native variety has either[d͡ʒ] or[ʒ] will use the same pronunciation when speaking MSA. Even speakers from Cairo, whose native Egyptian Arabic has[ɡ], normally use[ɡ] when speaking MSA.
Another example: Many colloquial varieties are known for a type ofvowel harmony in which the presence of an "emphatic consonant" triggers backedallophones of nearby vowels (especially of the low vowels/aː/, which are backed to[ɑ(ː)] in these circumstances and very often fronted to[æ(ː)] in all other circumstances). In many spoken varieties, the backed or "emphatic" vowel allophones spread a fair distance in both directions from the triggering consonant. In some varieties, most notably Egyptian Arabic, the "emphatic" allophones spread throughout the entire word, usually including prefixes and suffixes, even at a distance of several syllables from the triggering consonant.
Speakers of colloquial varieties with this vowel harmony tend to introduce it into their MSA pronunciation as well, but usually with a lesser degree of spreading than in the colloquial varieties. For example, speakers of colloquial varieties with extremely long-distance harmony may allow a moderate, but not extreme, amount of spreading of the harmonic allophones in their MSA speech, while speakers of colloquial varieties with moderate-distance harmony may only harmonize immediately adjacent vowels in MSA.[citation needed]
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Modern Standard Arabic has six vowel phonemes forming three pairs of corresponding short and long vowels (/a,aː,i,iː,u,uː/). Many spoken varieties also include/oː/ and/eː/. Modern Standard Arabic has twodiphthongs (formed by a combination of short/a/ with the semivowels/j/ and/w/).Allophony in different dialects of Arabic can occur and is partiallyconditioned by neighboring consonants within the same word. The following are some general rules:
| short | long | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| i | عِدْ/ʕid/ | "promise!" | عِيد/ʕiːd/ | "holiday" |
| u | عُدّ/ʕudd/ | "count (command)" | عُود/ʕuːd/ | "oud" |
| a | عَدّ/ʕadd/ | "counted" | عَاد/ʕaːd/ | "came back" |
| aj | عَيْن/ʕajn/ | "eye" | ||
| aw | عَوْد/ʕawd/ | "return" | ||
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.[12] Often, even highly proficient speakers will import the vowel-retraction rules from their native dialects.[13] 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.[14] Certain speakers (most notablyLevantine speakers) exhibit a degree of asymmetry in leftward vs. rightward spread of vowel-retraction.[14][15]
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The finalheavy syllable of a root isstressed.[11]
The short vowels[u,ʊ,o,o̞,ɔ] are all possibleallophones of/u/ across different dialects; e.g.,قُلْت/ˈqult/ ('I said') is pronounced[ˈqʊlt] or[ˈqolt] or[ˈqɔlt], since the difference between the shortmid vowels[o,o̞,ɔ] and[u,ʊ] is never phonemic, and they are mostly found incomplementary distribution, except for a number of speakers where they can be phonemic but only in foreign words.
The short vowels[i,ɪ,e,e̞,ɛ] are all possible allophones of/i/ across different dialects; e.g.,مِن/ˈmin/ ('from') is pronounced[ˈmɪn] or[ˈmen] or[ˈmɛn] since the difference between the short mid vowels[e,e̞,ɛ] and[i,ɪ] is never phonemic, and they are mostly found in complementary distribution, except for a number of speakers where they can be phonemic but only in foreign words.
The long mid vowels/oː/ and/eː/ appear to be phonemic in most varieties of Arabic except in generalMaghrebi Arabic, where they merge with/uː/ and/iː/. For example, لون ('color') is generally pronounced/loːn/ inMashriqi dialects but/luːn/ in mostMaghrebi Arabic. The long mid vowels can be used in Modern Standard Arabic in dialectal words or in some stable loanwords or foreign names,[16] as inروما/ˈroːma/ ('Rome') andشيك/ˈʃeːk/ ('cheque').
Foreign words often have a liberal sprinkling of long vowels, as vowels tend to be written as long vowels in foreign loans, under the influence of European-language orthographies which write down every vowel with a letter.[17] The long mid vowels/eː/ and/oː/ are always rendered with the lettersي andو, respectively, accompanied by a preceding hamzah sitting above (أ) and below (إ) an alif (ا) respectively word-initially. In general, the pronunciation of loanwords is highly dependent on the speaker's native variety.
Even in the most formal contexts, pronunciation of Arabic depends on the speaker's background,[18] even if number and phonetic character of most of the 28 consonants has a broad degree of regularity among Arabic-speaking regions. Arabic is particularly rich inuvular,pharyngeal, andpharyngealized ("emphatic") sounds. The emphaticcoronals (/sˤ/,/dˤ/,/tˤ/, and/ðˤ/) causeassimilation of emphasis to adjacent non-emphatic coronal consonants.[citation needed] The standard pronunciation of ⟨ج⟩ varies regionally, most prominently[d͡ʒ] in theArabian Peninsula; this pronunciation is also found inIraq, parts of theLevant, north-centralAlgeria, and parts of Egypt; it is also considered as the predominant pronunciation of Literary Arabic outside the Arab world, the pronunciation used in Qur'an recitation and the pronunciation mostly used in Arabic loanwords across other languages (e.g. in Georgian, Malay, Persian, Turkish and Urdu). Other pronunciations include[ʒ] in most ofNorthwest Africa and the Levant and in some parts of the Arabian Peninsula, and[ɡ] essentially inEgypt ([ɡ], though it also appears as a dialectal pronunciation in parts of coastalYemen and south coastalOman but it is not used when speaking MSA), as well as[ɟ] inSudan, parts of Yemen and parts of Oman.
Note: the table and notes below discuss the phonology of Modern Standard Arabic among Arabic speakers and notregional dialects.
| Labial | Dental | Denti-alveolar | Post-alv./ Palatal | Velar | Uvular | Pharyngeal | Glottal | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| plain | emphatic[a] | |||||||||
| Nasal | m م | n ن | ||||||||
| Plosive | voiceless[b] | t ت | tˤ ط | k ك | q ق | ʔ أ | ||||
| voiced | b ب | d د | dˤ ض | d͡ʒ ج[c] | (ɡ)[d] | |||||
| Fricative | voiceless | f ف | θ ث | s س | sˤ ص | ʃ ش | x ~χ[e] خ | ħ ح | h هـ | |
| voiced | ð ذ | z ز | ðˤ ظ | ɣ ~ʁ[e] غ | ʕ ع | |||||
| Trill | r[f] ر | |||||||||
| Approximant | l ل | (ɫ)[g] | j ي | w و | ||||||
Long (geminate or double) consonants are pronounced exactly like short consonants, but last longer. In Arabic, they are calledmushaddadah ("strengthened", marked with ashaddah). Between a long consonant and a pause, anepenthetic[ə] occurs,[11] but this is only common across regions in West Asia.
Standard Arabic syllables come in only five forms:[26]
Standard Arabicsyllable structure does not allow syllables to start with a vowel or with a consonant cluster.[26] In cases where a word starts with a consonant cluster it is preceded by an epenthetic/ʔi/ utterance initially or/i/ when preceded by a word that ends with a consonant; there are however exceptions likeمن/min/ andـهم/-hum/ that connect with a following word-initial consonant cluster with/a/ and/u/ respectively, if the preceding word ends with a long vowel that vowel is then shortened.
Super-heavy syllables are usually not allowed except word finally,[26] with the exception of CVV- before geminates creating non-final CVVC- syllables, these can be found in the active participles of geminate Form I verbs, like in مادة/maːd.da/ ('substance, matter'), كافة/kaːf.fa/ ('entirely'). In thepausal form, the finalgeminates behave as a single consonant, only when preceding another word or withvocalization, the geminates start appearing, belonging to two separate syllables. E.g.: سام/saːm(.m)/ ('poisonous'), جاف/d͡ʒaːf(.f)/ ('dry'), عام/ʕaːm(.m)/ ('public, general'), خاص/χaːsˤ(.sˤ)/ ('private, special'), and حار/ħaːr(.r)/ ('hot, spicy').[26]
Loanwords can break some phonotactic rules like allowing initial consonant clusters (with an initial epenthetic/i/ or often another repeated vowel from the word being optional inserted after the first consonant) like inاستاد/(i)s.taːd/ "stadium" andفلورنسا/f(i).loː.ran.saː/ "Florence" or allowing CVVC syllables non-finally without geminates like inروسيا/ruːs.jaː/ "Russia" andسوريا/suːr.jaː/ "Syria", which can be modified to/ruː.si.jaː,suː.ri.jaː/ to fit the phonotactics better.[26]
The placement of word stress in Arabic varies considerably from one dialect to another, and has been the focus of extensive research and debate.
In determining stress, Arabic distinguishes three types of syllables:[27]: 2991
The word stress of Classical Arabic has been the subject of debate. However, there is consensus as to the general rule, even though there are some exceptions. A simple rule of thumb is that word-stress falls on the penultimate syllable of a word if that syllable is closed, and otherwise on the antepenultimate.[28]
A more precise description is J. C. E. Watson's. Here the stressed syllable follows the marker ' and variant rules are in brackets:[27]: 3003
Modern Arabic dialects all maintain rules (1) and (2). But if there is neither a final superheavy syllable nor a heavy penultimate syllable, their behaviour varies. Thus in Palestinian, rule (3) is instead 'otherwise stress the first syllable (up to the antepenult):كَتَب/ˈkatab/'he wrote',زَلَمة/ˈzalamah/'man', whereas the basic rules of Cairene (to which there are exceptions) are:[27]: 2993, 3004
Spoken varieties differ fromClassical Arabic andModern Standard Arabic not only in grammar but also in pronunciation. this variation might affect the way Modern Standard Arabic is spoken in each country or region.
Some examples of variation:
The standard pronunciation of ⟨ج⟩ in MSA varies regionally, most prominently[d͡ʒ] in theArabian Peninsula, parts of theLevant,Iraq, north-centralAlgeria, and parts of Egypt, it is also considered as the predominant pronunciation of Literary Arabic outside the Arab world and the pronunciation mostly used in Arabic loanwords across other languages (e.g. in Georgian, Malay, Persian, Turkish and Urdu), and[ʒ] in most ofNorthwest Africa, most of the Levant, some parts of the Arabian Peninsula, other pronunciations include[ɡ] only inEgypt ([ɡ] appears as a dialectal pronunciation in coastalYemen, and south coastalOman but not as a standard pronunciation in MSA), as well as[ɟ] inSudan.
In Modern Standard Arabic (not in Egypt's use),/ɡ/ is used as a marginal phoneme to pronounce some dialectal and loan words. On the other hand, it is considered a nativephoneme orallophone in most modern Arabic dialects, mostly as a variant ofق/q/ (as inArabian Peninsula andNorthwest African dialects) or as a variant of/d͡ʒ/ج (as in Egyptian and a number of Yemeni and Omani dialects). It is also considered a separate foreign phoneme that appears only in loanwords, as in most urbanLevantine dialects whereق is/ʔ/ andج is/d͡ʒ~ʒ/.
The dentalض[dˤ] was historically[ɮˤ], a value it retains among older speakers in a few isolated dialects.[29]
Mergers and mispronunciations
Regional modern dialects may influence the way Modern Standard Arabic is spoken, which sometimes causes mergers or mispronunciations in consonants:
Foreign phonemes
The foreign phonemes/p/,/v/,/t͡ʃ/,/t͡s/ etc. are not necessarily pronounced by all Arabic speakers, but they can be pronounced by some speakers especially in foreign proper nouns and loanwords./p/ and/v/ are usually transcribed with their own lettersﭖ/p/ andﭪ/v/ but as these letters are not part of Standard Arabic, and they are simply written withب/b/ andف/f/, e.g. The use of both sounds may be considered marginal and Arabs may pronounce the words interchangeably; bothنوفمبر andنوڤمبر/nu(ː)fambar/,/novambar,-ber/ or/nofember/ "November", bothكاپريس andكابريس/ka(ː)pri(ː)s,ka(ː)bri(ː)s/ "caprice" can be used.[17][32]
/t͡ʃ/ is a possible loanword phoneme, as in the wordسندوتش orساندوتش (sandawitš orsāndwitš 'sandwich'), though a number of varieties instead break up the[t] and[ʃ] sounds with an epenthetic vowel.[33] Egyptian Arabic treats/t͡ʃ/ as two consonants ([tʃ]) and inserts[e], as [teʃC] or [Cetʃ], when it occurs before or after another consonant./t͡ʃ/ is found as normal inIraqi Arabic andGulf Arabic dialects.[34] Normally the combinationتش (tā’-shīn) is used to transliterate the[tʃ]. e.g.تشاد/t͡ʃaːd/ "Chad".
The most frequent consonant phoneme is/r/, the rarest is/ðˤ/. The frequency distribution of the 28 consonant phonemes, based on the 2,967 triliteral roots listed by Wehr[32] is (with the percentage of roots in which each phoneme occurs):
| Phoneme | Frequency | Phoneme | Frequency | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| /r/ | 24% | /w/ | 18% | |
| /l/ | 17% | /m/ | 17% | |
| /n/ | 17% | /b/ | 16% | |
| /f/ | 14% | /ʕ/ | 13% | |
| /q/ | 13% | /d/ | 13% | |
| /s/ | 13% | /ħ/ | 12% | |
| /j/ | 12% | /ʃ/ | 11% | |
| /d͡ʒ/ | 10% | /k/ | 9% | |
| /h/ | 8% | /z/ | 8% | |
| /tˤ/ | 8% | /χ/ | 8% | |
| /sˤ/ | 7% | /ʔ/ | 7% | |
| /t/ | 6% | /dˤ/ | 5% | |
| /ʁ/ | 5% | /θ/ | 3% | |
| /ð/ | 3% | /ðˤ/ | 1% |
This distribution does not necessarily reflect the actual frequency of occurrence of the phonemes in speech, since pronouns, prepositions and suffixes are not taken into account, and the roots themselves will occur with varying frequency. In particular,/t/ occurs in several extremely commonaffixes (occurring in the marker for second-person or feminine third-person as aprefix, the marker for first-person or feminine third-person as asuffix, and as the second element ofForms VIII and X as aninfix) despite being fifth from last on Wehr's list. The list does give, however, an idea of which phonemes are more marginal than others. Note that the five least frequent letters are among the six letters added to those inherited from thePhoenician alphabet, namely,ḍād,ṯāʾ,ḫāʾ,ẓāʾ,ḏāl andġayn.
TheLiterary Arabic sample text is a reading ofThe North Wind and the Sun by a speaker who was born inSafed, lived and was educated inBeirut from age 8 to 15, subsequently studied and taught inDamascus, studied phonetics in Scotland and since then has resided in Scotland and Kuwait.[35]
/kaːnatriːħuʃ.ʃamaːlitatad͡ʒaːdaluwaʃ.ʃamsafiːʔaj.jinminhumaːkaːnatʔaqwaːminalʔuxraː|waʔiðbimusaːfirinjatˤlaʕumutalaf.fiʕanbiʕabaːʔatinsamiːka||fat.tafaqataːʕalaʕ.tibaːris.saːbiqifiːʔid͡ʒbaːril.musaːfiriʕalaːxalʕiʕabaːʔatihil.ʔaqwaː||ʕasˤafatriːħuʃ.ʃamaːlibiʔaqsˤaːmas.tatˤaːʕatminquw.wa||walaːkinkul.lamaz.daːdal.ʕasˤfuz.daːdalmusaːfirutadaθ.θuranbiʕabaːʔatih|ʔilaːʔanʔusqitˤafiːjadir.riːħifataxal.latʕanmuħaːwalatihaː||baʕda.ʔiðinsatˤaʕatiʃ.ʃamsubidifʔihaː|famaːkaːnaminalmusaːfiriʔil.laːʔanxalaʕaʕabaːʔatahuʕalat.taw||wahaːkaðat.tˤur.ratriːħuʃ.ʃamaːliʔilal.ʔiʕtiraːfibiʔan.naʃ.ʃamsakaːnathijal.ʔaqwaː/[36]
/kaːnatriːħuʃ.ʃamaːltatad͡ʒaːdalwaʃ.ʃamsfiːʔaj.jinminhumaːkaːnatʔaqwaːminalʔuxraː|waʔiðbimusaːfirjatˤlaʕmutalaf.fiʕanbiʕabaːʔasamiːkah||fat.tafaqataːʕalaʕ.tibaːris.saːbiqfiːʔid͡ʒbaːrilmusaːfirʕalaːxalʕʕabaːʔatihil.ʔaqwaː||ʕasˤafatriːħuʃ.ʃamaːlbiʔaqsˤaːmastatˤaːʕatminquw.wa||walaːkinkul.lamaz.daːdal.ʕasˤfuz.daːdal.musaːfirtadaθːuranbiʕabaːʔatih|ʔilaːʔanʔusqitˤfiːjadir.riːħfataxal.latʕanmuħaːwalatihaː||baʕdaʔiðinsatˤaʕatiʃ.ʃamsbidifʔihaː|famaːkaːnminalmusaːfirʔil.laːʔanxalaʕaʕabaːʔatahuʕalat.taw||wahaːkaðat.tˤur.ratriːħuʃ.ʃamaːlʔilal.ʔiʕtiraːfbiʔan.naʃ.ʃamskaːnathijal.ʔaqwaː/
[ˈkæːnætriːħæʃ.ʃæˈmæːltætæˈɡæːdælwæʃˈʃæm.sefiːˈʔæj.jinmenˈhomæˈkæːnætˈʔɑqwɑmɪnælˈʔʊxrɑ|wæʔɪðbimʊˈsæːferˈjɑtˤlɑʕmʊtæˈlæf.feʕbiʕæˈbæːʔæsæˈmiːkæ||fæt.tæfɑqɑˈtæːˈʕælæʕ.teˈbɑːrɪsˈsɑːbeqfiːʔeɡbɑːrælmʊˈsæːferˈʕælæˈxælʕeʕæbæːˈʔæt(i)hilˈʔɑqwɑː||ˈʕɑsˤɑfɑtriːħæʃ.ʃæˈmæːlbiˈʔɑqsˤɑmæs.tɑˈtˤɑːʕɑtmɪnˈqow.wɑ||wæˈlæːkenkʊlˈlæmæzˈdæːdælʕɑsˤfɪzˈdæːdæl.mʊˈsæːfertædæθˈθʊrænbiʕæbæːˈʔætih|ˈʔilæʔænˈʔosqetˤfiːjædærˈriːħfætæˈxæl.lætʕænmʊħæːwæˈlæt(i)hæ||bæʕdæˈʔiðinˈsɑtˤɑʕɑtæʃˈʃæm.sebidɪfˈʔihæ|fæmæːkæːnmɪnæl.mʊˈsæːferˈʔil.læʔænˈxælæʕʕæbæːˈʔætæhʕælætˈtæw||wæhæːˈkæðætˈtˤor.rɑtriːħæʃ.ʃæˈmæːlˈʔilæl.ʔeʕteˈrɑːfbiˈʔænnæʃˈʃæm.seˈkæːnætˈhɪ.jælˈʔɑqwɑ]
Kānat rīḥ al-shamāl tatajādalu wa-al-shams fī ayyin minhumā kānat aqwá min al-ukhrá, wa-idh bi-musāfir yaṭlaʻu mutalaffiʻ bi-ʻabāʼah samīkah. Fa-ittafaqatā ʻalá iʻtibār al-sābiq fī ijbār al-musāfir ʻalá khalʻ ʻabāʼatihi al-aqwá. ʻAṣafat rīḥ al-shamāl bi-aqṣá mā istaṭāʻat min qūwah. Wa-lākin kullamā izdāda al-ʻaṣf izdāda al-musāfir tadaththuran bi-ʻabāʼatih, ilá an usqiṭ fī yad al-rīḥ fa-takhallat ʻan muḥāwalatihā. Baʻdaʼidhin saṭaʻat al-shams bi-difʼihā, fa-mā kāna min al-musāfir illā an khalaʻa ʻabāʼatahu ʻalá al-taww. Wa-hākadhā iḍṭurrat rīḥ al-shamāl ilá al-iʻtirāf bi-an al-shams kānat hiya al-aqwá.
kānat rīḥu š-šamāli tatajādalu wa-š-šamsa fī ʾayyin minhumā kānat ʾaqwā mina l-ʾuḵrā, wa-ʾiḏ bi-musāfirin yaṭluʿu mutalaffiʿan bi-ʿabāʾatin samīkatin. fa-t-tafaqatā ʿalā ʿtibāri s-sābiqi fī ʾijbāri l-musāfiri ʿalā ḵalʿi ʿabāʾatihi l-ʾaqwā. ʿaṣafat rīḥu š-šamāli bi-ʾaqṣā mā staṭāʿat min quwwatin. walākin kullamā zdāda l-ʿaṣfu zdāda l-musāfiru tadaṯṯuran bi-ʿabāʾatihi, ʾilā ʾan ʾusqiṭa fī yadi r-rīḥi fataḵallat ʿan muḥāwalatihā. baʿdaʾiḏin saṭaʿati š-šamsu bi-difʾihā, famā kāna mina l-musāfiri ʾillā ʾan ḵalaʿa ʿabāʾatahu ʿalā t-tawwi. wa-hakaḏā ḍṭurrat rīḥu š-šamāli ʾilā l-ʾiʿtirāfi biʾanna š-šamsa kānat hiya l-ʾaqwā.
The North Wind and the Sun were disputing which was the stronger, when a traveler came along wrapped in a warm cloak. They agreed that the one who first succeeded in making the traveler take his cloak off should be considered stronger than the other. Then the North Wind blew as hard as he could, but the more he blew the more closely did the traveler fold his cloak around him; and at last the North Wind gave up the attempt. Then the Sun shined out warmly, and immediately the traveler took off his cloak. And so the North Wind was obliged to confess that the Sun was the stronger of the two.
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