Prominent Phonetic Features of Arabic Pharyngeal Consonants

Pharyngeal consonants are generally considered problematic. The phonetic literature so far available reveals different descriptions of these sounds. Correspondingly, the Arabic pharyngeal consonants /G/ and /h/ vary considerably in their phonetic description from one phonetician to another. Moreover, the aim of this study is to investigate some facts about the phonetic status of the Arabic pharyngeal sounds. In order to do so, the study is restricted to one pharyngeal sound only. Therefore, the domain of the study is specially focused on the Arabic pharyngeal sound /G/ in two different positions. The Arabic pharyngeal consonant /G/ has at least two different allophones both characterized by a vertical articulation. A significant phonetic difference is realized between these two allophones of /G/.