3.1.4. Modern Standard Arabic (MSA) vowels inventory

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Table 1 and Table 2 show the vowel system of MSA indicated by their phonetic symbols, their descriptions as well as examples with their English translation to be followed by Figure 1 and Figure 2, MSA monophthongs and diphthongs charts respectively, which are based on charts taken from Thelwall and Sa’Adeddin (1990: 38). The Arabic vowel system consists of six monophthongs: three long – /aː/, /iː/, /uː/ –, three short – /a/, /i/, and /u/ – pure vowels and two diphthongs – /aj/ and /aw/ – which are a combination of a short vowel with a glide.
 

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Table 1. List of Arabic MSA long and short vowels
Vowel phonetic symbol
Three-term label
Example/translation
[aː]
Central open unrounded vowel (long)
/maːl/ ‘money’, ‘مال’
[iː]
Front close unrounded vowel (long)
/diːn/ ‘religion’, ‘دين’
[uː]
Back close rounded vowel (long) 
/suːq/ ‘market’, ‘سوق’
[a]
Central unrounded vowel (short)
/qalam/ ‘pen’, ‘قَلَم’
[i]
Front unrounded vowel between close and half-close (short) 
/kitaːb/ ‘book’, ‘كِتاب’
[u]
Back rounded vowel between close and half close (short)
/ḥulm/ ‘dream’, ‘حلم’
 

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Table 2. List of Arabic MSA diphthongs
Diphthong phonetic symbol
[aj]
/kajf/ ‘how’
[aw]
/lawn/ ‘color’
 

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Figure 1. MSA monophthongs chart
 

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Figure 2. MSA diphthongs chart
 

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As it can be seen in Table 1, the three long vowels /aː/, /iː/, and /uː/ are the three long vowels in MSA which are represented in full vowel letters as /ʡalif/, /jaːʡ/, and /waːw/ respectively. These vowels are spelled in Arabic as ا, ي, و, e.g. ‘مال’ /maːl/ ‘money’, ‘دين’ /diːn/ ‘religion’, ‘سوق’ /suːq/ ‘market’. On the other hand, the three short vowels (/a/, /u/, and /i/) may be represented in Arabic by diacritical marks, which are written above the letters (in the case of /a/ and /u/) or below the letters (in the case of /i/or /ɪ /). These diacritical marks are called [fatḥa], [damma], [kasra], respectively. These vowels are spelled in Arabic as َ, ُ, ِ, e.g. ‘قَلَم’ /qalam/ ‘pen’, and ‘حلم’ /ḥulm/ ‘dream’, ‘كِتاب’ /kitaːb/ ‘book’.
 
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