Arabic has three vowels, each of which can be long or short. This unit will deal with the first pair of long and short vowels, aa and a.
There are no exact English equivalents, and at the same time there is variation within the Arab world in their pronunciation; imitation of your teacher is the best approach. However, the following observations should be useful. From the Arab's point of view, the difference in these two vowels is length, the amount of time used to pronounce them.
In a careful reading, stressed long aa will be twice as long as stressed short a. In most of the Arab world aa is pronounced roughly like a in English "bad", but much longer in duration. The short vowel a is much shorter, normally about half as long, as a matter of fact. Its quality ranges between the vowel a in. English "bat" (but much shorter in duration) and u in English "but" (but again shorter in duration).
There are no exact English equivalents, and at the same time there is variation within the Arab world in their pronunciation; imitation of your teacher is the best approach. However, the following observations should be useful. From the Arab's point of view, the difference in these two vowels is length, the amount of time used to pronounce them.
In a careful reading, stressed long aa will be twice as long as stressed short a. In most of the Arab world aa is pronounced roughly like a in English "bad", but much longer in duration. The short vowel a is much shorter, normally about half as long, as a matter of fact. Its quality ranges between the vowel a in. English "bat" (but much shorter in duration) and u in English "but" (but again shorter in duration).
