Difference in pronunciation between hamzah and 'ayn?

[Barret VII]

I was just wondering if there is a difference in pronunciation between hamzah (ء) and 'ayn (ع), because from what I understand, they are both glottal stops. From the various places I've studied the Arabic script, none of them mentioned any similarities or contrasts between the two. I'm mainly interested in Modern Standard Arabic and classical Arabic if there are dialectical differences.

[Tom K.]

I'm learning MSA at the Defense Language Institute. The two letters have different sounds. The hamza is a glottal stop. The 'ayn, however, is something else. This is what our Introductory Phase book said:

"A guttural sound, produced by a compression of the upper part of the windpipe and a forcible emission of breath."

While I was waiting for class to start I borrowed some "Teach Yourself" books from the library and one of them said that it involves throat muscles which English speakers only use when gagging or vomiting.

All of this didn't help me much. I think the best thing to do is think of the 'ayn not as a consonant so much as just something that makes the following vowel sound different. Before our actual classes started, we had this "Jump Start" class taught by recent graduates. They compared it to the sound the duck makes in those AFLAC commercials. If that doesn't mean anything to you just listen to some native speakers. In fact, often I can't even hear the 'ayn being pronounced when we listen to speech in class; often when we're transcribing a word with an 'ayn will come up and I won't notice.

[Jonne]

It's a sound that comes from your throat. Isn't German "ei" similar to this?

[Javier]

"ei" in german is a diptong, sounds like "ai".

In any case, hamza and 'ayn sound different.

* hamza is almost imperceptible, specially in the beginning.

* to simulate 'ayn, press your throat (from inside, not with your hands) at the Adam's apple point, as if you try to avoid air to come out from the throat (yeah, as if you wanted to stop a vomit reflex), and at the same time pronounce the sound "a" (ah, not english a)

approximately at the middle of the "ah" sound release the throat and continue with "yn" ... aaaaayyn ...

I hope what I wrote makes at least a little bit sense, I would recommend really to hear and WATCH a native speaker doing it.

Look for someone from the Gulf or Egypt, as some dialects don't pronounce it very clearly.

[Jonne]

Yeah, Ei is Ai.. but I think someone told me that the it sounds like 3ayn in Arabic.

[Javier]

Yeah, Ei is Ai.. but I think someone told me that the it sounds like 3ayn in Arabic.

Well, I have not heard any single similarity

I am not native german speaker ... but I hear them the whooole day cannot hear something like the "true" 'ayn. Possibly if we speak about the dialects that pronounce it very lightly, then it would be similar.

[Aymeric]

Well I have studied some German, and I have never hear anything similar to 'ayn in any European language (nor in any language that I know of, actually).
Ayn is very tipical and when pronounced by a native speaker, you will clearly be able to single it out as a sound you had never heard before, a "weird" one... it's very "harsh", even when women pronounce it... the voice suddenly gets very low and deep.

[Irrisim]

Well, I'm a native german speaker ... And the arabic 3ayin, never occurs in the german language. That's a 100% sure.
Arabic, Biblical Hebrew, and some african language's are the only ones with this "3ayin" sound.

Sami

[King]

German in no way has pharyngeal sounds.

Some dialects of english, however, DO have pharyngeal sounds. In some dialects (certain Australian and southwest US dialects, at least, because I have pharyngeals ) , l is pharyngealized (sometimes also velarized) and r can also be somewhat pharyngealized. No living Indo-European language, as far as I can remember, has any pharyngeal sounds (besides dialectal things like english; dunno if other languages have that, but I doubt it highly), but several Semitic (arabic, hebrew, etc) have / had them and some Georgian languages have pharyngeal vowels.....then a spattering of pharyngeal vowels/consonants in other languages.

[CuteLovelyGurl]

I was just wondering if there is a difference in pronunciation between hamzah (ء) and 'ayn (ع), because from what I understand, they are both glottal stops. From the various places I've studied the Arabic script, none of them mentioned any similarities or contrasts between the two. I'm mainly interested in Modern Standard Arabic and classical Arabic if there are dialectical differences.

Salam;
I'd like to give you some words that have those two sounds and I hope you see the difference:
the word "عالَم " ( meaning: "world") has an 'ayn
The words " رَأى " (meaning" he saw" ) has a hamza
The word " عَلِمت " (meaning: she knew ) has an 'ayn
The word " أنتم" (meaning : You (plural) ) has a hamza
I hope this helps
please let me know if you didnt understand any of those words or if you have any questions
Regards;
CuteLovelyGurl

[Javier]

Would be very nice to have a recording of the words, CuteLovelyGurl

[CuteLovelyGurl]

Would be very nice to have a recording of the words, CuteLovelyGurl

LOL ... many people say that my pronounciation of the words isnt clear...so everytime i say something i have to repeat it 100 times till they understand what i wanna say (i speak quickly and cant slow down) ... LOL... just kidding... well it is true but it isnt the reason why i cant record.
The reason is that I seem to have some sort of problem in the sound system and the mic is not working. Sorry !!
I hope someone else would be able to help in this issue