The articulation points of the throat

There are three places of articulation in the throat, each place has two letters emitted from therein.

1.                  The deepest part of the throat

2.                  The middle part of the throat

3.                  The closest part of the throat (closest to the mouth)

The deepest part of the throat

The deepest part of the throat is the furthest away from the mouth and the closest to the chest.  Two letters are articulated from here.  They are the hamzah and the ha’ .  

The middle part of the throat

The middle part of the throat lies half way in between the beginning and the end of the throat.  The two letters that are emitted from here are:and . 

The closest part of the throat

The closest part of the throat is the beginning of the throat, or the closest to the mouth.  Two letters are articulated from this area, they are: and . 

Common mistakes in these letters

These letters are uncommon to many languages, especially English, outside of the hamzah, and many would say the ha’,               but even the the English “h” is often pronounced at a position higher in the throat than the Arabic ha’.

The two letters from the middle of the throat need practice to succeed in their proper pronunciation.  The first step is getting used to using the throat, especially the middle, then work should begin on the letter:. Think of the throat squeezing against itself from the middle, and try to pronounce it from that point.  There is plenty of air that runs with this letter.

is the second letter from this area is pronounced from the same point, but has more of a rolling sound.  One Qur’an teacher described the sound as of that of a camel.  It may not be practical for the reciter to find a camel and practice this sound that way, so listening to a Qur’an tape and trying to imitate the sound of the reciter will work well instead.

The last two letters also need practice to achieve a correct pronunciation.

is often mispronounced as a “k” by non-Arabs.  The “k” is not articulated from the throat, rather it is articulated from the posterior portion of the tongue and the roof of the mouth.

 many times is mispronounced as a “g” like the first “g” in the word “garage”.  One way of finding the articulation area is by gargling.  The sound emitted with a deep gargle is close to the Arabic letter.