1. History and Social Context

Arabic spread beyond the Arabic Peninsula in the 7th and 8th centuries in what is commonly known as the Muslim conquests. This took the language and culture across the northern part of Africa (even making its way to Spain via NW Africa), north into modern Turkey, and westward into Asia. The culture, language and religion remain an enormous influence through much of this region, and Arabic is an official language in almost all of these countries today.

The Persian language has a different origin, but is heavily influenced by Arabic. Persian culture and language are centered in Iran. Arabic similarly influences the Turkish language and culture as well. In addition to being spoken by around 300 million people today, Arabic also permeates a number of countries’ culture because it is the language of the Quran and the Muslim religion.

These materials cover the major elements present in Arabic accents in North Africa and the Middle East, including Algeria, Egypt, Ethiopia, Morocco, Tunisia, Iraq, Iran, Jordan, Lebanon, Saudi Arabia, Turkey and others in this region. Other African accents are covered in the Sub-Saharan African and South African materials.

2. Sound Placement

Where the sound “lives” in the mouth.

The sound is placed just behind the upper teeth, but it's broad – not pinpointed to the front. Because of this wider placement, you may feel some widening in the tongue. In addition, there are a lot of consonant sounds that occur just behind your upper teeth, using the blade of your tongue (rather than the tip). In addition, it may help to think of the lower back of the mouth to be open and resonant as well, so that broadness at the front carries into the back of the mouth as well.

4. Helpful Hints

It's usually helpful to do any accent to an extreme, cartoonish stereotype when you are first learning it. It's much easier to ease off from a strong accent than it is to strengthen a light one. In addition, you may not get a handle on the sound changes if you do them too mildly. Start off strong.

Physicalize whatever elements you are working on. Punch or move your hands in a chopping motion when you are learning that intonation element. Demonstrate stepping up or down in pitch with your hand to feel the musicality, or making flowing/cycling motions with your hand for a more Persian quality or if the Arabic accent is lighter. Getting the sensation into your body will help you to get it into your speech.

Realize that many speakers will attempt to pronounce English words based on their spelling, so there can be a great deal of variation, especially with pronunciation of vowels and diphthongs. A word like cold may be pronounced more like called because the o vowel may lead them to think of its pronunciation in the word hot, while hot may be pronounced more like hoet, all due to the seeming lack of logic when it comes to the relationship between spelling and pronunciation in English.