Speak like an Arab - /h/ هـ & /'a/ ء Sounds - lesson 1

So the Arabic letters could be put in a different order according to the place of their pronunciation. This is where each letter comes from, depending on your use of the vocal organs. And as I said last time in the introduction, we are going to be starting with the sounds produced by the glottis. They come in the letters HE and HEMZE. And these two letters produce the sounds These two letters are very much connected because they are produced in the same place. And they are actually two sides of the same coin. The HE can be a bit challenging for those people whose mother tongue is French, since they're not used to it. But how is HE actually produced? HE is produced through letting a gush of air through your vocal cords. We also call it the And it resembles the H or the HE in English. And as you can see in this chart for the vocal folds, you can see when you pronounce the HE sound, you will be basically opening your vocal folds and letting the air run through them. It is much the same process that you make when you yawn. Here are some examples for the HE sound. So as we've pointed out, the HE is produced by letting the gush of air through the open vocal folds. The HEMZE on the other side is produced by closing your vocal folds. So in a sense, it's the opposite action of the HE sound. The sound is produced by the formed air behind your vocal folds. And in order to understand the point, here is a chart for the vocal folds. And in producing the HEMZE or the E sound, the sound is produced by keeping the air behind the vocal folds, which produces the sound. Here are some examples for the E sound, the HEMZE. As you've seen, closing the vocal folds is the most important characteristic in pronouncing the HEMZE. But what happens if the HEMZE is followed by HE? What's gonna happen is a small explosion of air because you have stopping the air and then releasing all of it at once. Like in the example, you have stopping of the air when you're pronouncing the HEMZE, then you're gonna let all of this at one time when you pronounce the HE sound. Here are some practices for the HEMZE and the HE. Try to pronounce these words on your own and then compare them to my pronunciation. So this, ladies and gentlemen, is the end of this lesson. If you liked the video, please subscribe, like and share the video for other people to learn from it. Thanks for watching and see you next time.