Phonetic Examination of the Science of Qur’anic Recitation

علوم قرآن و حدیث

Article 3, Volume 43, Issue 1 - Serial Number 86, June 2011   

Document Type: Research Article

DOI: 10.22067/naqhs.v43i1.11833

Author

Ghulamabbas Saeedi^*

Abstract

Muslim phoneticians and the scientists of the art of recitation (orthoepists) have based the entity of a letter on two foundations: point of articulation and properties. Accordingly, they have categorized Arabic letters and tried to scientifically explain the phonetic process existing in the science of correct recitation of the Qur’an (tajwid); however, they have not been successful in many instances and have been widely disagreed. These disagreements have caused different readings (qara’at) of the Holy Qur’an. This article has viewed from contemporary perspective of phonetics and phonemics what our earlier scholars have said about tajwid and presented a scientific and modern description of it. On this basis, it has achieved a new classification of the Arabic Language, a new definition of such terms as convergent (mutiqarib), homogeneous (mutijanis), and divergent (mutiba’id) letters, and a new explanation of tajwid processes like assimilation (idqam).
Keywords: the Holy Qur’an, tajwid, reading, phonetics, phonemics, assimilation.