Comparing expert and non-expert reciters of the Qur'an : an experimental study of emphatic spreading/blocking in Classical and Modern Standard Arabic
This study deals with the phonological and phonetic performance of expert reciters of the <I>Qur'an</I>. Expert reciters constitute a special group of speakers who receive intensive and detailed oral instruction in <I>tajwid</I>, the traditional art and discipline of correct <I>Qur'anic </I>pronunciation. Expert reciters are compared with non-expert reciters and Classical Arabic (CA) with Modern Standard Arabic (MSA). The study focuses on F2 frequency measurements of /a/ in 'emphatic' (velarized) and 'plain' (non-velarized) environments. The main objective is to find out whether there are any significant differences between the speakers and styles investigated, and to determine the objective basis of 'expert' status in tradition. In order to achieve these goals the experts' measurements were statistically compared to the non-experts' and CA to MSA. It was found that there are significant differences between experts and non-experts and between CA and MSA. It was also found that the acoustic measurements of the non-experts' recitations correlated significantly with the grades they were given by the experts, and that the experts ranked the non-experts similarly. It is proposed that emphatic spread in CA/MSA is
Habis, A. A. H.
Comparing expert and non-expert reciters of the Qur'an : an experimental study of emphatic spreading/blocking in Classical and Modern Standard Arabic. This study deals with the phonological and phonetic performance of expert reciters of the <I>Qur'an</I>. Expert reciters constitute a special group of speakers who receive intensive and detailed oral instruction in <I>tajwid</I>, the traditional art and discipline of correct <I>Qur'anic </I>pronunciation. Expert reciters are compared with non-expert reciters and Classical Arabic (CA) with Modern Standard Arabic (MSA). The study focuses on F2 frequency measurements of /a/ in 'emphatic' (velarized) and 'plain' (non-velarized) environments. The main objective is to find out whether there are any significant differences between the speakers and styles investigated, and to determine the objective basis of 'expert' status in tradition. In order to achieve these goals the experts' measurements were statistically compared to the non-experts' and CA to MSA. It was found that there are significant differences between experts and non-experts and between CA and MSA. It was also found that the acoustic measurements of the non-experts' recitations correlated significantly with the grades they were given by the experts, and that the experts ranked the non-experts similarly. It is proposed that emphatic spread in CA/MSA is
comparing expert non expert qur experimental_study emphatic classical modern_standard_arabic study deal phonological phonetic performance expert qur expert constitute special group speaker receive intensive detailed oral instruction traditional art discipline correct qur_anic pronunciation expert compare non expert classical_arabic modern_standard arabic_msa study_focus frequency measurement emphatic plain non environment main_objective whether significant difference speaker style investigate determine objective basis expert status tradition order_achieve goal expert measurement statistically compare non msa find significant_difference expert non msa also_find acoustic measurement non recitation correlate significantly grade give expert expert rank non similarly propose emphatic spread