Articulation
points of the Deepest part of the Tongue
There are two letters that use the deepest part of the tongue in articulation.
They are
and
.
Is
articulated from the deepest part of the tongue and what lies opposite to it
from the roof of the mouth in the area of the soft palate.
Is
articulated from the deepest part of the tongue and what lies opposite to it
from the roof of the mouth in the area of the hard palate.
This letter is closer to the mouth than the
.
Common mistakes in these letters
The non-Arab has more than a few common mistakes with these two letters. The first letter,
is not a common letter in other languages, and even the Arabs have substituted
this letter for others in different colloquial Arabic dialects.
Egyptians and Shaamis substitute a hamzah for the
in their dialect. The Gulf Arabs
use a “g” sound in their dialect for this letter.
There are two mistakes in articulating this when reciting the Qur’an.
Usually it is a problem in the articulation point.
Either the letter is articulated on the hard palate or close to it, so
it ends up sounding like an English “k”, or the letter is pronounced not
from the tongue, but from the throat, and the resultant incorrect sound is a
cross between a 
and a
. Native
English speakers tend to make the first type of error, and Muslims of eastern
origin tend to make the second type of error.
is
often mispronounced at an articulation point further back in the mouth than
the correct articulation point. The
resultant letter is often closer to a
than
the correct desired sound. Muslims
from the East, such as Pakistan, Indonesia, Malaysia, and the Philippines tend
to have this error. Native
English speakers sometimes pronounce this letter a little further back in the
mouth than is totally correct so there is no air heard with the letter. In
truth, there should be a running of air when this letter is pronounced
correctly.