The
Ghunnah
The
ghunnah is defined as: a nasal sound
that is emitted from the nose. This is a required characteristic of the
and
.
The ghunnah
cannot
be separated from these two letters and is an inherent part of their makeup.
The ghunnah
is not a letter but a characteristic of these two letters, but it has its own
distinct place of articulation.
The
ghunnah
is articulated from : the hole
in the nose that continues back towards
inside the mouth.
It
is a nasal sound coming from the nasopharynx without any influence from the
tongue. If you hold your nose
closed you will not be able to produce the ghunnah sound, but the letters
themselves that have this associated sound with them are not articulated from
the nose.
The
and
with
a shaddah
Anytime
the letters
and
have
a shaddah on them, they are held for a length of time, and the ghunnah
described above is present during the lengthening.
A shaddah represents two of any
letter. When the symbol for a
shaddah
(a small
) is over any letter, there are
two of that same letter recited, the first with a sukoon, the second with the
vowel written above or under the shaddah mark.
The
length of time to hold the
and
that
have a shaddah on them cannot be given in counts, instead the timing must be
picked up from a teacher who has a strong background and has learned their
recitation at the hands of masters in recitation.
The concept of two counts for a ghunnah is not a correct concept.
The ghunnah has different timings depending on whether there is a
shaddah, or if there is hiding of the
or
, or if the
two letters are recited clearly with a sukoon on them, or a vowel.
The longest timing for the ghunnah is when there is a shaddah on one of
the two letters.
If
we take a look at a few aayaat, we can pick out where the
and
have
a shaddah on them, and therefore the sound of the ghunnah should be lengthened
when reciting them.
The
next two aayaat there are three different
that
have a shaddah on them. They are in red.
Each of them are held for a length of time, equal to each other with a
ghunnah (nasalization) accompanying the lengthening.
In
this aayah, there are two different
with a shaddah on them. One
in the second word, the other in the third word.
Each of them should be held for a period of time, equal to the other,
elongating the sound with a ghunnah emitted from the nose.
Listen to aayah
