Question

Is it right that some of the letters in Arabic that are pronounced with the tip of the tongue use a "thin long area" in the middle of the tongue rather than the whole width of the tongue to say the letter; for example in the letter siin ( ) or dhal ( ) or tha ( ) it seems that if "a lot" of tongue is used the sound is not sharp and clear.  Could you please clarify this for us?  Jazakumullahu khairan.

Answer

Wa iyyaakum wa-l muslimeen.  The letters , , and  all use the tip of the tongue, but it is not a long area, but a small bit of the tip of the tongue that is used for these letters.  The letter  uses just the small tip and  and  use the top part of the tip, but still a small area.  The  becomes unclear if the tip of the tongue is pressed against the top of the plates of the lower two teeth.  There should be a small space between the tongue and the teeth to let out the “whistle” characteristic of this letter.  The , , both sound “muted” and dull if too much width of the tip is used, as described in the question.  The bottom edges of the two front top incisors are used with the top of the tip of the tongue in pronouncing these two letters.  When too much to the tongue is used, too many teeth end up being used for the second part of the articulation point. This leads to an incorrect sound and makes it hard for the sound to run, as it should with both these letters.  The way to solve this is by practicing to use just the very tip (from the top side) of the tongue and not let the tongue spread when pronouncing these letters.