Arabic (Syrian dialect)

Arabic is an Afro-Asiatic language (Semitic branch) spoken by over 100 million people in the Middle East and Northern Africa. There are many dialects. The Northeastern variety spoken in Syria is illustrated here.

Arabic contrasts plain and pharyngealized ("emphatic") stops, fricatives, and liquids. Intervocalically, contrasts involving geminates are also found. Note that in the Syrian dialect illustrated here, the pharyngealized counterpart to the voiced fricative [z] is [ðˤ].

In the speech of this speaker [r] may be a trill or an approximant. Initial voiced stops are fully voiced.