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  • From: "Garth Grenache" <garthgrenache AT hotmail.com>
  • To: <b-hebrew AT lists.ibiblio.org>
  • Subject: [b-hebrew] Arabic beats.
  • Date: Mon, 10 Sep 2007 01:50:11 +1000


Dear Uri and Jason,

Sorry I've taken so long to respond!

I am not counting syllables in Arabic. You are right that Yaktubu is 3
syllables, and Salaam is two!

What I am counting is the beats in relation to which each syllable is spoken.

Whether 'kt' is heard or not, if 4 beats are evenly spaced, Yak will occur on
the first, Tu and Bu on the 3rd and 4th.
What happens on the 2nd beat? The transition of the k to t.

Likewise in Salaam(u), the long vowel is long in such a way that the Mu will
come on the 4th evenly spaced beat.

It makes sense to transliterate Arabic's long a as 'aa', because 'aa'
requires two beats, and 'a' only one.

Are you having difficulty seeing what I'm seeing? hearing what I'm hearing?
that Arabic (and probably ProtoSemitic) is a rhythmic language where
syllables are one or two beats long?
YAK-TU-BU
2-1-1

SA-LAA-MU
1-2-1

If you are saying on 3 even beats Sa-Laa-Mu, you are not pronouncing the long
a properly. The syllable with the long a has two beats. Sa-la-a-mu

Love from Garth.





Garth wrote: "....E.g. Arabic Yaktubu = Ya-KT-TU-BU -four beats, one per
consonant. Salaam = Sa-la-a-m -4 beats = one beat per
consonant released
and one for the long vowel...."

Uri replied: "Sorry, I don't know what you mean. In your first example
there are three syllables: YAK -TU- BU. No such thing as "KT".
In the second example two syllables SA -LAM, the second with a
long vowel ,and therefore transliterated sometimes with two 'A' s"








  • [b-hebrew] Arabic beats., Garth Grenache, 09/09/2007

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