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- Topic: Arabic >
- "رَواد وَبوب"
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I read the other day that nunation was used in MSA. How true is this? I've seen sentences here that use it and others that don't. Since Duolingo is teaching MSA, what will the policy be regarding it's use?
That's because the b sound in Arabic is pronounced with a wider range than in English (because it doesn't have to contrast with p as English does). Also, since there is no letter for "p" in Arabic, obviously foreign words like Bob might be pronounced buub/buup/puub/puup or even with a slightly shorter vowel sound as in pop/soda pop. To a native Arabic speaker who hasn't been exposed to much/any English (or other language with a b/p distinction) b/p probably sound very very similar and may be hard to tell apart. Like native English speakers may have trouble hearing the th/dh difference since we use the dh sound so infrequently in English (mostly at the beginning of words like this, that, and the). Try saying "theater" like dhiatar and you may notice that while you can tell it's not quite the right sound...it still sounds enough like th/theater that that's just the way your brain wants to parse it.