Australians
First up the people group I'm most qualified to comment on in their ability to speak Arabic and also perhaps a people group I probably miss some of the faults of because I am Australian.
Strengths
- In slang Australian we often say " na' " for the word the no and this slang word has a glottal stop at the end which is indentical to the sound made by ء "hamza" in Arabic. We also sometimes use the hamza sound at the end of " see ya' ". Occasionally we also drop the the "t" sound from words such as in bottle, like the British do, when we are talking fast - again another hamza.
- In slang we constrict our throats in the same way that is necessary to say ع "aiyn" in Arabic. For example "how are ya" has a sound similar to ع at the start of "are".
Weaknesses
- Australians speak English in a non-rhotic way and so for example, we pronounce water as "wata". Therefore the Arabic "R" is not a letter we are used to saying. Personally I sometimes have difficulties in remembering if an R exists in an Arabic word and at times I'll add it where it does not exist or not add an R when it does exist. For us non-rhotic we voice the R when it preceeds a vowel but when it comes after a vowel the R modifies the voicing of the vowel but R itself is not voiced. We use this property of vowel modification when we we type the pronunciation of a word (a lame mans version of phonetically). Here's one example of using R as a vowel modifier - most Australians pronounce 'dance' as "dan-s" whereas the upper class and New Zealands pronouce it "dar-ns".
- Without any modification Australians pronounce 'alif' in a too nasal, almost ع way. For example when I first came here for ماء (water) I was pronouncing it معء. Yemenis still understood me but some Europeans laughed about it.
- As an Australian my biggest weakness is one I have to constantly remind myself of. Australians and probably British as well, tend to mumble quite a bit when they speak. One of the Yemeni ladies at the school says I eat my words when I speak English and she can never understand me. This same trait transfers to Arabic which can be overcome by taking in more breath and using it, speaking more loudly and by opening one's mouth much more. Australians have to take in more air if they are to get through Arabic words without running out of air half way. Letters like ح ,خ and ء all need spare breath in the lungs. More importantly when you voice properly Yemenis can hear your mistakes better and correct you where necessary and understand you better.
- Like most foreigners ح (the strong H sound) is a challenge for Aussies. I can pronouce it properly in isolation and in some words but it's often a speed bump in the words I pronouce and I suspect Yemen's understand me more because I've stumbled on the ح than actually heard my correct pronuciation. I've heard two explanations on how to voice ح. My Arabic teacher in Brisbane who is Egyptian used to say it was like the sound of a ghost breathing on your neck and when one girl still couldn't say it properly, our teacher said it was like a sexy h and after the second explanation that girl could always say it right. The website for the Arabic Linguaphone course explains the ح sound is best made by flattening your tongue on the bottom of your mouth and exhaling strongly. This works well for me because it produces the frictive sound without too much friction as you'd heard with خ (kha as in loch in Scottish or Bach in German). تحت ("taHt" below, down) remains a challenge for me because of the ح - I can get it ok after repeating the word in isolation but mid sentence it doesn't always come out right. The other challenge is the مدان تحرير - Tahreer Square because it contains both the ح and two رs (Rs) and cruelly I always have to say that word because it's the centre of town and it's near where I live.
- ق "qaf" is another natural area of weakness but one that can be overcome quite quickly and permanently with some practice. I think of it as a cough sound and what q would sound like in English if we didn't have a 'u' always following the q. At times though I over correct the nice and regular ك into a strong ق. Similarly I sometimes I pronouce the soft and regular Arabic h ه as the strong ح.
- ع is one of the hardest letters to pronouce for me but I think I can do it now. The other letter is ض. In Australia I was blissfully ignorant about Egyptians pronoucing ض quite possibly incorrectly and certainly differently from Yemenis and Saudis. Egyptians and Lebanese pronouce the ض as a dark d which is quite easy to get on top of. Yemenis on the other hand pronouce it as a dark th which I find almost completely indistinguishable from ظ and according to my past teacher it almost is. Another teacher told me even he has difficulty pronoucing the ض properly as the tongue has to put in a particular position so just enough air escapes from around the sides of the tongue. Arabs call their language the language of the ض presumably because they deny non-Arabs the ability to say this letter right. I can understand why they say that now but I used to think it way just because Persians can't say ds (dark and regular).
- No doubt there's more Aussie weaknesses. Feel free to comment if you know of more. I think this past assesment of weaknesses applys just as aptly to British as Australians.
Americans
I find Americans generally can speak Arabic well compared to other foreigners learning the language but this perception maybe tainted because Americans share the mother tongue as me.
Strengths
- Generally Americans are bold and so the pronouce words clearly which makes it easier for them to hear their faults and improve and for others to point their faults out. This boldness comes in handy because Arabs generally speak loudly too.
- In American slang I'm pretty sure they use the ح sound when they talk about someone being particularly attractive ie. HHot. So I think they can get this letter for free or at least at the start of words if they're used saying to this slang term.
Weaknesses
- Americans share the same weaknesses as Australians with ض, ح, ع ,ق and although they're rhotic speakers and used to voicing the r, learners often voice the r the same as they would in English which yields problems in Arabic. For example اربعة ("ar-ba3a", 4) doesn't sound right with a regular American r.
- The long vowel alif is often pronounced by Americans in a way drifts into what Australians would add a R to show the pronuciation of. Also there's a tendency for them to add long vowels where they don't exist. One example of both faults in found with the first word every student of Arabic learns - شكراً (shokran). In voicing this word Americans often add a long و after the ش and then voice the ending ا as a hyper long vowel with a that sound drifts toward an Aussie 'R-ish' pronuciation. Another good example is with my bosses name صبري (Sabri). Americans at my school pronouce his name "Saaarbri" which is pronouced as though there is a long vowel after the ص and again, the long vowel is pronouced again with the 'R-ish' twinge.
- In common with all the foreigners I've heard, beginners who are American say ح as a خ (kha).
Spanish
Strengths
- Like Americans and Arabs, Spanish speak loudly and use plenty of air which is a good advantage for them.
- Spanish pronouce their R with a trill and in a way that's indentical to the way Arabs do as far as I can tell.
Weaknesses
- When Spanish say d they say it with what you could describe as a lisp. So then د is not naturally pronuced correctly.
- All the Hs in Spanish are pronouced as "kha" so when Spanish speak Arabic they mispronouce ه and ح but, خ is native to them and no problem.
Koreans
Of all the foreigners speaking Arabic, I think Koreans have the most difficulty in adapting their speech to Arabic, simply because their language is so different from Arabic. They do not have similar letters to ق ,ل , ب , ر , ح ,خ and Arabic has a lot of لs since it's used in the definite article and a lot of رs too. A Korean student has just arrived at the Centre here in Sana'a and her Arabic is very good and her pronuciation is the best I've heard from a Korean. She speaks Arabic much better than English so she communicates to me in Arabic which is pretty much a first for me to communicate exclusively in Arabic with a non-native Arabic speaker.
Italians
To my ears, and they could be biased from my language background, Italians speak Arabic quite badly in the beginning. They already have the same letters of the Spanish and naturally get the R but when they speak Arabic is sounds as though they're speaking Italian. This is because of their intonation, their accent and their tendency to end every word with a vowel. Eg. it's not a بيت ("bayt", house) it's a "baytaa". But as with most people their accent and pronuciation becomes more Arabised over time.
Germans
I think Germans do well at imitating Arabic and continually improving their pronuciation. In the beginning some of them struggle because they pronouce their r as غ just as the Parisians pronouce their r but over time I think all Germans can pick up that letter. Germans naturally have a خ and so خ is no problem but in the beginning they don't distinguish between the خ and ح when speaking. The other letter of weakness is ث 'tha'. Germans pronouce the th sound as an s. But then the Egyptians do the same when they speak English except the Egyptians voice the ث, ذ, ظ as a t or z sound and the ض as a dark d so if a German speaks colloquial Egyptian they wouldn't have this problem. However I think this letter is entirely pronounciable by Germans but just not an obvious error when they hear it said their way.
French
In beginning I find French really difficult to understand when they speak Arabic and my current teacher agrees. They have the same struggle with the R as the Germans and their intonation of Arabic sounds really French at the start. However there was a French student here who spoke Arabic and English very well after studying Arabic for 2 years.
IndiansIn Dubai there are many Indians and Pakistanis and there are also a few in Sana'a. I find them quite hard to understand when they speak Arabic and also hard to understand when they speak English. They can't pronounce a few Arabic letters and their accent seems strong but I haven't heard them enough to really comment any further. Urdu however, is meant to be quite close to Arabic so perhaps speakers of Urdu can naturally learn Arabic quickly.
Persians
Persians are unable to pronounce a great deal of the letters in Arabic which is quite strange considering their proximatey to Iraq and the shared alphabet. They can't say the d sound without a lisp and there are quite a few more letters but I can't recall them right now. But I think they have the ع and ق in their language so they can pronouce those letters properly.
Jews
Of all foreigners I believe Hebrew speakers can pick up the Arabic language the most easily because the languages have a common ancestor (Aramaic) and the two languages are very similar. The only critism I can cite is the mispronouciation of ح. Every Israeli I've ever heard say حزب الله ("Hizbollah") says "Khizbollah". Interestlingly one of the teachers at my school has began to learn Hebrew and wants to learn it more but the University here in Sana'a stopped teaching it and naturally there are a few challenges in front of him if he decides to move to Israel to study Hebrew there. Since learning more Arabic I've been surprised by how many Hebrew words are close to Arabic and have even been able to understand some of the Hebrew terms used in the Bible. For example Bethlehem in Hebrew is Beit lehem (? or similar) and in Arabic this is بيت لحم ("Bayt Lahem") which is literally the house of meat which might have some relationship to how Jesus came to be born in a place where animals were kept.
