Recognition of Arabic Consonants Deletion for Native Arabic Postgraduate Students

Abstract

Arabic is distinguished by a rich system of consonants. This system has been investigated thoroughly by a number of scholars (Shehata, 2015)focusing mainly on the general representations and features. Others study consonant sounds with respect to pronunciation (Ramana, 2017), misperceptions (Sanker, 2015)articulation (Shosted R. F., 2018), etc. But, the area of consonant deletion seems to be ignored. Consonant sounds may be changed in certain conditions and for certain reasons, however, there is no data examining the instances in which consonants are changed or deleted in Arabic. The problem is that many native speakers of Arabic including post graduate students may face difficulties in identifying these changes in pronunciation. The present study aims at shedding light on the instances in which consonants are deleted  so as to reach to a better understanding of the correct pronunciation of Arabic. Further, it will examine the abilities of post graduate students to identify these instances. To carry out the aim of the study, a questionnaire has been developed for post graduate M.A. and  Ph.d. college students. The results of the study show that the students failed to identify the deleted consonants, and the type of deletion. Thus, they were unable to produce the words correctly.