Phonetics · a Light

Arabic sounds were mapped by where they are made

Reciters learn the makharij, the exact points in the mouth and throat where each Arabic consonant is formed, and the sifat, the qualities each sound carries: whether it is voiced, whether air escapes around it, whether the tongue rises behind it. A student is asked to hold a letter and told which surface to touch. The system was worked out by early grammarians and reciters together, and it is the same analysis that let al-Khalil ibn Ahmad order the first Arabic dictionary by the throat rather than the alphabet. Scholars have counted the points differently, and the count used in teaching recitation is seventeen.

Makharij and sifat in tajwid

Source · Scholars count the points of articulation at seventeen, sixteen or fourteen depending on how some are grouped; the reciters follow the count