It is often remarked upon that exercise is good for the mind, it allows us time to rest and recover from the stress of work and every-day life. Just as often, we are told of the cognitive benefits of learning languages which can lead to improvements in memory, concentration and our ability to communicate clearly. However, language learning and a thorough workout don’t have to be viewed as two separate parts of your daily routine. We actually train and use a surprising number of muscles when we speak in a second language.
It is obvious to most that when we speak we use our lips, tongue, teeth and voice box but less obviously these are all operated by a dense network of facial muscles. We rarely need to think of how we might need to flex or contract a certain bit of muscular tissue to produce a specific sound as through years of speaking our mother tongues we have created habits of standard pronunciation. When we switch to a new and unfamiliar language though, those habits need to be retrained – otherwise we end up reverting to familiar speech patterns and sounds that are out-of-place which can make us hard to understand in our new dialect. This is likely a process that we lived through once as babies, learning to speak for the first time. Yet it can prove considerably more difficult to learn new movements once we are older.
Arabic and English
It has been noted that there are more pronounced sounds in English than there are in Arabic and other Middle Eastern and North African languages. With that being said, an Arabic speaker uses more muscles to pronounce their approximately 29 different sounds than an English speaker uses to pronounce over 40. In large part this is because Arabic, spoken correctly, requires the use of the entire vocal tract, from the throat through to the front of the mouth something that might feel unusual to a new speaker of the language.
Examples:
خ – Khaa. Pronounced like the Ch in the name Bach, this is spoken from the top of the throat with a round mouth.
غ – Ghayn. This is a more guttural version of خ with moisture in the throat and a roll of the back of the tongue.
ح – Haa. This is spoken as a growl from the middle of your throat with lots of air.
ع – ‘Ayn. This requires a dense, punchy ‘a’ sound from the middle of the throat
ه – Ha. Pronounced like the H in He, this comes from the bottom of your throat with a clearing of the lungs.
Practice:
What does this all mean in practice? Well, it is important to remember that alongside working hard to remember new vocabulary, sentence structures and verb conjugations, one must also prioritise perfecting pronunciation through a focus on how speech muscles are used.
A student should visualise and trial the various new letter sounds, ensuring oral and speaking exercises are a regular part of language learning. This will help you become more confident recognising subtle differences between similar sounding letters which misinterpreted can change the meaning of whole words. Most of all, it will exercise your brain!
