Makharij of the Arabic letters
Every Arabic letter is defined by where it is produced. Knowing the articulation points is what stops English habits from quietly replacing Arabic sounds.
Makhraj means an exit or point of emergence; the plural is makhārij. In Tajweed it refers to the precise place in the vocal tract where a letter is produced. Two letters can sound similar to an untrained ear and yet come from clearly different places, which is why articulation is studied as a subject in its own right rather than left to imitation alone.
The classification most widely taught, following Ibn al-Jazari, counts seventeen articulation points grouped into five regions. Some scholars group them differently and arrive at sixteen or fourteen; the underlying description of the sounds is the same.
The five regions
| Region | Points | Letters |
|---|---|---|
| Al-jawf the cavity | 1 | ا و ي |
| Al-halq the throat | 3 | ء ه ع ح غ خ |
| Al-lisān the tongue | 10 | ق ك ج ش ي ض ل ن ر ط د ت ص س ز ظ ذ ث |
| Ash-shafatān the lips | 2 | ف ب م و |
| Al-khayshūm the nose | 1 | the ghunnah of ن and م |
The cavity
The three long vowels — ا, و and ي in their lengthening role — are not stopped anywhere in the mouth. They emerge through the open cavity of the mouth and throat, and they end when the breath ends. This is why their length is measured in counts rather than fixed by a point of contact.
The throat
Six letters come from the throat, in three pairs, from deepest to nearest the mouth:
- Deepest: ء and ه — from the very bottom of the throat.
- Middle: ع and ح — the two letters English speakers find hardest, because English has nothing like them.
- Nearest the mouth: غ and خ.
These six are also exactly the letters that trigger iẓhār after a nūn sākinah, which is not a coincidence: a sound made in the throat is too far from the nose to be blended into a nasal hold.
The tongue
Eighteen letters come from the tongue, across ten distinct points. Moving from the back of the mouth forward:
| Letters | Where |
|---|---|
| ق | The deepest part of the tongue against the soft palate. |
| ك | Slightly forward of ق, against the hard palate. |
| ج ش ي | The middle of the tongue against the roof of the mouth. This ي is the consonant, not the long vowel. |
| ض | The side of the tongue against the upper molars. Often described as the most difficult letter in the alphabet. |
| ل | The front of the tongue's edges against the gums above the front teeth. |
| ن | The tip of the tongue against the gums just above the front incisors. |
| ر | Near the point for ن but slightly further back, with the tip of the tongue raised. |
| ط د ت | The tip of the tongue against the base of the upper front incisors. |
| ص س ز | The tip of the tongue near the lower front teeth, with air forced through a narrow gap — the whistling letters. |
| ظ ذ ث | The tip of the tongue touching the edges of the upper front incisors. |
Notice how the last three rows pair a heavy letter with its light counterparts: ط with د ت, ص with س ز, ظ with ذ ث. Same place, different weight. The difference is not where the tongue touches but what the back of the tongue does: raised for the heavy letter, flat for the light one.
The lips
- ف — the inside of the lower lip against the tips of the upper front teeth.
- ب, م and و — from the lips themselves: ب with the lips pressed together, م closed with a nasal component, و with the lips rounded but not touching.
The nose
The ghunnah — the nasal resonance carried by ن and م — is produced in the nasal cavity. You can test it directly: hold a doubled نّ and pinch your nose. If the sound cuts off, the ghunnah is there. If it does not, you are not producing one.
How to practise articulation
- Isolate the letter with a sukoon. Add a hamza before it and stop on it — aq, aṣ, aḍ. A vowel afterwards lets you slide off the correct position; a sukoon holds you there.
- Work in contrasting pairs. س/ص, ت/ط, د/ض, ذ/ظ, ه/ح, ك/ق. Say them back to back until the difference is audible to you.
- Record yourself. Comparing your own recording with a reciter reveals things you cannot hear while speaking.
- Get corrected. Articulation is the part of Quran learning that most needs another pair of ears. Even occasional sessions with a qualified teacher will catch errors you would otherwise keep.
Once the articulation points are reasonably secure, the rules in Tajweed for beginners will make far more sense, because most of them are consequences of where the sounds are made.