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إِنَّ التَّوْفِيقَ مِنَ اللهِ سُبْحَانَهُ َتَعَالَى﴿

٤

6. Stress

٦) النَّبْرُ

Constant listening and reading of the texts and exercises will acquaint students with the stress. Several general rules apply:

a) Only the last three syllables of a word are a consideration for stress – here marked in red. Remember, the nunation, if pronounced, counts as well.

b) The last syllable with a long vowel is stressed:

kitāb kibun, jadīd jadun, makhāzin makhāzi–nu

however, long vowels at the end of the word are never stressed:

hu, kur (aber: kuryun)

c) If the last three syllables do not contain a long vowel, the stress is on the second to last “closed” syllable, i.e. consonant – short vowel – consonant:

mu‛allim, mutarjim

or respectively if the word has only two syllables:

anta, rajul

otherwise the stress is on the third to last syllable, regardless of the word structure:

mu‛allima, mujtahi–dun

d) Stress should not go beyond the third to last syllable. Therefore, the stress shifts if the number of syllables changes by adding nunation or suffixes:

ṭāli–ba ṭāliba–tun mu‛alli–ma mu–‛allima–tun

kutu–bun kutubu–nā (our books)

mu‛alli–mun mu–‛allimu–nā (our teacher)

ṭāli–ba ṭāliba–tun, ṭā–libatu–nā (our student)

mu‛alli–ma mu–‛allima–tun, mu–‛al–li–matu–nā (our teacher)

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