Analyzing Arabic and English Linguistic patterns: A Phonological contrastive Study

Abstract

The current study was an attempt to analyze phonological patterns of Arabic and English languages that are among the top ten languages in the world. Both the languages have strong influence in Pakistani context: Arabic being a religious language of the majority of Pakistan’s population and English being the Pakistan’s official and educational language since the time of British colonization. The literature review revealed that Pakistani ESL learners had always faced difficulties in learning English particularly the pronunciation system due to discrepancies between the sounds and letters. This research aimed at exploring the similarities and differences between the vowels and their patterns in Arabic and English languages. It also endeavored to discover whether Arabic vowels and phonological patterns could be used to minimize the disparities between English letters and sounds. In the backdrop of Chomsky’s theory of Universal Grammar, the method of Contrastive Analysis was used to conduct an in-depth analysis of vowels from the standard dialects of English and Arabic. After a detailed discussion, the researchers proved how explicit and clear Arabic phonological patterns were in comparison with English vowels and the ways in which Arabic system could be used to eliminate the inconsistencies between English vowel sounds and letters to assist the ESL learners.

Keywords: Phonetics, Phonology, TESOL, Arabic and English Vowels sounds