In Modern Standard Arabic and many dialects, it represents an "emphatic" /d/, and it might be pronounced as a pharyngealizedvoiced alveolar stop[dˤ]ⓘ, pharyngealized voiced dental stop [d̪ˤ] or velarized voiced dental stop [d̪ˠ].[1] The sound it represented at the time of the introduction of the Arabic alphabet is somewhat uncertain (most likely around late seventh to early eighth centuries), likely a pharyngealizedvoiced alveolar lateral fricative[ɮˤ]ⓘ or a similar affricated sound [d͡ɮˤ] or [dˡˤ].[2] One of the important aspects in some Tihama dialects is the preservation of the emphatic lateral fricative sound [ɮˤ], this sound is likely to be very similar to the original realization of ḍād, but this sound ([ɮˤ]) and [ðˤ] are used as two allophones for the two sounds ḍād ض and ẓāʾ ظ.[3]
Based on ancient descriptions of this sound, it is clear that in Qur'anic Arabicḍ was some sort of unusual lateral sound.[1][2][4][5][6]Sibawayh, author of the first book on Arabic grammar, explained the letter as being articulated from "between the first part of the side of the tongue and the adjoining molars". It is reconstructed by modern linguists as having been either a pharyngealizedvoiced alveolar lateral fricative[ɮˤ]ⓘ or a similar affricated sound [d͡ɮˤ] or [dˡˤ].[2][4] The affricated form is suggested by loans of ḍ into Akkadian as ld or lṭ and into Malaysian as dl.[1] However, not all linguists agree on this; the French orientalist André Roman supposes that the letter was actually a voiced emphatic alveolo-palatal sibilant /ʑˤ/, similar to the Polish ź.[2][4][7]
This is an extremely unusual sound, and led the early Arabic grammarians to describe Arabic as the لغة الضادlughat aḍ-ḍād "the language of the ḍād", since the sound was thought to be unique to Arabic.[1]
The emphatic lateral nature of this sound is possibly inherited from Proto-Semitic, and is compared to a phoneme in South Semitic languages such as Soqotri, but also in Mehri where it is usually an ejectivelateral fricative.
The corresponding letter in the South Arabian alphabet is ṣ́, and in the Geʽez scriptṢ́appaፀ), although in Geʽez it merged early on with ṣ.
In most Najdi influenced Arabic vernaculars ضḍād and ظẓāʾ merged quite early;[2] in the varieties where the dental fricatives are preserved such as Najdi Arabic and Mesopotamian Arabic, both the letters are pronounced /ðˤ/.[2][4][6] However, there are dialects in South Arabia and in Mauritania and the Sahrawi where both the letters are kept different but not in all contexts.[2] In other vernaculars such as Egyptian ضḍād and ظẓāʾ contrast; but Classical Arabic ẓāʾ becomes /zˤ/, e.g. ʿaẓīm[ʕɑˈzˤiːm] (< Classical عظيمʿaḏ̣īm[ʕɑˈðˤiːm]) "great".[2][4][8]
"De-emphaticized" pronunciation of both letters in the form of the plain /z/ entered into other non-Semitic languages such as Persian, Urdu, and Turkish.[2] However, there do exist Arabic borrowings into Ibero-Romance languages as well as Hausa and Malay, where ḍād and ẓāʾ are differentiated.[2]
In relation with Hebrew
Often, words that have ظẓāʾ, صṣād, and ضḍād in Arabic have cognates with צtsadi in Hebrew.
Examples
ظẓāʾ: the word for "thirst" in Classical Arabic is ظمأẓamaʾ and צמאtsama in Hebrew.
صṣād: the word for "Egypt" in Classical Arabic is مصرmiṣr and מצריםmitsrayim in Hebrew.
ضḍād: the word for "egg" in Classical Arabic is بيضةbayḍah and ביצהbetsah in Hebrew.
When representing this sound in transliteration of Arabic into Hebrew, it is written as צ׳tsade and a geresh or with a holam צׄ/ץׄ.
Transliteration
ض is transliterated as ḍ (D with underdot) in romanization. The combination ⟨dh⟩ is also sometimes used colloquially. In varieties where the Ḍād has merged with the Ẓāʾ, the symbol for the latter might be used for both (eg. ⟨ظل⟩ 'to stay' and ⟨ضل⟩ 'to be lost' may both be transcribed as ḏ̣al in Gulf Arabic).
When transliterating Arabic in the Hebrew alphabet, it is either written as ד (the letter for /d/) or as צ׳ (tsadi with geresh), which is also used to represent the /tʃ/ sound. The Arabic letters ṣādص and ḍādض share the same Semitic origin with the Hebrew tsadi.
In Judeo-Arabic orthography, it has been written as צׄ/ץׄ(tsade with holam), emulating Arabic orthography, where the letter is created by adding a dot to ṣādص.
^ abFerguson, Charles Albert (1997) [1959]. "The Arabic koine". In Belnap, R. Kirk; Haeri, Niloofar (eds.). Structuralist studies in Arabic linguistics: Charles A. Ferguson's papers, 1954–1994. Brill. pp. 67–68. ISBN9004105115.
^Roman, André (1983). Étude de la phonologie et de la morphologie de la koiné arabe. Vol. 1. Aix-en-Provence: Université de Provence. pp. 162–206.
^Retsö, Jan (2012). "Classical Arabic". In Weninger, Stefan (ed.). The Semitic Languages: An International Handbook. Walter de Gruyter. pp. 785–786. ISBN978-3-11-025158-6.
