Definition of articulation points and number of them

Definition of articulation points

How to articulate

Number of articulation points

§ Definition of articulation points

Articulation Point: it is the place where the letter comes out and its phone separates from other phones and is distinct from other letters, whether the phone is based on the actual articulation point or Tacit one.

Actual Articulation point: it stands on a specific part of throat, tongue or lips.

Tacit Articulation point: There is no specific domain for it. It is the articulation point of three kinds of prolongation.

§ How to articulate letters:

Point of articulation can be recognized by pronouncing the letter without vowel or in an accentual way, beginning with a voweled Hamzah, wherever the pronunciation finishes is that letters articulation point.

As you can say " أبْ " and find the articulation point of "ب" between two lips. (example 1)

Also by pronouncing the word " أَنْ ", the articulation point of letter "ن" will become clear; the middle of the tongue touching upper alveolar. (example 2)

§ Number of articulation points:

Tajweed experts have different opinions about number of formal articulation points, in three different ways:

First way: Seventeen points: Most of reciters believe in this way. It is what Khalil bin Ahmad and Ibn Al-Jazari have selected, as Ibn Jazari has cited:

مَخَارِجُ الحُرُوفِ سَبْعَةَ عَشَرْ عَلَى الَّذِي يَخْتَارُهُ مَنِ اخْتَبَرْ

Articulation points are seventeen for who selects them

Second Way: Sixteen points: with absence of the hollow point. This is what Sibyuwiah and Shatibiyah believe.

Third Way: Fourteen points: with absence of Hollow and merging three points; "ل", "ر" and "ن", together to have just one point of articulation instead of three. This is Al-Fara, Qutrub and others opinion.

We will discuss more on these points of articulation in following chapters according to the first way (seventeen points).

Reminder

Point of articulating "ب": " أب "