Question

Assalamu alaikum,
I am very confused about one thing. I live in Bulgaria and we use the Turkish style of reading. But I listened to some Arabic readers and I discovered that the Turkish and the Arabic readers don't read alike. The Turkish readers say this letters /alif, ba, ta, fa, mim, kyaf, and some other soft letters when they have dhamma in this way: u, bu, tu, fu, mu, ku...i.e. soft /they say the "u" like the French U. But the Arabic readers say this : ou, bou, tou, fou, mou, kou...i.e. heavy they say "ou" like the French OU. So, which readers are wrong. Arabic readers must be true because their native language is Arabic and they know the pronunciation well, but maybe the Arabic language has changed since the Prophet peace be upon him lived, for example we read with Tajweed because the old Arabs talked with Tajweed in their daily language. But the Turks  have been reading for so many years in the way I said, when in the time of the Ottoman Empire when Arabia was of the Turks. So, PLEASE, tell me which are true, or maybe both are true?  

Answer

Wa alaikum assalaam wa rahmatullahi wa barakatuh,

There are many Turks who can read the Qur’an with the correct dhammah, but the general population have a mixing of the letter  with the dhammah to get the incorrect French sound.  This is not the correct dhammah sound for reciting the Qur’an.  The correct sound is the pure dhammah which is the same sound as the lengthened  but shorter.   The inside of the mouth should be shaped to form the dhammah as well as the two lips. 

Wa assalaam