copyright © 2002/03 abouttajweed.com, all rights reserved

Question

Could you please explain how I can make it clear that a "qalqalah" letter which has a sukoon on it is double that is that is has shaddah on it. If I only make qalqalah it might sound like there is only one letter.

Question

What exactly does the shaddah stand for?

Answer

Letters than have a sukoon or no vowel on them are formed by collision of the two articulating parts without any accompanying jaw and mouth movement, except if that letter is one of the qalqalah letters, they are emitted with a separation of the two articulating parts, without any accompanying jaw and mouth movement.  A letter with a shaddah on it means that the letter is doubled, or there are two of that same letter, the first saakin (no vowel), the second with the vowel that is written above or below the shaddah mark.  So when we see the word , we note first of all that the  has a shaddah on it.  The shaddah is the little  above the letter.  The second thing to take notice of is that the is a qalqalah letter.  When stopping on this word, we would then have a presented sukoon on the last letter, which in this case is the .  There would be two  pronounced, because there is a shaddah on it.  The first though, would not have a qalqalah, instead it would be formed by a collision of the two articulating parts of articulation, in this case, the deepest part of the tongue is the first part, the second part of articulation is the roof of the mouth (in the soft palate area) that lies opposite to the deepest part of the tongue.  The second  does have a qalqalah, so is formed by a strong separation of the two articulating parts, without any accompanying jaw or mouth movement.  If you say the two  this way, the first with a collision of the two articulating parts with no accompanying jaw or mouth movement, and the second with a separation of the two articulating parts, with no accompanying mouth or jaw movement, there will clearly be two letters pronounced, each with a different mechanism of formation.