Relationship between the science of tajwiid and modern phonetic and phonological studies

Abstract

Early Muslim scholars devoted much time and effort to studying their Holy Book, the Quran. Thus, they concentrated on the pertinent linguistic fields included in the Quran, such as exegesis, rhetoric, phonetics, morphology, and phonology. This paper sheds light on the efforts made by scholars of tajwiid 'Quran recitation' related to phonetic and phonological studies, aiming to highlight the terms introduced by those scholars and to present some of the phonological processes they analysed. In this respect, the paper concentrates on binary and non-binary classifications of speech sounds depending on articulatory criteria. Likewise, some processes involving the bilabial and alveolar nasals are presented. We will see that these nasals are either assimilated (totally or partially), concealed, or fully realized. In particular, the paper will compare between the analyses of tajwiid scholars and those of present-day phonologists, specifically analyses of the nasal concealment process.