Fablingo / Fablingo Arabic / Level pre-A1
Episode 08 · The throat letters — ع غ · ف ق · ك (and the heart/dog)
Duration: 4:14
After this lesson you can:
I can read ʿayn, ghayn, fāʾ, the deep qāf and the plain kāf — and I finally own the qāf that undid me.
In this episode
Back at Umm Nadia's counter — the scene of the crime — Farid walks Sam to the exact letter that turned his heart into a dog. This time Sam reads both, side by side, and lands the deep qāf clean. Umm Nadia, who forgave him weeks ago and set aside "his" cup that very day, laughs the good laugh and slides it over. The letter that mortified him is his now.
Welcome back to the Book Quarter. It is a big day for Sam. After weeks of learning his letters, he is finally returning to the scene of his very first linguistic crime.
Sam and Ustadh Farid are standing at Umm Nadia's coffee counter. On his very first day, Sam tried to compliment her coffee by saying it was made with 'heart'. Instead, he missed the heavy throat letter, and told her it was made with 'dog'.
اِقْرَأْ هَذَا يَا سَام.
Farid has written the two words side by side. It is time to see the difference, in ink, between a heart and a dog. Notice the first letter of each word.
قَلْب ≠ كَلْب — heart (deep Q) ≠ a dog (plain K) · qalb ≠ kalb
The first word is قَلْب, meaning heart. It starts with the letter ق, that deep sound from the very back of the throat. The second word is كَلْب, meaning a dog. It starts with ك, which sounds just like the English K.
قَلْب ≠ كَلْب — heart (deep Q) ≠ a dog (plain K) · qalb ≠ kalb
Let's master the heart first. Drop the sound deep into your throat, like the caw of a crow. Say it with me: قَلْب.
قَلْب ≠ كَلْب — heart (deep Q) ≠ a dog (plain K) · qalb ≠ kalb
Now the plain K, which sits right in the front of the mouth. Say: كَلْب.
قَلْب ≠ كَلْب — heart (deep Q) ≠ a dog (plain K) · qalb ≠ kalb
قَلْب... لَيْسَ كَلْب.
قَلْب ≠ كَلْب — heart (deep Q) ≠ a dog (plain K) · qalb ≠ kalb
أَخِيرًا! قَلْب كَبِير.
He did it! The deep ق is finally his. Let's lock in the crucial difference. The deep, heavy heart is قَلْب. And the plain, forward dog is كَلْب.
قَلْب ≠ كَلْب — heart (deep Q) ≠ a dog (plain K) · qalb ≠ kalb
Farid isn't done. He wipes the slate clean and draws two new letters. They are identical twins, an open loop like a backwards number three. But one has a dot on top.
ع غ — ʿ = a tight throat-catch · gh = a gargled French R · ʿayn · ghayn
These are the famous throat letters. The plain one is ع. It sounds like a tight squeeze in the middle of your throat. Listen carefully to the catch: ع.
ع غ — ʿ = a tight throat-catch · gh = a gargled French R · ʿayn · ghayn
The dotted one is غ. It's a gargle, very much like a Parisian French R. Let your throat vibrate. Say it with me: غ.
ع غ — ʿ = a tight throat-catch · gh = a gargled French R · ʿayn · ghayn
Sam squints at the slate. Farid has written two new words using these letters, combined with our deep ق.
عَيْن · قَلَم — an eye · a pen · ʿayn · QA-lam
The first word is عَيْن, meaning an eye. It starts with that tight throat squeeze. Try it: عَيْن.
عَيْن · قَلَم — an eye · a pen · ʿayn · QA-lam
The second word is قَلَم, meaning a pen. It brings back our deep friend, the ق. Say it with a heavy start: قَلَم.
عَيْن · قَلَم — an eye · a pen · ʿayn · QA-lam
عَيْن... وَ... قَلَم.
عَيْن · قَلَم — an eye · a pen · ʿayn · QA-lam
Umm Nadia reaches under the counter. She pulls out a specific ceramic cup, beautifully glazed in blue. She set it aside weeks ago, waiting for the day he figured out the difference.
مِنْ قَلْبِي، لَكَ.
شُكْرًا... مِنْ قَلْبِي.
A perfect order! Before we let Sam enjoy his hard-earned coffee, let's review the letters that got him there. The tight throat-catch is ع, and the gargle is غ.
ع غ — ʿ = a tight throat-catch · gh = a gargled French R · ʿayn · ghayn
We fixed the biggest mistake of all: the deep heart is قَلْب, and the plain dog is كَلْب.
قَلْب ≠ كَلْب — heart (deep Q) ≠ a dog (plain K) · qalb ≠ kalb
And finally, we practiced with the eye, عَيْن, and the pen, قَلَم.
عَيْن · قَلَم — an eye · a pen · ʿayn · QA-lam
Sam's reading is getting stronger every day, but there are still shapes in this medina he hasn't unlocked. Join us on Tuesday and Friday to see what he discovers next. Ma'a salama!
Vocabulary
| Phrase | Meaning | Note |
|---|---|---|
| ع غ | ʿayn · ghayn — ʿ = a tight throat-catch · gh = a gargled French R | |
| قَلْب ≠ كَلْب | qalb ≠ kalb — heart (deep Q) ≠ a dog (plain K) | |
| عَيْن · قَلَم | ʿayn · QA-lam — an eye · a pen |
Grammar in this lesson
The throat letters — ع ʿayn (a voiced throat-squeeze — a sound, not a gap) and its dotted partner غ ghayn (the gargle-R); ف fāʾ (one dot) and ق qāf (two dots — the deep K from the very back); and the ordinary ك kāf. The whole Day-One drama pays off here: the qāf vs kāf contrast, read on the page as qalb (heart) vs kalb (dog).