The Lengthening of Fricative Sounds
Aya Ali Naser Mohammed · ALUSTATH JOURNAL FOR HUMAN AND SOCIAL SCIENCES · 2025
This study addresses the phenomenon of lengthening of linguistic sounds. Lengthening (madd) is a phonetic phenomthat is sakin (silent) and preceded by an open vowel is lengthened (ا) enon specific to the three madd sounds. The alif naturally by two vowel counts (harakāt), but it can be extended up to six counts if followed by a hamza (glottal stop) or a consonant that is either assimilated (mudgham) or clearly pronounced (muzhar). The same applies to the waw sakin preceded by a kasra (i-sound). Lengthening is a (ي) sakin with a preceding dhamma (u-sound), and the yaa (و) phonetic characteristic caused by the nature of the articulatory path of these three sounds, which is characterized by its expansiveness, allowing the accompanying airflow during their pronunciation to pass freely, thus enabling the extension of the duration of these sounds as long as the exhaled air permits. This reasoning has led some scholars to believe in the possibility of lengthening fricative sounds, as they resemble the madd sounds in terms of production and articulation, characterized by the potential to lengthen the breath that accompanies their pronunciation. But, have they been correct in this assumption? And what is the stance of the scholars of Tajweed regarding this issue?