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1. Introduction Phonetics is the science of describing the speech sounds of a language. The focus in the following description of Arabic speech sounds is on articulatory and acoustic phonetics. The phonetic characteristics of the vowels, consonants, and syllables of the Arabic language are introduced and described. A brief discussion of the vocal organs follows; these are responsible for the articulation of speech, which is produced by the pulmonic airflow that is transmitted from the lungs to the larynx and then to the oral tract. Literary Arabic ( al-fuṣḥā), with occasional and b…