The Lenition of the Hamza in the Quran between the Rules of Grammar and the Findings of Modern Phonetics

Elhamz is a phonetic phenomenon related to the actual performance of the Arabic glottal stop sound (hamza). The ancient scholars pointed out that the hamza is one of the farthest sounds in terms of articulation, so they made it the first letter in terms of release. Modern experiments have indeed proven that the hamza is one of the sounds that originate from the throat. The hamza is one of the letters that require effort to pronounce, yet the fundamental principle in its pronunciation is realization, which is achieved by giving the sound its proper quality and articulation. However, Arabs did not always adhere to this principle in its pronunciation. Instead, they had positions where they did not realize the hamza and pronounced it leniently to avoid its heaviness. This phenomenon spread in ancient Arabic pronunciation and had an impact on the recitation of the Quran. The ancient grammarians established a set of rules for it. Through this discussion, we aim to reveal these rules established by the grammarians on one hand, and to interpret these rules based on the findings of modern phonetic studies on the other hand. Among the results we have reached is that the lenition of the hamza is a dialectal phenomenon with varying usage among Arabs. And that this phenomenon, when it comes to recitation, does not represent the dialectal characteristics of the environment in which the reader lived. In addressing this topic, we have relied on the descriptive and comparative approaches.