How to pronounce Lebanese Arabic sounds
The transliteration in our books uses a few numbers and letters for sounds English doesn't have. Watch the video, then find each sound below, and you can read every word aloud, even if you can't read Arabic.
All the sounds in one video
Below, each sound from the book on its own.
hamza
glottal stop, like the pause in 'uh-oh'
ayn
deep throat sound, no English equivalent
kha
like the Spanish 'j' in 'mojito'
ha
strong breathy 'h', like fogging a mirror
ghayn
like a French 'r' in 'rouge'
shin
like 'sh' in 'shoe'
Our Lebanese books
My First 100 Words, a Lebanese-English picture dictionary for little ones, ages 1 and up.
Little Lebanese Legends, picture book biographies of people who shaped Lebanon, ages 3 to 7. The first, Fairuz, is coming soon.
See the picture dictionary →Are you a fluent speaker of this language?
We're looking for native speakers to help record short pronunciation clips. If you'd like to help, write to us at hello@kipiku.com.