The Impact of Articulatory Organs and Acoustic Features on Shaping the Distinctive Features of Emphatic Closure Sounds

Emphasis is considered a strong feature of some sounds that distinguishes them from others. Ancient and modern Arab linguists agree that emphasis is an inherent feature of the four sounds (ص /sˤ/, ض /ðˤ/, ط /tˤ/, and ظ /ðˤ/. However, emphasis in these sounds does not occur at the same degree, as the articulatory organs for each sound differ from the others. Additionally, other sound features affect the degree and type of emphasis. This study examines the factors influencing the degree and type of emphatic consonants, which are related to the articulatory organs of the sound or the sound's features. The study uses a descriptive-explanatory approach to describe the articulatory organs of these sounds, their phonetic features, and their impact on emphasis, exploring the requirements of emphasis. The study’s results revealed that the emphasis on the sounds ض and ط is explosive and non-continuous, with a high resonance due to the explosion, while the emphasis in ص and ظ is continuous due to friction, with a lower resonance. Nonetheless, the sound ص is stronger than ظ in terms of audibility due to the strength of the hissing, making its emphasis more resonant.