The Phenomenon of Qalqala in Qur'ān Recitation*

Abstract

This study investigates the phenomenon of qalqala, a feature unique to Qur'ān recitation. It aims at analyzing the sound accompanying the qalqala sounds [q, ṭ, b, ʤ, d] acoustically to see whether or not this sound has a vowel-like articulation. Therefore, an acoustic analysis has been conducted to the sound accompanying the qalqala sound together with the preceding and following vowels to give their acoustic features such as the amplitude (i.e. the intensity), the formant frequencies (F1 and F2) and the recurrence of waves at regular intervals. The main conclusions of the present research are: (a) the sound accompanying the qalqala sound is a vowel-like articulation (b) this vowel, in most cases, tends to be /ə/ and (c) the phenomenon of qalqala is of two levels, minimum and maximum.