As-salamu Alaykum - Pronunciation

Pronunciation

The term as-salāmu ʿalaykum varies slightly in pronunciation from country to country, but always remains universally intelligible. The classical pronunciation of the greeting in Literary Arabic is /assaˈlaːmu ʕaˈlajkum/. Many people today omit the initial 'As' and pronounce the word as "Salaamu `Alaykum". In many parts of the world, indeed in most of the non-Arabic speaking countries the greeting is pronounced or in a similar variation. This is especially common in Africa, the South Asia, South East Asia and in Eastern Europe--not to mention North America. In some other cases, it omits the "u" at the end of "as-salaam" to make it shorter and less formal.

For an example of different pronunciations, Pakistanis tend to emphasise the 'ssalam aLAYkum', whereas Indonesian pronunciation is monotonous until the last syllable ('assalamuAlaiKUM').

Amongst various Arabic speaking countries there is also a varied pronunciation. In Morocco the greeting is usually pronounced . In Egypt:, the final /u/'s alternate with and the expected reply similar to a reply on "hi", is .