Deep Structure of the Phono-Semantic Layer in Surah Luqman

The irreplaceable role of the Holy Qurʾan in human life has brought phonetics to the aid of scholars of Islamic sciences in revealing connected layers of hidden meanings and concepts in this divine book and has brought about the implementation of extensive research on the coherence between phonetic and semantic layers of the ayahs of the Holy Qurʾan. In order to achieve the aforementioned goal, The current descriptive-analytical study investigated the Phono-Semantic coherence in Surah Luqman. The relation between phonetic and signification aspects of ayahs in this surah are completely visible and sounds have exactly been employed proportionate to the meanings of the ayahs. Voiced sounds with a frequency of 71% and semi-voiced sounds with a frequency of 49% have the largest role in inducing the meanings of the ayahs. These sounds are followed by voiceless sounds (29%), plosives (27%) and fricatives (24%) in terms of frequency. The reason for the predominance of voiced and semi-voiced sounds is the meanings and register of the ayahs because this surah includes important topics such as the grandeur of the Holy Qurʾan, the divine creation, the great resurrection day, monotheism, and moral values. These topics justify the need for the employment of sounds and on the other hand, whenever inciting the tender feelings of the audience is required, more … fricative soothing sounds have been used so that the phonetic proportionality between the letters of the words and their meanings are completely evident and replacing them with other words is impossible.