AbstractPhonetics is a linguistic field that studies speech in terms of production, transmission, and reception. The three domains of speech study the speaker (production), the hearer (reception), and what takes place between the two (transmission). To this purpose, phoneticians use methods derived from the science of physiology for production, from physics for transmission, and from psychology for reception. In this article, the first section deals with the principal phonetic descriptions of the Arab system produced by the early Arab grammarians of the classical period (2nd/8th––5th/11th). The second section presents the consonant and vowel systems of modern Arabic. The third section deals with the contribution of experimental phonetics to the specificities of the consonant and vowel Arabic systems focusing in particular on (1) pharyngeal consonants; (2) pharyngealized consonants; (3) temporal aspects (vocalic and gemination quantity); and (4) consonant and vowel variation.