Arabic Alphabet – Learn Arabic Grammer Online 1
Letters lacking an initial or medial version are never linked to the letter that follows, even within a word. The hamzah has a single form, since it is never linked to a preceding or following letter. However, it is sometimes combined with a wāw, yā’, or alif, and in that case the carrier behaves like an ordinary wāw, yā’, or alif.
The shape of the final yā’ is always undotted ى in both print and handwriting in Egypt and Sudan, mainly.
Modified letters
The following are not individual letters, but rather different contextual variants of some of the Arabic letters.
Conditional forms Name Translit. Phonemic Value (IPA)
Isolated Final Medial Initial
آ ـآ ـآ آ alif maddah ā /ʔaː/
ة ـة tā’ marbūṭah h or
t / h / ẗ /a/, /at/
ى ـى alif maqṣūrah[4] ā / ỳ /aː/
Ligatures
Components of a ligature for “Allah”:
1. alif
2. hamzat waṣl (همزة وصل)
3. lām
4. lām
5. shadda (شدة)
6. dagger alif (ألف خنجرية)
7. hāʾ
The use of ligature in Arabic is common. There is one compulsory ligature, that for lām + alif, which exists in two forms. All other ligatures (yā’ + mīm, etc.) are optional.
Contextual forms Name
Final Medial Initial Isolated
لا لا lām + alif
A more complex ligature that combines as many as seven distinct components is commonly used to represent the word Allāh.
The only ligature within the primary range of Arabic script in Unicode (U+06xx) is lām + alif. This is the only one compulsory for fonts and word-processing. Other ranges are for compatibility to older standards and contain other ligatures, which are optional.
lām + alif
لا
Note: Unicode also has in its Presentation Form B FExx range a code for this ligature. If your browser and font are configured correctly for Arabic, the ligature displayed above should be identical to this one, U+FEFB ARABIC LIGATURE LAM WITH ALEF ISOLATED FORM:
لا
U+0640 ARABIC TATWEEL + lām + alif
ـلا
Note: Unicode also has in its Presentation Form B U+FExx range a code for this ligature. If your browser and font are configured correctly for Arabic, the ligature displayed above should be identical to this one:
U+FEFC ARABIC LIGATURE LAM WITH ALEF FINAL FORM
لا
Another ligature in the Unicode Presentation Form A range U+FB50 to U+FDxx is the special code for glyph for the ligature Allāh (“God”), U+FDF2 ARABIC LIGATURE ALLAH ISOLATED FORM:
ﷲ
This is a work-around for the shortcomings of most text processors, which are incapable of displaying the correct vowel marks for the word Allāh in Koran. Because Arabic script is used to write other texts rather than Koran only, rendering lām + lām + hā’ as the previous ligature is considered faulty:[5] If one of a number of fonts (mry_KacstQurn, KacstOne, DejaVu Sans, Scheherazade, Lateef, Iranian Sans) is installed on a computer (Iranian Sans is support by Wikimedia web-fonts), the word will appear without diacritics.
lām + lām + hā’
لله or لله
alif + lām + lām + hā’
الله or الله
alif + lām + lām + U+0651 ARABIC SHADDA + U+0670 ARABIC LETTER SUPERSCRIPT ALEF + hā’
اللّٰه (DejaVu Sans and KacstOne don’t show the added superscript Alef)
An attempt to show them on the faulty fonts without automatically adding the gemination mark and the superscript alif, although may not display as desired on all browsers, is by adding the U+200d (Zero width joiner) after the first or second lām
(alif +) lām + lām + U+200d ZERO WIDTH JOINER + hā’
الله لله
Gemination
Further information: Shadda
Gemination is the doubling of a consonant. Instead of writing the letter twice, Arabic places a W-shaped sign called shaddah, above it. Note that if a vowel occurs between the two consonants the letter will simply be written twice. The diacritic only appears where the consonant at the end of one syllable is identical to the initial consonant of the following syllable. (The generic term for such diacritical signs is ḥarakāt).
General
Unicode Name Transliteration
0651
ّ ّ shaddah (consonant doubled)
Nunation
Main article: Nunation
Nunation (Arabic: تنوين tanwīn) is the addition of a final -n to a noun or adjective. The vowel before it indicates grammatical case. In written Arabic nunation is indicated by doubling the vowel diacritic at the end of the word.
Vowels
Users of Arabic usually write long vowels but omit short ones, so readers must utilize their knowledge of the language in order to supply the missing vowels. However, in the education system and particularly in classes on Arabic grammar these vowels are used since they are crucial to the grammar. An Arabic sentence can have a completely different meaning by a subtle change of the vowels. This is why in an important text such as the Qur’ān the three basic vowel signs (see below) are mandated, like the ḥarakāt and all the other diacritics or other types of marks, for example the cantillation signs.
Short vowels
Further information: Arabic diacritics
In the Arabic handwriting of everyday use, in general publications, and on street signs, short vowels are typically not written. On the other hand, copies of the Qur’ān cannot be endorsed by the religious institutes that review them unless the diacritics are included. Children’s books, elementary-school texts, and Arabic-language grammars in general will include diacritics to some degree. These are known as “vocalized” texts.
Short vowels may be written with diacritics placed above or below the consonant that precedes them in the syllable, called ḥarakāt. All Arabic vowels, long and short, follow a consonant; in Arabic, words like “Ali” or “alif”, for example, start with a consonant: ‘Aliyy, alif.
Short vowels
(fully vocalized text) Name Trans. Value
064E
َ fatḥah a /a/
064F
ُ ḍammah u /u/
0650
ِ kasrah i /i/
Long vowels
In the fully vocalized Arabic text found in texts such as Koran, a long ā following a consonant other than a hamzah is written with a short a sign (fatḥah) on the consonant plus an alif after it; long ī is written as a sign for short i (kasrah) plus a yā’; and long ū as a sign for short u (ḍammah) plus a wāw. Briefly, ᵃa = ā, ⁱy = ī and ᵘw = ū. Long ā following a hamzah may be represented by an alif maddah or by a free hamzah followed by an alif.