Arabic Alphabet
Semitic languages are written from right to left. Ancient Mesopotamians wrote on stones with chisels, and since that most inscribers were right-handed, it was easier and more natural to them to write from right to left (I think it still makes more sense today to write from right to left!).
The Arabic script, which is derived from that of Aramaic, is based on 18 distinct shapes. Using a combination of dots above and below 8 of these shapes, the full complement of 28 characters can be fully spelled out.
Those 28 Arabic letters are all consonants.
In the table below:
The first column to the right shows the Arabic letters.
The second column shows their names in Arabic. Click on the letter to hear its name.
The third column shows the Romanized version of the Arabic letters. I will use these when I write Arabic words in Roman letters.
The last column shows how the letters are represented in the International Phonetic Alphabet. This is unimportant for most people, I guess. To see these IPA figures you may need to install a font.
Some letters (the gutturals) can be hard to pronounce by non-natives, so it should be tried to pronounce them in the closest possible way to the original sounds.
| International Phonetic Alphabet | Romanized Version | Name | Letter | |
| [ʔ] glottal plosive | ‘ | ‘alif | أَلِفٌ | أ |
| [b] voiced bilabial plosive as in “bat” | b | baa'< | بَاْءٌ | ب |
| [t̪] voiceless dental plosive as in “tap” | t | taa'< | تَاْءٌ | ت |
| [θ] voiceless inter-dental fricative as in “thumb” | th | thaa'< | ثَاْءٌ | ث |
| [dʒ] voiced post-alveolar affricate as in “jar” | j | jeem | جِيْمٌ | ج |
| [ħ] voiceless pharyngeal fricative | h | haa'< | حَاْءٌ | ح |
| [x] voiceless velar fricative as in German “nacht” or Scottish “loch“ | kh | khaa'< | خََاْءٌ | خ |
| [d̪] voiced dental plosive as in “dark” | d | daal | دَاْلٌ | د |
| [ð] voiced inter-dental fricative as in “this” | th | thaal | ذَاْلٌ | ذ |
| [r] alveolar trill as in “run” | r | raa'< | رَاْءٌ | ر |
| [z] voiced alveolar fricative as in “zoo” | z | zayn | زَيْنٌ | ز |
| [s] voiceless alveolar fricative as in “sad” | s | seen | سِيْنٌ | س |
| [ʃ] voiceless post-alveolar fricative as in “she” | sh | sheen | شِيْنٌ | ش |
| [sˁ] emphatic voiceless alveolar fricative | s | saad | صَاْدٌ | ص |
| [d̪ˁ] emphatic voiced alveolar plosive | d | daad | ضَاْدٌ | ض |
| [t̪ˁ] emphatic voiceless dental plosive | t | taa'< | طَاْءٌ | ط |
| [ðˁ] emphatic voiced alveolar fricative | z | zaa'< | ظَاْءٌ | ظ |
| [ʕ] voiced pharyngeal fricative | “ | “ayn | عَيْنٌ | ع |
| [ɣ] voiced velar fricative (French R or guttural R) | r | rayn | غَيْنٌ | غ |
| [f] voiceless labiodental fricative as in “fan” | f | faa'< | فَاْءٌ | ف |
| [q] voiced uvular plosive | q | qaaf | قَاْفٌ | ق |
| [k] voiceless velar plosive as in “kite” | k | kaaf | كَاْفٌ | ك |
| [l] alveolar lateral as in “leg” | l | laam | لامٌ | ل |
| [m] bilabial nasal as in “man” | m | meem | مِيْمٌ | م |
| [n] alveolar nasal as in “nose” | n | noon | نُوْنٌ | ن |
| [h] voiceless glottal fricative as in “hat” | h | haa'< | هَاْءٌ | هـ |
| [W] voiced labialized approximant as in “wool” | w | waaw | وَاْوٌ | و |
| [j] palatal approximant as in “yes” | y | yaa'< | يَاْءٌ | ي |
*Note: This figure ( ‘< ) means a still consonant letter ‘alif ‘. Stillness means that the‘ sound is not followed by any vowel. Thus, it has an almost zero duration and does not leave the throat. Look in the pronunciation section for more information.
The 28 Arabic letters are all consonants.
However, there are vowels in Arabic of course. There are six vowels; three short vowels and three long ones. Only the three long vowels are written using the alphabet. The three short vowels have special marks which denote them.
The long vowels are letters but the short vowels are not letters.
The three long vowels are written using the three following letters: و ، ي ، ا
Because of this, those letters are called “weak letters;” we are going to talk about this in the vowels section.
The letter daadض is characteristic to Arabic and does not exist in any other language. This is why Arabs called their language sometimes the “daad language.”
This ordering of Arabic letters is recent. Formerly, they were laid in the same order as that of other Semitic and Indo-European languages:
أ ب ج د هـ و ز ح ط ي ك ل م ن ث ع ف ص ق ر ش ت
This common ordering is a hint to the fact that all those alphabets have a common distant ancestor.