The Arabic Letters and the Vowel Signs

The Arabic Alphabet

The Arabic Language is the language of the Quran. It is written from right to left.

1)  The Arabic Alphabet consists of 28 letters (if ء is counted it will be 29).

2)  25 of the letters are consonants and only 3 are vowels. 

     (Consonants means it has speech sound)

3)  All letters in the Arabic Language can be connected to letters preceding one. 

     However 6 letters do not connect to letters following them. They are و and ا د ذ ر ز.

4)  The first letter ألِف serves two purposes :-

     a)  it elongates a consonant as in ٌكِتَاب 

     b)  it acts as the bearer of هَمْزَةٌ as in أَبٌ  

The Vowel Signs

There are 2 types of vowels in the Arabic Language:-

a)  The short vowels.

b)  The long vowels.

a)  The Short Vowels

     There are 3 short vowel signs in Arabic or also known as تشكيل (tashkeel).
     There are 6 or them and they are :-

1)  Dammah      ( ُ   )    denoting "u" is written above a letter e.g. دُ = du 
     Dammatayn  ( ٌ   )    denoting "un" is written above a letter e.g دٌ = dun     

2)  Fathah         ( َ  )     denoting "a" is written above a letter e.g. دَ = da
     Fathatayn     ( ً  )     denoting "an" is written above a letter e.g. دً = dan

3)  Kasrah         ( ِ  )    denoting "i " is written below a letter e.g. دِ = di
     Kasrahtayn   ( ٍ  )    denoting "in" is written below a letter e.g. دٍ = din

   

b) The Long Vowels

    To form long vowels, dammah, fathah and kasrah are followed by the letter associated with them :-

1)  Dammah "u" is associated with و so it precedes واو to form a long vowel e.g.  تُو  = tuu    

2)  Fathah     "a" is associated with ا so it precedes ألف to form a long vowel e.g.  تَا = taa

3)  Kasrah     "i" is associated with ي so it precedes ياء to form a long vowel e.g.  تِي = it