Monday 24 November 2014

Arabic alphabet

Common abjadī sequence
غظضذخثتشرقصفعسنملكيطحزوهدجبا
ghẓḍdhkhthtshrqṣf‘snmlkyṭḥzwhdjbā
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This is commonly vocalized as follows:
abjad hawwaz ḥuṭṭī kalaman sa‘faṣ qarashat thakhadh ḍaẓagh.
Another vocalization is:
abujadin hawazin ḥuṭiya kalman sa‘faṣ qurishat thakhudh ḍaẓugh
Maghrebian abjadī sequence (probably older)[2]
شغظذخثتسرقضفعصنملكيطحزوهدجبا
shghẓdhkhthtsrqḍf‘ṣnmlkyṭḥzwhdjbā
28272625242322212019181716151413121110090807060504030201
This can be vocalized as:
abujadin hawazin ḥuṭiya kalman ṣa‘faḍ qurisat thakhudh ẓaghush

Hijā’ī[edit]

Modern dictionaries and other reference books do not use the abjadī order to sort alphabetically; instead, the newer hijā’ī order is used wherein letters are partially grouped together by similarity of shape. But, it is important to know that the hijā’ī order is never used as numerals.
Common hijā’ī order
يوهنملكقفغعظطضصشسزرذدخحجثتبا
ywhnmlkqfgh‘ẓṭḍṣshszrdhdkhḥjthtbā
Another kind of hijā’ī order was used widely in the Maghreb until recently[when?] when it was replaced by the Mashriqi order.[2]
Maghrebian hijā’ī order
يوهشسقفغعضصنملكظطزرذدخحجثتبا
ywhshsqfgh‘ḍṣnmlkẓṭzrdhdkhḥjthtbā

Table of basic letters[edit]

For other uses, see Arabic script.
Arabic letters usage in Literary Arabic
NameTranslit.Value (IPA)Contextual formsIsolated
FinalMedialInitial
alifā /  ’  (also  ʾ  )various,
including /aː/ [a]		ـاـااا
bā’b/b/
(sometimes /p/ in loanwords)[b]		ـبـبـبـب
tā’t/t/ـتـتـتـت
thā’th (also ṯ )/θ/ـثـثـثـث
jīmj (also ǧ, g )[d͡ʒ] ~ [ʒ] ~ [ɡ] [c]ـجـجـجـج
ḥā’ḥ/ħ/ـحـحـحـح
khā’kh (also ḫ, ḵ )/x/ـخـخـخـخ
dāld/d/ـدـددد
dhāldh (also ḏ )/ð/ـذـذذذ
rā’r/r/ـرـررر
zayn / zāyz/z/ـزـززز
sīns/s/ـسـسـسـس
shīnsh (also š )/ʃ/ـشـشـشـش
ṣādṣ/sˤ/ـصـصـصـص
ḍādḍ/dˤ/ـضـضـضـض
ṭā’ṭ/tˤ/ـطـطـطـط
ẓā’ẓ[ðˤ] ~ [zˤ]ـظـظـظـظ
‘ayn ‘  (also  ʿ  )/ʕ/ـعـعـعـع
ghayngh (also ġ, ḡ )/ɣ/
(sometimes /ɡ/ in loanwords)[c]		ـغـغـغـغ
fā’f/f/
(sometimes /v/ in loanwords)[b]		ـفـفـفـف [d]
qāfq/q/
(sometimes /ɡ/ in loanwords)[c]		ـقـقـقـق [d]
kāfk/k/
(sometimes /ɡ/ in loanwords)[c]		ـكـكـكـك
lāml/l/ـلـلـلـل
mīmm/m/ـمـمـمـم
nūnn/n/ـنـنـنـن
hā’h/h/ـهـهـهـه
wāww / ū / aw/w/, /uː/, /aw/,
sometimes /u/, /o/, and /oː/ in loanwords		ـوـووو
yā’y / ī / ay/j/, /iː/, /aj/,
sometimes /i/, /e/, and /eː/ in loanwords		ـيـيـيـي [e]
  • ^a Alif can represent many phonemes in Literary Arabic:
    1. Without diacritics: ا
      • initially: a, i   /a, i/ or sometimes silent in the definite article ال (a)l-
      • medially or finally: ā   /aː/.
    2. Alif with hamzah above: أ
      • initially: ʾa, ʾu   /ʔa, ʔu/
      • medially or finally: aʾ   /ʔa/.
    3. Alif with hamzah under: إ
      • initially: ʾi   /ʔi/; doesn't appear medially or finally (see hamza).
    4. Alif with maddah : آ
      • initially, medially or finally: ʾā   /ʔaː/.
    • ^b /p/ and /v/ can be represented by پ‎ and ڤ‎‎/ڥ‎ or if unavailable, ب‎ and ف‎‎/ڢ‎ are used, respectively. The letters ب‎ and ف‎ can also be used for /p/ and /v/, or the letters پ‎ andڤ‎ can be used in Egypt.
    • ^c For Arabic language speakers, the phoneme /ɡ/ can be represented using different letters, depending on local dialects. ج‎ is normally used in Egypt, also sometimes Yemen and Oman.ق‎ is used where it represents the [ɡ] in local dialects. ك‎ or غ‎ are used where /ɡ/ doesn't exist in local dialects. Other letters such as گ‎,‎ ݣ‎ or ڨ‎ may also be used, but are not regarded as standard Arabic letters. Likewise, where ج‎ represents [ɡ], it can be also used for /ʒ/~/d͡ʒ/, or the letter چ‎ can be used in Egypt.
    • ^d Fā’ and qāf are traditionally written in northwestern Africa as ڢ‎ and ڧـ ـڧـ ـٯ‎, respectively, while the latter's dot is only added initially or medially.
    • ^e Yā’ in the isolated and the final forms in handwriting and print in Egypt, Sudan and sometimes other places, is always undotted ى‎, making it only contextually distinguishable from alif maqṣūrah.
    • The following are not individual letters, but rather different contextual variants of some of the Arabic letters.
      Conditional formsNameTranslit.Phonemic Value (IPA)
      IsolatedFinalMedialInitial
      آـآـآآalif maddahā/ʔaː/
      ةـةtā’ marbūṭahh or
      t / h / ẗ      		/a/, /at/
      ىـىalif maqṣūrah[4]ā / ỳ/aː/

      Ligatures[edit]

      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 formsName
      FinalMedialInitialIsolated
      ﻼﻻlām + 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[edit]

      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      		NameTransliteration
      0651
      ّ ‎ ّ      		shaddah(consonant doubled)

      Nunation[edit]

    • Short vowels
      (fully vocalized text)      		NameTrans.Value
      064E
      َ ‎      		fatḥaha/a/
      064F
      ُ ‎      		ḍammahu/u/
      0650
      ِ ‎      		kasrahi/i/

      Long vowels[edit]

      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 analif 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 ahamzah may be represented by an alif maddah or by a free hamzah followed by an alif.
      The table below shows vowels placed above or below a dotted circle replacing a primary consonant letter or a shaddah sign. For clarity in the table, the primary letters on the left used to mark these long vowels are shown only in their isolated form. Please note that most consonants do connect to the left with alif, wāw and yā’ written then with their medial or final form. Additionally, the letter yā’ in the last row may connect to the letter on its left, and then will use a medial or initial form. Use the table of primary letters to look at their actual glyph and joining types.
      Long vowels
      (fully vocalised text)      		NameTrans.Value
      064E 0627
      َا ‎      		fatḥah alifā/aː/
      064E 0649
      َى ‎      		fatḥah alif maqṣūrahā / á/aː/
      064F 0648
      ُو ‎      		ḍammah wāwū/uː/
      0650 064A
      ِي ‎      		kasrah yā’ī/iː/
      In unvocalized text (one in which the short vowels are not marked), the long vowels are represented by the vowel in question: alif, alif maqṣūrah (or ya’), wāw, or yā’. Long vowels written in the middle of a word of unvocalized text are treated like consonants with a sukūn (see below) in a text that has full diacritics. Here also, the table shows long vowel letters only in isolated form for clarity.
      Combinations وا and يا are always pronounced wā and yā respectively. The exception is when وا is the verb ending, where alif is silent, resulting in ū.
      Long vowels
      (unvocalized text)      		NameTrans.Value
      0627
      ا      		(implied fatḥah) alifā/aː/
      0649
      ى      		(implied fatḥah) alif maqṣūrahā / aỳ/aː/
      0648
      و      		(implied ḍammah) wāwū / uw/uː/
      064A
      ي      		(implied kasrah) yā’ī / iy/iː/
      In addition, when transliterating names and loanwords, Arabic language speakers write out most or all the vowels as long (ā with ا alif, ē and ī with ي ya’, and ō and ū with و wāw), meaning it approaches a true alphabet.

      Diphthongs[edit]

      The diphthongs /aj/ and /aw/ are represented in vocalized text as follows:
      Diphthongs
      (fully vocalized text)      		NameTrans.Value
      064E 064A
      َي ‎      		fatḥah yā’ay/aj/
      064E 0648
      َو ‎      		fatḥah wāwaw/aw/
      Western
      (Maghreb, Europe)      		Central
      (Mideast)      		Eastern
      (Persian, Urdu)
      0٠۰۰
      1١۱۱
      2٢۲۲
      3٣۳۳
      4٤۴۴
      5٥۵۵
      6٦۶۶
      7٧۷۷
      8٨۸۸
      9٩۹۹
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