The Arabic alphabet and long vowels are the focus of this lesson. In previous lesson, you learned the Arabic letters and their pronunciation which varies according to the short vowel that accompanies them. For example, we pronounce the letter ل as لَ la, لِ li, or لُ lu. What if a long vowel follows the Arabic letters, to what degree their pronunciation differs.
What are the Arabic long vowels? There are three long vowels in Arabic. Unlike short vowels, they are letters, and they are the alif (ا), the yaa (ي), and the waaw (و). The pronunciation of the alif is aa, as in the word قَاوَمَ (qaawama) in the first column in the table above. As for the yaa, we pronounce it ii, as in the word سَمِيك (samiik) in the second column. And the waaw is pronounced uu, as in the word فُول (fuul) in the third column. Therefore, the long vowels in Arabic are prolonged versions of the short vowels. That is, a corresponds to aa; i corresponds to ii; and u corresponds to uu.
Observe that long vowels in Arabic are not assigned short vowels. In other words, they are always saakina (سَاكِنَة). For this reason, we don’t need to add the sukuun (سُكُون) over them. The alif is always saakin (سَاكِن) in any position of the word. On the other hand, yaa and waaw can be accompanied by short vowels. In this case, they become consonant-like. Take the word قَاوَمَ qaawama in the first column. The waaw here is accompanied by fatha, hence consonant-like. More importantly, long vowels in Arabic always trigger the corresponding short vowel over the letter that precedes them in word strings. In the table above, for example, the waaw in fuul triggers the Dhamma over the f, hence فُول. Likewise, the alif in qaawama triggers the fatha over the q, hence قَاوَمَ. By the same token, the yaa in samiik triggers the kasra under the m, hence سَمِيك.
Additionally, keep in mind that there are cases in which the sukuun is added over the yaa and waaw. They, as a result, become diphthongs (i.e., a combination of two vowels). In such instances, the letter before them is accompanied by the fatha (a). Good examples of these are بَيْت (bayt or bait) ‘a house’, سَيْف (sayf or sayf) ‘a sword’ and فَوْق (fawq) ‘on/over’, مَوْت (mawt) ‘death’.
If the long vowels follow the Arabic letters, their pronunciation remain relatively similar. The difference is in the lengthening of the short vowel. For example, the pronunciation of ب with fatħa (بَ) is ba. If the long vowel (ا) follows the ب, (i.e., بَا), its pronunciation becomes baa. Likewise, بِ bi becomes بِي bii, and بُ bu becomes بُو buu. And so is the case with the remaining letters, that is maa, mii, muu; faa, fii, fuu; waa, wii, wuu etc., as in tables (1) above and (2) below.
As you can see in the tables, and noted earlier, the long vowel always triggers the appearance of the corresponding short vowel on the preceding letter, hence the alif triggers the fatħa, as in سَا, بَا, and مَا; the yaa’ triggers the kasra, as in سِي, بِي, and مِي; and the waaw triggers the Damma, as in سُو, بُو, and مُو.
In the last row of table (2) the hamza (هَمْزَة) (also spelled hamzah) ء is written as madda (مَدَّة) (also spelled maddah) آ when it is accompanied by fatħa and followed by alif ـا. So, the maddah is a combination of hamzah and alif (ءَ+ا = آ), and it is pronounced aa (personally, I think it a bit long than the long vowel alif, so I would say aaa is more accurate, though it might sound too much for some). If accompanied by kasra and followed by yaa, we write it on nebra (نَبْرَة), that is ئي / ـئي. When it is accompanied by Dhamma and followed by waaw و, we write it ـؤ / ؤ. You will learn more about the hamza here.
In the next lesson, you will get to know how to join these letters cursively to form Arabic words.
