Arabic Diacritics (2)

In the previous lesson, you learned that Arabic diacritics are vocal letters. That is, we do not write them like the regular letters of Arabic alphabet. Rather, they are marks or signs that we add above or below the letter. Textually, they you can see them in the Holy Quran, children’s books, school textbooks, and some books of poetry. We call these diacritical marks short vowels الْحَرَكَاتُ الْقَصِيرَة al-Harakaat al-qaSiirah. These marks are the fatha(fat-Ha, fathah) the kasra (kasrah), and the dhamma (dhammah). In addition to these, there are three other diacritical marks: sukuun, shadda, and tanween.

The above table includes all the diacritical marks in Arabic. The most basic of these are the three short vowels—the fatha, the kasra, and the dhamma. As for the fatha, we add it over the letter, and its pronunciation is a. And we put the kasra below the letter, and its pronunciation is i. We place the dhamma over the letter, and its pronunciation is u. The sukuun simply means the absence of the three short vowels. For an illustration, if we add these four diacritical marks over or below the letter ف, here is how it will be pronounced:

فْ  =  f

فُ  =  fu

فِ  =  fi

فَ  =   fa

With respect to the shadda, it means the doubling of a letter. It is a sequence of two identical letters. The first has a sukuun over it, and the second has a short vowel over or below it. For instance, we pronounce the letter ن with a shadda in four different ways, as in this example:

نْ نْ ←  نّ  =  nn

نْ نُ  ← نُّ  =  nnu

نْ نِ  ← نِّ  =  nni

نْ نَ  ← نَّ = nna

The tanween is double fatha on top of each other (pronounced as an), double kasra on top of each other (pronounced as in), or double dhamma next to each other (pronounced as un). It is always put above/below the last letter of singular nouns and adjectives. Its function has to with the grammar, which you will learn in future lessons.

The shaddah with tanween is also double letters that occur only at the end of nouns and adjectives. The first letter has a sukuun and the second has a tanween, so they become a geminate (doubled letter) with the tanween above/below it.

In the next lesson, you will learn about the roles and functions of these diacritical marks.