Arabic alphabet

The Arabic alphabet is the Alphabet used mainly to write the Arab Langue. Although very often indicated like an alphabet, with the manner of the writing of others Semitic Languages, it is generally a Abjad, term describing a written form noting only the Consonne S of the language (or little is necessary oneself some).

As an alphabet of language of Coran, crowned for Moslems, his influence is extended with that of Islam and it has be also used (or is still) to write other languages which does not have any relationship with Arabic, like the Persan, the Turkish (before 1928, date from which Mustafa Kemal Atatürk imposed the Latin transcription ), the Kâshmîrî, the Sindhi, or the Ourdou and the Kurdish (all these languages, moreover, except Turkish which is one altaïque Language, being Indo-European). One often had to add or modify certain letters to adapt this alphabet to the phonological system of the languages in question.

Certain languages of Africa, like the Haoussa, were written by Adaptations of the Arabic alphabet before being written with the Latin alphabet.

This article does not treat a pronunciation of this alphabet.

History

One makes go up this alphabet with the araméen in his syriaque alternative nabatéen or , itself going down from the phenician (alphabet which, inter alia, gives rise to the Hebrew alphabet, with the Greek alphabet and, therefore, with the Cyrillic , the Latin letters, etc). The first certificate of a text in Arabic alphabet goes up with 512. It is at the 7th century that one added points on or under certain letters in order to differentiate them, the model araméen having less phonemes than Arabic and the writing of the origins having thus had to confuse by the same letter several Phonème S. During these modifications, the order of the letters was changed: in fact, the Arabic alphabet does not follow any more the order traditional of the other Semitic alphabets, known as Ordre Levantine, like Hebrew still does it.

Specificities

The Arabic alphabet includes/understands twenty-nine letter S fundamental (twenty-eight if one exclude the hamza , which behaves either as a letter with whole share or like a Diacritique) and is written from right to left. There is no difference between the handwritten letters and the printed letters; the concepts of capital letter and small letter do not exist (the writing is thus Monocaméral E). On the other hand, the majority of the letters stick between them, even in printing works, and their C-W communication differs according to whether they are preceded and/or followed other letters or that they are insulated (one speaks about contextual alternatives). Certain letters, however, never stick to the following letter: in fact, a single word can be intersected with one or more space S, which is also used to separate the words. It is generally larger than spacing inside the words carrying a letter not sticking.

The Arabic alphabet being a Abjad , the reader must know the structure of the language to restore the Voyelle S. It is helped in that by a distribution of the vowels of a word relatively regular within consonant roots because depend on grammar (one will refer to the article devoted to with the Arab Langue for more details). In the editions of the Coran or the works didactic, however, one uses a more or less precise vocalic notation in the form of diacritic S. It exists, moreover, in such texts, known as “vocalized”, a series of other diacritic of syllabication of which most current are the indication of the absence of vowel (sukūn) and the Gémination of the consonants (šadda) .

Transcription and transliteration

The Arabic alphabet can be transliterated and transcribed in various ways. One will preferably use in this document transliteration DIN-31635. It can be coded by several character sets, among which ISO-8859-6 and Unicode, thanks to the “Arab” block, of the U+0600 sites with U+06FF. These two plays, however, do not indicate for each character the contextual form which it must take. It is with the engine of returned to select the good eye. There exists however, if one would like to code a particular form of a character, the blocks “Forms of Arab presentation has” (U+FB50 with U+FDFF) and “Forms of Arab presentation B” (U+FE70 with U+FEFF), which contain the majority of the characters convalescents entirely in contextual alternative as well as the wide characters specific to other languages. It is also possible to use the binders without and with hunting. Lastly, the coding of Arabic is logical, i.e. one enters the characters after without worrying about the direction about the writing (necessarily reversed for a Westerner). It is once again with the engine of returned that it returns to post the characters in the good sense. In this respect, if the Arab words of this page are posted with back, it is that your engine of returned Unicode is not recent enough. For more details concerning the questions of coding of Arabic, consult the French translation of the handbook of Unicode, available on the Hapax site.

The transcription and the transliteration in this article follow mainly standard DIN-31635; the alternatives belonging to other standards are indicated after oblique bar (cf Transcription of the Semitic languages ). To note that the Macron superscribes above them vowels can be easily replaced by a Circumflex accent. A transliteration of Arabic must reveal clearly the characters which do not decide or decide like others in order to be nonambiguous; a transcription does not state however that the pronunciation. See low for more details. The phonetic transcription (somewhat simplified here) follows conventions of the API: for more details concerning the pronunciation of Arabic, consult the article Phonologie of Arabic . In this article, except contrary mention, Arabic will be transcribed and not transliterated. The terms noted in Arabic are entirely vocalized and all the diacritic ones are indicated (except some sukūn) . In practice, this type of complete notation is very rare and meets only in the didactic works, which is the case here.

Principal letters

Les letters without initial C-W communication neither median is never related to the following letter, even in a mot. As for the ء hamza , it has only one C-W communication, because it is never related neither to the letter which precedes, nor to that which follows. The hamza can also behave as diacritic (it is said whereas it has a support). No word begins in the dictionary with a ʾalif : in fact, hamza is the first letter, although, traditionally and historically, this role is allotted to ʾalif .

Other letters

Tāʾ marbūṭa

Rear RTL ة tāʾ marbūṭa (“ tāʾ buckled”; it is, historically, a derivative of rear RTL ت tāʾ and not of rear RTL ه hāʾ , from where the presence of the two points. It is enough to buckle a tāʾ to obtain a tāʾ marbūṭa ) is a consonant, namely a /t/; however, it is only at the end of the word and is always preceded by the short vowel /a/ (which is only seldom written). Its /t/ is marked only if it is preceded by alif a ا) or if the final accidental vowels which follow your it are too; however, these vowels are often omitted in the current pronunciation. For this reason it is indicated, improperly, that this letter is worth.

The tāʾ marbūṭa has a grammatical Arabic value: it is often the ending of female (for the adjectives, the substantives and the proper names of which there exists a male form). The tāʾ marbūṭa is thus not present in the Arab verbs.

A tāʾ marbūṭa is transformed into “ tāʾ ṭāwila ” (“long”, therefore “normal”) when name is put at the form duel it or when the word is followed of a Morphème, such as that of the possession: rear RTL طاولة - طاولتي (“my table” ~ “table”)

In a supported pronunciation, one makes hear with the pause one in the place of. The tāʾ marbūṭa is seldom transcribed when it is dumb; only the transliteration generally indicates the presence of it (see low with the section “Transliteration”), but the uses are very fluctuating. In this encyclopedia, the tāʾ marbūṭa will be noted by ʰ . See also low with “Types of reading” for other details.

ʾAlif maqṣūra

Rear letter RTL ى ʾalif will maqṣūra is used only at the end of the word; it is a letter of prolongation for the /a/ phoneme. Its name indicates the sound obtained, “ ʾalif of prolongation”, and not its form, since the letter resembles rear RTL ي yāʾ . Its use is described with the section “long Vowels and letters of prolongation”.

Binding lām ʾalif

When rear RTL ل lām is followed of rear RTL ا ʾalif , it is necessary to replace the two letters by the binding rear RTL لا; there existed before of other bindings of this type, which are not used however any more, except in neat compositions and some fixed cases. One can still meet them in old texts. Some are represented in the article devoted to with the bindings.

ʾAlif dumb

In some words, and especially during the verbal inflection, one can write a ʾalif which does not decide and is not used as support with diacritic. One finds it mainly in rear word RTL مِائَة miʾa , “hundred” (which would be more regularly written rear RTL مِئَة). In the conjugation, one adds a ʾalif dumb after a wāw rear RTL و at the end of the word; as follows:

RTL كَتَبُوا katabū , “they wrote”;
RTL رَمَوْا ramaw , “they launched”.

Diacritic

Such as usually writes, the Arabic alphabet does not use so to speak a Diacritique S, in addition to the point subscribes or superscribes obligatory to distinguish from the ambiguous letters (to consult Histoire of the Arabic alphabet for more details). To facilitate the reading, however, and this within a didactic or religious framework, many auxiliary signs come to make the text less ambiguous: Arabic not noting normally the vowels, for example, nor the Gémination S or the assimilation S, it is not possible with an initial reader to read with high voice a text without the assistance of these signs, or without a good knowledge of the language.

The diacritic ones used are described in detail in the article Diacritiques of the Arabic alphabet , which it is advised to read before continuing more before the reading of this article. The Arab words quoted here, indeed, use these diacritic and their knowledge is necessary to the comprehension of certain points.

Notation of the vowels

All the letters of the preceding tables are Consonne S (or letters dumb), as opposed to what one could believe. The Voyelle S only are seldom noted, and if they are it, it is in the diacritic form of S.

Short vowels

Those are not stated differently that by diacritic , and this only for raising ambiguities (seldom) or in the didactic or religious works.

Long vowels and letters of prolongation

Four letters, known as “of prolongation”, are employed to indicate the presence of a long vowel - which, it, is normally not written -, rear RTL ا ʾalif , rear RTL ى ʾalif will maqṣūra (only at the end of the word), rear RTL ي yāʾ, rear and RTL و wāw . These two last are also the full consonants there and W . In a text not vocalized, which is the most frequent case by far, one obtains following ambivalences:

RTL ا ʾalif = ā or other phonemes, among which the consonant ʾ (Glottal stop);
RTL ى ʾalif will maqṣūra = ā at the end of the word;
RTL ي yāʾ = ī or there ;
RTL و wāw = ū or W .

In fact, Arabic, for example for the sound ū , logically breaks up the long phoneme into uw ; as only the consonant is written, this one seems to also note ū . Of kind, these letters, which all are of the consonants (historically for RTL rear ا ʾalif ), can, in a certain manner, to fulfill the role of long vowels; it is said whereas they are matres lectionis (in Latin “mother of the reading”). Indeed, the Arabic alphabet, although it is a Abjad, mark systematically the site of long vowels: therefore, these signs indicating the sites in question are also read like vowels. Other Semitic writings, remainder, like the Hebrew alphabet, retain this process, which carries out certain specialists in the writings (like Thomas Bauer; cf . bibliography) to consider below that these abjads is not purely consonant and that they deserve well the name of alphabets equipped with vowels.

Diphthongs

Two Diphtongue S are mainly used, ay and aw ; as has is normally not written, only the second element, there or W are, by means of the suitable consonant, rear RTL ي yāʾ or rear RTL و wāw , which creates a new ambiguity; indeed, rear RTL ي yāʾ and rear RTL و wāw can thus be read like:

of the consonants;
of the letters of prolongation;
of the second elements of diphthong.

Writing of the hamza

Historically, the letter ʾalif noted occlusive a glottale, or “Glottal stop”, transcribed by, which confirms the alphabets resulting from the same origin phenician. However, it was useful, in the same manner as in others Abjad S, with yāʾ and wāw , of MATER lectionis , i.e. of wildcard character to note a long vowel. In fact, during time its phonetic value was erased and, since, ʾalif is mainly used for replacing phonemes, noting the lengthening of the /a/ vowel or being used as graphic support with certain signs.

The Arabic alphabet makes use now of the letter hamza to transcribe the glottal stop, phoneme which, in Arabic, can appear anywhere in a word, even with initial or finally. This letter, however, does not function like the others: it can be written only or to need a support, in which case it becomes diacritic:

without support: rear RTL ء;
with support: rear RTL إ, أ (on and under a ʾalif ), rear RTL ؤ (on a wāw ), rear RTL ئ (on a yāʾ without points or yāʾ hamza ).

The detail of the writing of the hamza is too complex to be treated here; a separate article is devoted to him: Arabic alphabet (writing of the hamza) .

Assimilations

The Arabic alphabet does not note the cases of assimilation S of the consonants in contact:

Devoicing: in spite of what the C-W communication indicates, rear RTL مُبْتَدَأ mubtadaʾ is marked /muptada ʾ/. It is notable that the writing does not change in this case to follow the pronunciation, contrary to what it does in other cases (elision of the unstable '' hamza '', for example);
complete assimilation of rear article RTL أَل ʾal : the /l/ of the article is entirely compared to the consonants dental consonants which follow (traditionally named “solar” consonants in opposition to the others, called “lunar”); the writing, however, does not note this assimilation clearly: /ʔal/+/d/>/ʔadd/, noted rear RTL د + أَل (ʾal + D) > rear RTL أَلدّ (transliteration: ʾaldd- ; to note the šadda ) and not *rtl rear أَدّ (transliteration: ʾadd ). The letter lām , indeed, continuous to be written well that it is not marked any more (it thus does not receive a sukūn ); the C-W communication is all the more redundant as the gemination obtained can be - seldom - indicated by the šadda . The transcription must however give the pronunciation, in the preceding case: ʾad-d (one places a hyphen between the article and the name to indicate that in the Arab C-W communication, the article is directly stuck to the name; it is also the case for other words tools).

Letters used for other languages

In Arabic even, in the alphabet says “Western”, the letter fāʾ was written rear RTL ڢ (instead of rear RTL ف of the Eastern alphabet), while qāf was represented by rear RTL ڧ (rather than rear RTL ق). Nowadays, the Maghrebian editions follow the Eastern uses.

For the languages other than Arabic, to consult Adaptations of the Arabic alphabet .

Punctuation

Being written Arabic from right to left, the modern editions use punctuation marks respecting this writing, namely:

the reversed comma “RTL rear,” (which also makes it possible not to be confused with “rear RTL د”, for example);
the semicolon reversed “rear RTL; ”;
the question mark reversed “rear RTL? ”.

Numeration

To consult the Arab article Numeration .

Styles of writings

Types of reading

to supplement

Arab keyboards

Inspired by the keyboards of typewriters, the Arab keyboards of computers can be presented as follows:

In connection with the transliteration

There exist several systems of transliteration of Arabic, the most employed being that of the review Arabica and that of the Encyclopedia of Islam . The remarks which follow relate to the transcription Arabica which is most coherent of both (an Arab letter = a Latin letter). It was seen, certain letters have several functions, others are dumb; the transcription is thus often ambiguous:

the hamza independent, like ʾalif , yāʾ and wāw when they carry the hamza diacritée, have all the value, transcribed ʾ ;
ʾalif and ʾalif will maqṣūra are used both to lengthen /a/: the transcription does not make it possible to know which of the two letters is used;
the tāʾ marbūṭa is marked /t/ only in a state of annexation or when one pronounces the case ending; it will be transcribed only in these two cases;
the tanwīn is noted while exposing accompanied by its accidental vowel ( raʾaytu kalb year );
with the sukūn and the šadda corresponds no distinguishing mark. One notes rear RTL thus رأيْتُ rear raʾaytu and RTL كسّر thus kassartu (by simple redoubling of the geminated consonant);
the /l/ of the article assimilated in front of “solar” consonant is noted /l/ when one transcribes of the written Arabic: Al-sirr . Indeed, the assimilation is in this completely prédictible case. On the other hand, when one transcribes a text in Arab dialect, one must reveal the assimilation when it occurs: l-kalb ; n-nâr . Indeed, the rules of assimilation of the article are variable from one dialect to another.

All these reasons make that it is sometimes useful to use a precise transliteration which follows the Arab original, character by character. The standard ISO 233 allows that (in the following examples, one will place the transliterations between accodances):

each consonant is written with a consonant symbol, even the ʾalif (transliterated {'}, apostrophizes curve), the wāw , and other letters of lengthening:
the vowels are indicated only if the starting text is vocalized;
the various types of hamza are noted by:

{'} (apostrophizes right) with a support: rear RTL حَقَائِبْ ḥaqāʾib {ḥaqa' y' ib°},
{ˌ} without support: rear RTL ضَوْء ḍawʾ {ḍaw°ˌ},

ʾalif will maqṣura is noted {ỳ}: rear RTL مَتَى matā {mataỳ};
tāʾ marbūṭa is worth {ẗ} (in other standards, a {ʰ}): rear RTL سَبْعَة sabʿa {sab°ʻaẗ};
the tanwīn are returned by an acute accent: rear RTL رَجُلًا raǧulan {raǧuláʼ};
the sukūn is noted by a {°}: rear RTL زَوْج zawǧ {zaw°ǧ}, the šadda by a macron: rear RTL شَدَّة šadda {šad̄aẗ};
the assimilation of the article is written letter by letter: rear RTL أَلشَّمْس ʾaš-šams {'has' lš̄am°s}, etc

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