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The Arabic Alphabets part2

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Part 3:  The Arabic Alphabets part-2

you can see part -1 here

How the The Letters are written ?

• The first letter of the Arabic alphabet is Aleph.
• Remember that all 29 letters in the alphabet are consonants… well, this is not exactly true for Aleph.     Aleph doesn’t have its own sound; it is used to stretch the short A vowel to form the long AA vowel.
• This is how the Aleph looks in the four cases:

end       middle     beginning       by itself
 ا                   ا ـ                 ـا ـ             ـا

• Notice that the Aleph cannot connect to the letter after it. There will be a small gap between the
Aleph and the next letter
• Aleph is one of 6 letters that cannot connect to the following letter. The other 5 will be
discussed later


• The next letters of the Arabic alphabet are Baa, Taa and Thaa
• We are grouping these letters together because the basic shape of the letters looks the same;
only the dots are different.

Baa corresponds to the English B
• Taa corresponds to the English T, but it’s softer
• Thaa corresponds to the combination TH, as in “thank”
• The 4 forms of these letters are the same; the only difference is the number and position of dots

end       middle     beginning       by itself
ب                     بـ                 ـبـ           ـب
ت                     تـ                 ـتـ           ـت
ث                     ثـ                 ـثـ           ـث

• The next letters are Jeem, Haa and Khaa
• Jeem corresponds to the English J
• Haa corresponds to the English H, but it’s much more throaty
• Khaa corresponds to the combination KH
• In writing, Jeem, Haa and Khaa each have the same body, as follows:

end       middle     beginning       by itself
 ج                    جـ                ـجـ              ـج
 ح                    حـ                ـحـ              ـح
 خ                    خـ                ـخـ              ـخ

The next letters of the alphabet are Daal and Dhaal
• Daal sounds like the letter D in English, but softer
• Dhaal sounds like the combination TH, as in “that”
• This is how these two letters look in their 4 forms.
• Notice that Daal and Dhaal do NOT connect to the following letter:

end       middle     beginning       by itself
 د                  د ـ                ـد ـ              ـد
 ذ                   ذ ـ                ـذ ـ              ـذ

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The next letters of the alphabet are Raa and Zeiy
Raa sounds somewhat like the letter R in English
• Zeiy sounds like the letter Z in English
• The name of the letter Zeiy is sometimes pronounced Zeiy (“Zaa-ee”) or even Zayen (“Zaa-yen”)
• Raa and Zeiy have the same body
• Raa and Zeiy do NOT connect to the following letter:

end       middle     beginning       by itself
 ر                    ر ـ              ـر ـ             ـر
 ز                    ز ـ              ـز ـ             ـز

The next letters of the alphabet are Seen and Sheen
• Seen is equivalent to the letter S
• Sheen is equivalent to the combination SH
• Seen and Sheen look very similar except that Seen has no dots and Sheen has 3 dots on top:

end       middle     beginning       by itself
س                 سـ                  ـسـ              ـس
ش                 شـ                  ـشـ              ـش

The next letters of the Arabic alphabet are Saad and Daad
• Saad sounds like the letter S, but it has more of a whistle
• Daad sounds like the letter D, but much, much thicker and deeper sounding
• Saad and Daad look very similar except that Saad has no dots and Daad has one dot on top:

end       middle     beginning       by itself

ص                 صـ              ـصـ              ـص
ض                 ضـ              ـضـ              ـض

The next letters of the Arabic alphabet are Taa and Zaa
• Taa is not the same as the one we saw earlier
• It sounds like the letter T, but it is much, much thicker sounding
• Zaa is not the same as the one we saw earlier
• It sounds like the letter Z, but it is much, much thicker sounding
• Taa and Zaa look very similar except that Taa has no dots and Zaa has one dot on top:

end       middle     beginning       by itself

 ط                     طـ               ـطـ              ـط
 ظ                     ظـ               ـظـ              ـظ

The next letters of the Arabic alphabet are Ein and Ghein
• Ein doesn’t have an English equivalent; it is a very throat sound
• Ghein sounds like the combination GH, like the noise when you gargle
• Ein and Ghein look very similar except that Ein has no dots and Ghein has one dot on top:

end       middle     beginning       by itself

 ع                     عـ                ـعـ              ـع
 غ                     غـ                ـغـ              ـغ

The next letters of the Arabic alphabet are Faa, Qaaf and Kaaf
• Faa is equivalent to the English letter F
• Qaaf is represented by the letter Q; it sounds like K except it’s more throaty
• Kaaf is equivalent to the English letter K
• This is what these letters look like in all 4 forms:

end       middle     beginning       by itself

 ف                    فـ                 ـفـ            ـف
 ق                    قـ                 ـقـ             ـق
 ك                    كـ                ـكـ              ـك

The next letters of the Arabic alphabet are Laam, Meem and Noon
• Laam is equivalent to the English letter L
• Meem is equivalent to the English letter M
• Noon is equivalent to the English letter N
• This is what these letters look like in all 4 forms:

end       middle     beginning       by itself

 ل                    لـ                ـلـ               ـل
 م                    مـ                ـمـ               ـم
 ن                    نـ                ـنـ               ـن

When Laam is followed by Aleph, the Aleph curves a bit, like this
                                                                 لا
• Another speciality is the word Allah… which is written very uniquely, as follows
Aleph, Laam, Laam, Aleph, Haa (which we haven’t seen yet)
                                                                الله
• The rest of the letters of the Arabic alphabet are Waw, Haa, Hamza and Yaa
• Waw is equivalent to the English letter W
• Haa is equivalent to the English letter H, not to be confused with the Haa we saw earlier
• Hamza is equivalent to the English letter A, as in “apple” (not considered a vowel, though)
• Yaa is equivalent to the English letter Y
• This is what these letters look like in all 4 forms:

end       middle     beginning       by itself

 و                     و               ـ ـوـ             ـو
 ه                     هـ                ـهـ              ـه
                                                      ء أ إ ؤ ئ
 ي                     يـ                ـيـ              ـي

Sometimes Haa is written with 2 dots on top; this is actually the letter Taa
• This can only happen at the end of a word:

end       middle     beginning       by itself

 ة                                                         ـة

Writing Hamza is very complicated, so we’ll leave it for now

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