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Arabic is a living language
Introduction
Arabic Alphabet, are twenty eight letters. Each letter has a basic shape, a name and a sound.
We use the basic shape or form, when a letter stands alone (isolated) or when it is used at the end of a word.
Some letters have exactly same shape. They are distinguished only by their dots. The dots are part of the letters and not extra diacritical marks.
The sounds of Arabic letters are classified into two main groups: - Consonants - Vowels
Joined & Disjoined letters Many letters have, beside the basic or full shape, more than one shape or form according to their position in the word.
They are not joined (Connected with) to the following letter even when they are inside a word and their shape – form – does not change according to their position in the words.
They join (Connect) the letter following them and their shape – form – changes according to their position in the word.
Short Vowels Unlike the Latin alphabet, short vowel indicators are not part of the Arabic letter system, instead they are written as small diacritical marks above or below the consonant letter.
The vowel signs are particularly essential in the preliminary stages of teaching Arabic for second language learners. With the written vowel marks, you will learn how Arabic words are pronounced.
There are three short vowels sounds in Arabic, named as follows:
1- Fat-ha: It is a stroke "----َ----" placed on the top of the letter. It gives the sound "a" as in apple.
2- Kas-rah: It is a stroke "----ِ----" placed below the letter. It gives the sound "I" as in kiss.
3- Dam-mah: It is a little stroke "----ُ----" placed on the top of the letter. It gives the sound "u" as in put.
(Maddeh) A little symbol on the top of the ALIF آ which looks like the Latin ~, it's called MAD, and mostly used on the top of ALIF to express a long "A" something like "AA".
In Arabic there are three long vowel letters, which are:
ألف ا Alef Pronounced aa Alef Almadd is used to lengthen the Fat-ha (a) sound to a double (aa). It is necessary that there is a Fat-ha sign on top of the letter before the Alef Almadd to be a long vowel.
واو و Waw Pronounced uu Waw Almadd is usesd to lengthen the Dam-mah (u / o) sound to double (uu / oo) It is necessary that there is a Dam-mah sign on top of the letter before the Waw Almadd to be a long vowel.
ياء ي Ya' Pronounced ii / ee Ya' Almadd is used to lengthen the Kas-rah (i / e) sound to double (ii / ee) It is necessary that there is a Kas-rah sign on top of the letter before the Ya' Almadd to be a long vowel.
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