8. Writing Arabic, part III

Click on Arabic letters to play sound.

Explanation Here comes the largest chunk of Arabic letters that only can be written in two variants: Standing alone, following another letter. None of these allows any subsequent letter to join. This involves that the writer will have to lift his pencil up from the paper, and write that subsequent letter as if it was the first in a word. The last letter, the hamza, is not really a letter, there is no sound to it, and in transcriptions, no Latin letter is used, only an apostrophe. What the hamza indicates is a pausal stop in the pronounciation. No sound, simply a little stop. However, the hamza is no big obstacle for the Arabic student. Few Arabs emphasize the hamza when they speak themselves.

d (dāl)

dh (dhāl)

r (rā')

z (zāy)

f (fā')

q (qāf)

k (kāf)

' (hamza)

Examples and Grammar

qadhafa- to shoot; throw; ejaculate. Here you see in practice what letters that only can be written in one out of two forms, behave.
fakka- untie; loosen. This has been presented here before — double letter written as it was one.
dar'- protection. Here you see the hamza, and how it appears. Note that the hamza can be written in several different ways. In most instances you will see it with a "hamza carrier", that is either 'alif, w?w or y?' with a hamza floating above this. In this example it appears without, but you will soon enough see plenty of examples of "hamza carriers". This is slightly complicated, but do as you must at this level: Learn by heart, and leave difficult grammer for later.
firaq- teams or farq- difference. This is one of very few words, where short vowels would have been useful. Both these are written in the same way, even if one is plural and the other singular. But you will have to read the real meaning out of the context, and from there remember the correct pronounciation.
ghurfa- room. Note the finishing tā' marbūta, indicating the feminine, but which is unpronounced.
zāra- to visit. One more of those words where one letter changes to another. You should be getting used to these by now.