اَلبَابُ الاوَلُ
Vowels
There are 6 vowels , 3 short , 3 long ; and two diphthongs in Arabic ; namely , u , a , I , ā , ī , ū ; au and ai .
While the letters و (wāw ) , ا (alif ) , and ي (yāʾ) have to do duty as long vowels , short vowels are indicated by signs above below the consonants carrying them . Unfortunately in most modern written and printed Arabic no vowels signs are given , and the reader has to deduce them .
Short Vowels
Vowels | Name of vowels | Discription | |
a | fatha فَتحَةٌ | Is indicated by a small diagonal stroke above the consonant , as مَ. This vowel is the neutral a sound as in “man” | |
i | Kasra كَسْرةٌ | Is a similar stroke but under the letter , as مِ . Its approximates sound is the i in “did” . | |
u | Damma ضَمّة | Is written like a miniature و )waw( above the letter . as مُ . This is pronounce like the u in “bull” . , not like that in “bun” |
The absent of the vowel sign is indicated by a small circle over the letter , thus _ْ_ , and is termed ) sukkun( سُكّون , or )jazma( جَزمَة eg ; هُمْ (hum)
The double vowel-marks signs are an extension of the single vowel-marks. The double vowel signs add the '-n' sound to the single vowel. Please see the letters below. The /Dal/ has been used to enable us to see the position of the double vowel sign which is called /tanwin/. /Tanwin/ refers to the double form of any vowel, the specific name of the double vowel sign e.g.: double /Fathah/
(Fathatan) is also given below as this is unique for each vowel.
بٌ | بٍ | بً | Arabic Character |
Dammatan | Fathatan | Kasratan | Vowel Name |
'un' | 'in' | 'an' | Vowel Sound |
The 'on' in dragon | The 'in' in sin | The 'an' in ran | English word with similar |
The three short vowels given above do not really represent all the sound heard . For example , after the emphatic letters ظ , ط , ص , ض the fatha appears to take on something of the o sound . For example , ضَرَب (daraba) seems to sound like “doraba” . After the guttural letters , the fatha seems to lose its neutrality and have more of the English “a” sound about it , e.g. عَرَب ) Araba) . Again the fatha seems to partake of the nature of the letter “e” when associated with the ل (lam) . For example , مَلك (malik) sound like “melik” , كَلبٌ (kalbun) sound like “kelbun”, قَلبٌ (qalbun) sound like “qelbun” . The lengthen these three vowels , they are followed by the letters ا , ي , and و . As in مال (mal) , فيل (fiil) , and حدود (huduud) .
There are two diphthongs , ai as in بَيت (baitun) – approximately the i in site . and au as in يَومٌ (yaumun) , The previous consonant has fatha , and the ي (ya) and و (waw) must have sukkun . In classical arab , the two component parts of these diphthongs are not thoroughly coalesced . But in modern spoken Arabic this coalescence take place , and may sound like (bet) and (youm) as in main and home as pronounced in the north of England .