Vowels and Signs of Arabic Alphabets

Hello and good day my fellow Steemians, today I would like to discuss with us Arabic vowels and written Arabic signs before we go please I would like to comment on lack of response from the Skill shares representatives on Discord social media platform because I was told to either join the curation trail or delegate steem power to the community for supporting one another and everyone after my first post which I would gladly do as I am a new member here but no response till now for more than three days ago. Please I would be happy and appreciate if this issue can be looked into @milakz, @lhorgic please it needs urgent attention and the representative of the community should please check their inboxes and reply promptly.

Thanks for the usual support.

Now, let’s go to the business of the day which is about Arabic signs and vowels. Although Arabic language is often referred to as a language with no vowel letters but in the real sense Arabic has some letters and signs which act as vowels when pronouncing it and also used in elongation including Long and Short vowels. In Arabic we have up to eight 8 basic signs which are written with alphabets and words which helps us in knowing how to pronounce letters and word correctly and precisely.

They are as follows :
Al-fathah الفتحة ( َ )
Al-kasrah الكسرة ( ِ )
Al-dummah الضمّة ( ٌ )

In the above image, A indicates the Single written signs otherwise called Short vowels
B indicates double written signs or At-tanween in Arabic
C indicates both Sukun and Shaddah signs

At this juncture, please let us pay maximum attention, this three written Arabic signs are also referred to as short Arabic vowels or singly-written form and sometimes they can be written in doubled form which is known as At-tanweenالتنوين in Arabic language grammar.

So now let us take a look at how they are written and pronounced :
Fathataan فتحتان ( ً )
Kasrataan كسرتان ( ٍ )
Dummataan ضمتان( ٌ )

And the last two are the Al-sukun( ْ ) السكون and Al- shaddah الشدة( ّ )

Al-Sukun

Al- sukun ( ْ) is a neutral sign with no sound or pronunciation, in written it is only found in the middle of the word, it can never start a word and likewise it can never be written at the end of the word in Arabic grammar though it can be pronounced at the end of a word as it is generally known among the Arabs is that, Arabs never start a word or sentence with a Sukun (neutral sound) and never end a word or a sentence on other Arabic signs such the short vowels, double signs and the Shaddah.

In a nutshell, what I am pointing out here is that Arabs always start a word or sentence or any other grammatical structures using other signs except Sukun and does not stop or end a word on other signs in only verbal context or situation and not in written situation. Though sometimes you may see someone speaking Arabic and not ending in Sukun and pronouncing the signs when he/she is stopping or ending a sentence (Araka in Arabic meaning) such a case is regarded as error and mistake among the Arabic language scholars and community.

Lastly, let us talk about Al-Shaddah( ّ ) which is known as double pronunciation.

Al-Shaddah

Al-shaddah or simply Shaddah means pronouncing the same alphabet twice. This is done by putting the neutral sound Sukun on the first letter and putting any of the single-written signs otherwise known as short vowels on the second letter of the same alphabet, due to this repeated pattern and tautology of the same alphabet, that is why it is called double pronunciation or simply Shaddah in Arabic transliteration.

Now let us look at some examples on this aspect :

The Sun in Arabic meaning is As-shams الشّمس

If you look carefully on the third letter ش

On this letter you will found out that Shaddah sign is written on its top which indicates there is double letter of the same alphabet in this word.

It is simply is :ا+ ل+ شْ+ شَ+ م+ س = الشّمس

Other examples is the Apple in Arabic it is called التّفاحة

If you look at this word carefully at third letter there is double ت there as well which is of the same approach like the one above.

Let us round off with this third example which is علّامة which means Marker, if you look at the second letter you will find the double pronunciation which means there is double ل there

It is simply like this if we are to open the word into its constituent letters ع+ لْ+ لَ+ ا+ م+ ة = علّامة

In simple terms, just know that anywhere you see the Shaddah sign otherwise known as double pronunciation on any alphabet such a letter is written twice and as such it is going to be pronounced with a little bit louder voice than other letters in the same word as regards spoken Arabic.

So let’s stop here for this lecture in my next lecture, we will talk about all the 28 Arabic letters and their corresponding starting letters in Arabic just like the “A for Apple” which is taught in nursery schools at the basic educational level.

If you have any questions don’t hesitate to ask as I am very ready to answer your questions and this also allows me to know the areas you do not understand properly in my lectures.

Thank you for taking out of your resourceful time to go through my lectures and happy Steeming.