Review 1

Arabic Letters and Vowels

·        Arabic is read from right to left

·        The alphabet has 29 letters

·        Basically all the letters are consonants

 

ث

ت

ب

TH like in “bath”

soft T

B

 

·        Vowels are not written, but they are pronounced of course

·        There are 3 of them and they are little ticks on top or underneath a letter

·        If a letter has a vowel on top / underneath it, it means the vowel come after that letter

 

بَ

BA

 

·        Arabic also has 3 long vowels

·        These ARE part of the alphabet

·        Each long vowel matches a short vowel and makes it sound longer (about twice the length of the short version)

 

بَا

BAA

 

·        Words are made up of a group of letters connected to each other

·        Some letters, though, can’t connect to the following letter

·        So there will be a very small space between that letter and the next one

·        Each letter is made of a body and maybe some dots

·        The body of each letter has 4 forms

o   when it’s by itself

o   when it’s in the beginning of a word

o   when it’s in the middle of a word

o   when it’s at the end of a word

 

End

Middle

Beginning

 

ـا

ـا ـ

ا ـ

ا

ـب

ـبـ

بـ

ب

ـت

ـتـ

تـ

ت

ـث

ـثـ

ثـ

ث

 

·        The connection lines you see in the table above are exaggerated

·        Connection lines are usually extremely tiny

·        Letters are usually recognized by the number and position (above/below) of the dots, and certain qualities of the body (like loops, angles, lines)

 

Practice

 

·        How many letters and vowels do you recognize in the following recordings? You might need to listen to each a dozen times or more

 

Answer [2 Baa, 2 Taa, 1 THaa, 7 Aleph, 4 Fatha (+1 hard to notice)]

Answer [2 Baa, 6 Taa (+1 doubled), 0 THaa, 4 Aleph, 13 Fatha]

Answer [0 Baa, 0 Taa, 0 THaa, 6 Aleph, 9 Fatha (+1 hard to notice)]

 

·        How many letters and vowels do you recognize in the following texts?

 

جَرَحاتُ اللِسانِ لَها التِيامُ وَلا يَلْتامُ ما جَرَحَ اللِسانُ

Answer [10 Aleph, 0 Baa, 3 Taa, 0 THaa, 8 Fatha]

 

فَقُلتُ ءَيا رَباهُ ءَوَلُ سُؤلَتِي لِنَفسِيَ لَيْلى ثُمَ ءَنتَ حَسِيبُها

Answer [3 Aleph, 2 Baa, 3 Taa, 1 THaa, 13 Fatha]

 

·        Copy each of the below and try to pronounce them

 

ثابَتَ

ثَبَتَ