Arabic letters and diacritics: Difference between revisions

The original Qur'an and many other Islamic sources (some of them not translated yet) are in the Arabic language. Also when discussing Islam in English, there are many Arabic words used, like salah, Allah, masjid, Muhammad and others. Many Arabic words cannot be properly transliterated into English, due to the incompatibility of the alphabets. This article explains the Arabic alphabet.

Even if you don't want to have some deep knowledge of Arabic, when you know the alphabet, at least you can correctly read the Islamic terms and be less confused about their pronunciation (and also look more professional). This article is for people who speak English and have no knowledge of Arabic.

The Arabic "alphabet" is not compatible with the English alphabet. There are letters in English, which cannot be transliterated using the Arabic alphabet and vice versa.

The word "alphabet" is derived from the words "alpha" and "beta", but Arabic doesn't have a letter like "a" (it has a letter "alif", which is however more complicated). Also many Arabic words consist of only consonant letters and the vowels are added by diacritics. So "alphabet" might not be the best way to describe the Arabic letters and abjad is used instead (الأَبْجَدِيَّة العَرَبِيَّة‎‎, al-abjadīyah al-ʻarabīyah, the Arabic abjad).

Although there are letters which represent vowels, they are used only to represent long vowels. The short vowels in words are either indicated by (optional) diacritics, or just not indicated at all and the reader just has to know how to pronounce it. There are two "levels" of diacritics. The first is I‘jām (إِعْجَام), small dots which are considered to be a part of the letter. They were not present in the earliest Qur'anic manuscripts. They are absolutely important as they determine the consonant. For example:

• ب b
• ت t
• ث th

Then there is the next "level" of diacritics, the harakat (حَرَكَات), which is optional and often not present in the Arabic text. The Arabic word "harakat" حَرَكَات without the harakat, would look like this: حركات. The three little lines above the letter determine the three "a" in harakat.

Missing Arabic letters

There are English letters, which cannot be transliterated using the Arabic abjad. There are many words which could be used as examples. The examples used are the cases where the words are similar in Arabic and English.

E like in America

Arabic abjad cannot express the word "America", since it doesn't have a letter corresponding to the "e" sound. So Arabs drop the "e" between "m" and "r" (and prolong the "i") and pronounce this word as "Amreeka" (أمريكا).

O like in Europe

The letter o has no equivalent in the Arabic abjad. Arabs have to say "Awruba" (أوروبا).

P like in Europe

There is no letter P in the Arabic abjad. Arabs have to say "Awruba" (أوروبا).

• The word Pakistan is Bakistan (باكستان) in Arabic.
• The word Palestine is Filastin (فلسطين) in Arabic.
• The word Egypt is actually Misr (مصر) in Arabic.

V like in video

The English letter "v" has no equivalent in Arabic and it often replaced by the letter "f". So the word "video" is "fidyu" (فيديو) in Arabic.

G like in Gabriel

There is no letter g (like in garden) in Arabic. So Gabriel is Jibreel (جبريل).

• The Arabic letter ج (jim) is read as "g" in the Egyptian Arabic.

Arabic letters compatible with the English alphabet

The form of the letter is different when the letter is written alone, when it is at the beginning, middle or the end of a word, so besides the letter alone, this article also provides a sequence of 3 letters.

• ب - ba
  • ببب
• ث - tha, like in "through"
  • ثثث
• ج - jim, like in "Jeep"
  • ججج
• ر - ra
  • ررر
• ز - zay
  • ززز
• ش - shin
  • ششش
• ف - fa
  • ففف
• ل - lam
  • للل
• م - mim
  • ممم
• ن - nun
  • ننن
• و - waw (or like "ue" in "blue")
  • ووو
• ي - yaa
  • ييي

ِArabic letters ambiguously compatible with the English alphabet

There are Arabic pairs of letters which are pronounced a little differently, but they are transliterated into English as the same letter. For example the words سلام (salaam, peace) and صلاة (salah, prayer) start on a different kind of "s".

These letters (t, d, s) have two versions. The difference is like "je vais" and "je veux" in French. The best way to learn the difference would be to watch some videos on the Arabic alphabet and hear the difference.

• t
  • ت - ta
    • تتت
  • ط - ta
    • ططط
• d
  • د - dal
    • ددد
  • ض - daad
    • ضضض
• s
  • س - sin
    • سسس
  • ص - saad
    • صصص

There is also another kind of "t", that is pronounced as ت. It occurs usually at the end of a word and words ending on this letter are usually feminine. Thiw "t" is not read when reading the word alone, but it is read when the word is in a context of Arabic text. For example the word prayer, صلاة, can be read as either "salat" or "salah". When the "t" is not read, it is usually transliterated as "h".

• ة - ta marbuta
  • ةةة
    • This letter occurs only at the end of words.

Then there are these two similar letters (k, q).

• k, q
  • ك - kaaf
    • ككك <-- very different forms
    • This is just a regular "k", like in the word "key".
  • ق - qaaf
    • ققق
    • When pronouncing ق, the tongue goes up similarly like when pronouncing a regular "k", but deeper in the throat.

Then there are these two letters, both transliterated as "h". Sometimes ح is transliterated as "h" with a dot below it.

• h
  • ه - haa
    • ههه <-- very different forms
    • A regular "h" like in "honey".
  • ح - haa
    • ححح
    • Very different kind of "h". It has the typical exhale sound.

And a special letter:

• ا - alif
  • ااا
  • It can be either "a" (like in Arabic), "i" (like in Italy) or "w" (like in Washington). It depends on the diacritics.

ِArabic letters not compatible with the English alphabet

Probably the ugliest sound of all letters:

• خ - khaa
  • خخخ
  • It's better to listen how it sounds.

These two are a pair similar to د/ض and others, but it doesn't have an equivalent letter in the English alphabet:

• dh, z
  • ذ - dhal
  • ظ - dha

These two are very unique and definitely has to be heard to learn them:

• ع - 'ayn
  • Throat squeezing sound.
• غ - ghayn
  • Similar to the French "r".