Learn why Arabic has many forms of the same letter
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Intro |
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| Hi everybody! Nora here. Welcome to Ask a Teacher, where I’ll answer some of your most common Arabic questions. |
| The Question |
| The question for this lesson is: How come Arabic has many forms of the same letter? |
| Explanation |
| There are 28 letters in the Arabic alphabet. But many learners wonder why letters look different in different parts of a word. It can make the alphabet seem like much more than 28 letters! |
| That’s due to the cursive nature of Arabic text. Arabic is written from right to left in a cursive style, |
| Illustration: |
| اللغة العربية |
| So, Arabic letters occur in 4 different forms: initial, medial, final, and isolated. |
| Let's see examples of some letters in their 4 different forms: |
| Letter : ج/ǧ |
| Initial: جميل / ǧamil /“beautiful” |
| Medial: مجلة / maǧallah / “magazine” |
| Final: ثلج / ṯalǧ /"snow” |
| Isolated: سراج / siraǧ / "lamp” |
| Next we have, |
| Letter : ع/ʿ |
| Initial: عِلم / ʿilm /“scienze” |
| Medial: معلم / muʿallim / “teacher” |
| Final: منعْ / manʿ /“forbidding” |
| Isolated: ممنوع / mamnūʿ / “forbidden” |
| Letter : س/s |
| Initial: سمك / samak /“fish” |
| Medial: مَسْح / masḥ / “wiping” |
| Final: هَمَسَ / hams /“he whispered” |
| Isolated: حَماس / ḥamas / “enthusiasm” |
| Some letters don't change much from one form to the other. Only the connection part is different. Let’s check out some examples: |
| Letter : ت/t |
| Initial: تفاح / tuffaḥ /“apples” |
| Medial: متاح / mutaḥ / “available” |
| Final: بيت / bayt /“a house” |
| Isolated: صوت / ṣawt / “a sound” |
| Letter : د/d |
| Initial: دب / dub /“bear” |
| Medial: قدر / qadar / “fate” |
| Final: عيد / ʿid /“feast” |
| Isolated: ورد / ward / “flowers” |
Outro |
| Did you notice the word “Hamas” in the examples? The Palestinian organization “Hamas” actually means “Enthusiasm” in Arabic. |
| Pretty interesting, right? |
| If you have any more questions, please leave a comment below! |
| Bye! إلى اللقاء(ʾilā al-liqaāʾ) |
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