Learn more about reading in Arabic
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Intro |
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| Michael: How can you read Arabic if it doesn't have any vowels? |
| Nora: And what's the best reading strategy for learners? |
| Michael: At ArabicPod101.com, we hear these questions often. Imagine the following situation, Ben, a college student from America, is at a restaurant with his friend, Farida. He picks up a menu and tries to spell out one of the words in the drink section. He reads out the name of each Arabic letter he sees, saying, |
| "c-f-o-h" |
| قَ - هَ - وَ- ة (qaaf - haa’ - waaw - haa’) |
| Dialogue |
| Ben Lee: قَ - هَ - وَ- ة (qaaf - haa’ - waaw - haa’) |
| Farida Fahmy:قهوة (qahwah) |
| Michael: Once more with the English translation. |
| Ben Lee: قَ - هَ - وَ- ة (qaaf - haa’ - waaw - haa’) |
| Michael: "c-f-o-h" |
| Farida Fahmy:قهوة (qahwah) |
| Michael: "Coffee." |
Lesson focus |
| Michael: Arabic is often said to have almost no vowels. However, this statement is not true. The Arabic language is written in a kind of script called abjad. |
| Nora: الأبجَدِيَّة (al-ʾabǧadiyyah) |
| Michael: Unlike the alphabets you find in languages like English or Greek, an abjad mostly has letters for consonants. Thus, it's sometimes called an impure consonantal alphabet because it is not entirely vowel free, but has few vowels. The three main vowel letters in Arabic are: |
| Nora: ا (alif) |
| Michael: which is a long “aa” sound, like in the word meaning “door” |
| Nora: باب (bāb) |
| Michael: Next is |
| Nora: و (waw) |
| Michael: which is a long “uu” sound, like in the word meaning “light” |
| Nora: نور (nūr) |
| Michael: Next, we have |
| Nora: ي (yaa’) |
| Michael: which is a long “ii” sound, like in the word meaning “fig” |
| Nora: تين (tīn) |
| Michael: Thus, the term impure consonantal alphabet. As you can see, there are three vowel letters that can be used as consonants if diacritics are added to them. Then, there are vowelling signs, known in Arabic as |
| Nora: تَشكيل (taškīl) |
| Michael: or |
| Nora: حَرَكات (ḥarakāt) |
| Michael: These are short vowel sounds, added in the form of signs on top of or beneath other consonants to aid the reading process. Here are some of the basic voweling signs in Arabic. The first is: |
| Nora: َ (fathah) |
| Michael: which corresponds to a short “a” sound, like in the word meaning “land” |
| Nora: بَر (bar) |
| Michael: The next vowelling sign is |
| Nora: ُ (dammah), |
| Michael: a short “u” sound, like in the word meaning “they” |
| Nora: هُم (hum) |
| Michael: Another important vowelling sign is |
| Nora: ِ (kasrah) |
| Michael: a short “i” sound, like in the word meaning “from” |
| Nora: مِن (min) |
| Michael: These vowel sounds are shorter than actual vowels. Aside from the aforementioned characters, it is experience and practice that enables the Arabic users to know which vowels go with different words. Context and the word's position in the sentence, as well as words' Semitic roots, help a native speaker to identify the root consonants. This is why it is so easy for Ben's friend to read the word for "coffee" on the menu. |
| What about non-native learners though? You can take advantage of vowelling signs. This system will be used, for example, in children's books or dictionaries, but may be of great help when learning Arabic. But, for now, take comfort that there's help! There's also a number of Roman transliteration systems like DIN and Buckwalter. These systems always include vowels to help you read. |
Outro |
| Michael: Great job. Now you know about vowels in Arabic. That's all there is to it! Do you have any more questions? We’re here to answer them! |
| Nora: !سلام (Salam!) |
| Michael: See you soon! |
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