:meow-knit: DW natives use only one of them, which I think a lot of you already know :meow-coffee:

In this lesson we will learn about ’alif-hamza أ

We learned about the long vowel 'alif ا in our last lesson.

Now here is a fact: there are no words which begin with a vowel! :walter-shock:

Oh you think I’m talking about Arabic? Go ahead, pronounce ‘our, if, it, up, I, on’. In English, the sound you make every time you say a word that begins with a vowel is not a vowel sound, it’s actually called a glottal stop. And the reason why you don’t know this is because English has no letter for the glottal stop.

In Arabic, the hamza ء represents the glottal stop and, like other consonants, it can be a carrier of vowel sounds. You wanna practice the sound of a glottal stop? It’s the sound you make every time you say a word that begins with a vowel or the Cockney pronunciation of “little bottle” (pronounced without the t’s)

A glottal stop is a catch in the throat produced by holding one’s breath and suddenly releasing it.

 

Some nerdy stuff

Centuries ago the hamza didn’t exist and the glottal stop was represented by an ’alif ا . Then the symbol for the hamza was developed and added to the ’alif, like a diacritic, to indicate that it’s a glottal stop, and not a long vowel. The combination أ s called ’alif-hamza, the first letter in the alphabet.

:meow-coffee:

Remember: An 'alif at the beginning of a word is always gonna be a glottal stop, never a long vowel, whether there is a hamza ء or not. There are no words that begin with a vowel.

The hamza is transliterated as an apostrophe.

 

Pronunciation Examples

أَسَد

'asad lion, pronunciation

 

أَب

'ab means father, pronunciation here and here

 

أَخ

'akh brother, pronunciation here and here

 

أَنتَ

'anta you (masculine)

 

أَنتِ

'anti you (feminine)

 

أَحمَد

'aHmad (Ahmed)

 

Check the comments for more!

Also who is still actually interested in these lessons?

Previous Lessons

1st

2nd

3rd

4th

5th

6th