Unlike most languages of the world, Arabic letters are written in "ligature", connecting with each other in a word. It does not matter if the text is written by hand or typed. Another feature that beginners to learn Arabic do not immediately get used to is writing the text from right to left. Let's look at the features of writing and transcription of Arabic letters.
General principles of the Arabic language
Only the Koran, as well as scientific, children's and educational literature are written using vowels, in other cases the words are written without vowels. That is why, when writing a transcription, the Arabic text is not transliterated, but is written as it should be pronounced. Before starting to write a transcription, vocalization is introduced into words and sentences.
When writing texts with vowels, damma, fatha and kyasra (vowel signs), shadda (doubling sign) and tanvin (very rare and is a nunation sign) are most often used.
Sometimes you can see in the text sukun (signthe absence of a vowel) and waslu (a sign of the absence of a glottal stop), as well as hamza (separates two vowel sounds from each other).
Transcription features
The presence of unique sounds (pharyngeal, emphatic, interdental), which are absent in most European languages, greatly complicates the task for a person who is trying to translate Arabic letters into transcription. After all, such a sound can only be transmitted approximately.
Today, there are two types of transcription. Scientific - with the most accurate pronunciation, and practical, which allows you to approximately reflect how Arabic letters are pronounced. Translation, or rather, transliteration is carried out using the characters of the Russian or Latin alphabet. The most famous transcriptions, both practical and scientific, were developed by the Arabists Krachkovsky and Yushmanov.
Alphabet
The alphabet came from the Phoenicians to the Arabs. It includes not only all their letters, but also graphic representations of sounds specific to a given language. These are Arabic letters such as "sa" (similar to the soft interdental English th), "ha" (an exhalation sound similar to that which a dog makes when breathing), "zal" (a sonorous sound that will result if you put the tip of the tongue between teeth and pronounce “sa”), “dad” (it will turn out if you pronounce the sound “d” and at the same time pull your tongue back and slightly lower your jaw), “for” (an emphatic sound similar to “z”, but is pronounced when the tongue is pulled back and slight droplower jaw), "gain" (similar in sound to the grazing French "p").
It should be mentioned that all letters of the Arabic alphabet are consonants. To designate vowels, special superscript or subscript vowels are used, which denote the sounds "and", "y" and "a".
But if you listen to the speech of a person who speaks Arabic, then other vowels are heard. This is due to different pronunciation variations within consonant sounds. Depending on the consonant, the vowel sign may sound like “e” (in most cases), and in diphthong syllables and with hard consonants it acquires an “o”-shaped sound. With the "sukun" sign, it is already pronounced with a pronounced "e" sound.
The vowel sign "and" can be transformed into "s" with hard consonants, but the vowel "y" rarely changes its sound to another in classical Arabic, but in some dialects there is a transition to the sound "o".
How many letters are there in the Arabic alphabet? There are 28 of them and they are all consonants (with the exception of the first letter of the alphabet - “alif”). One letter is always comparable to one sound. For example, the letter "ba" (the second in the alphabet) is pronounced like a hard sound "b" in the word "ram", but at the end of the word it is never stunned (in Russian oak is pronounced like "dup", in Arabic this will not happen).
Spelling features
Arabic letters are quite difficult to write, especially for beginners. By the way, "ligature" is used not only by the Arabs, but also by someTurkic peoples, as well as people who speak Pashto or Urdu. Writing is strictly from right to left.
The writing process itself looks like this:
- First, that part of the letters is written, when writing which the pen does not need to be torn off the paper.
- Next, the parts that are included in the graphics of the letter are added, but it is impossible to write them without interruption. These include dots, plumb lines, and slashes.
- If necessary, arrange vocalizations.
The spelling of each letter depends on its location in the word. Arabic letters most often have four types of outline (separate, at the beginning or at the end of a word, middle). The only exception concerns 6 letters: "alif", which is always written separately, as well as "dal", "zal", "ra", "zayn" and "vav", which are not combined with the character following them.
Very often, many people who start learning Arabic read words in transliteration. And this is the main mistake. To pronounce Arabic words correctly, you need to start by learning the alphabet and the correct pronunciation of each letter. Only having mastered the alphabet well, you can proceed to the pronunciation of words and the construction of phrases.
