Alif and Hamza

Posted on 15. Apr, 2009 by in Grammar

Some grammarians regard alif (ا) and hamza (ء) as two distinct letters, while others regards them as two realizations of the same letter. They are a problematic aspect of Arabic writing and are often confusing to native and non-native speakers alike. In this posting, I hope to summarize some of the rules related to writing of alif and hamza.

At the beginning of a word, hamza and alif are written together to make the sound of a glottal stop. They can be associated with a short vowel. When the alif comes with a short /a/ or a short /o/, the hamza is written on top of the letter, and when alif comes with a short /i/, the hamza is written under the letter, e.g. “father” (أَب), “mother” (أُم), “Islam” (إسلام)

At the beginning of certain words, the hamza should not be written on the alif. This is called /hamzat alwaSl/ (همزة الوصل), e.g. in words like two (اثنان), Monday (الاثنين), woman (امرأة), etc. The alif at the beginning of the definite article (ال) must never be written with a hamza.

When two alifs are found at the beginning of a word, a special type of alif /alf mamdouda/ is used with a special shape of hamza on, e.g. hopes (آمال), Adam (آدم), sorry (آسف).

In the middle of a word, a hamza is written in association with a short vowel with a short /a/ (أ), with a short /o/ (ؤ), or with a short /i/ (ئـ), e.g. the words “ask” (سأل), “enquirer” (سائل), “question” (سؤال).Alif mamdouda can also occur in the middle of the word, e.g. “Quran” (قرآن).

When you type in Arabic, this is where you will find the different hamzas on your keyboard:

h

ا

Shift + h

أ

Shift + y

إ

Shift + n

آ

C

ؤ

z

ئـ

x

ء

That’s not the end of the story, there is more to follow on hamza … visit the Arabic blog again soon!

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8 Responses to “Alif and Hamza”

  1. Margaret 16 April 2009 at 4:54 am #

    Mac keyboard works differently from that of PC. Could you give different functions to obtain similar results? Thank you!

  2. Aziza 16 April 2009 at 10:36 am #

    I am very sorry I never use Mac. I hope one of the readers who uses Mac can help!
    سلام، عزيزة

  3. usman 17 April 2009 at 11:14 pm #

    jazakallah!

  4. العاب 31 October 2009 at 5:13 am #

    it is really a nice blog that is useful to provide the facility of the learning to the child so the best thing is learning and teaching…
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  5. Aziza 1 November 2009 at 3:59 am #

    Shukran

  6. Tyler Jenish 25 May 2010 at 1:50 am #

    Excellent explanation, exactly the clarification I was looking for.

  7. aziza 28 May 2010 at 1:36 pm #

    Thank you very much Tyler!

  8. Scheich Josef 28 May 2010 at 9:51 pm #

    /alf mamdouda/ – thousand mamdouda ;-)

    سلام، يوسف


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