# ا

| ا | U+0627, &#1575; ARABIC LETTER ALEF |
| ← ئ [U+0626] | Arabic | ب → [U+0628] |
| ﺍ | U+FE8D, &#65165; ARABIC LETTER ALEF ISOLATED FORM |
| ← ﺌ [U+FE8C] | Arabic Presentation Forms-B | ﺎ → [U+FE8E] |
| ﺎ | U+FE8E, &#65166; ARABIC LETTER ALEF FINAL FORM |
| ← ﺍ [U+FE8D] | Arabic Presentation Forms-B | ﺏ → [U+FE8F] |

## Arabic
### Etymology 1

From the Nabataean Aramaic letter 𐢁 (l, “aleph”), derived from the Phoenician letter 𐤀 (l, “ālef”), from the Egyptian hieroglyph 𓃾. See also Classical Syriac ܐ (l, “ālef”), Hebrew א (l, “alef”), Ancient Greek Α (A), Latin A.

#### Pronunciation

* (letter name): IPA: /ʔa.lif/
* (phoneme): IPA: /ʔ/

### Letter

ا / ‍ا • (ʔalif)
* Although usually considered to be the first letter of the Arabic alphabet, the small hamza (ء (ʔ)) that sits on top of أ (ʔ) is really the first letter of the Arabic alphabet, and the tall column is its bearer. This entry only deals with the lower part, the bearer, which is called أَلِف (ʔalif) and, without the hamza, is used to lengthen a preceding a.

#### Descendants

* N'Ko: ߊ

### Symbol

ا • (ʔalif)
* The first letter in traditional abjad order, which is used in place of numerals for list numbering (abjad numerals). It is followed by ب (b).
| Isolated form | Final form |
| ا | ـا |

### Pronunciation

After fatha: ـَا — IPA: /aː/
   * عَار (ʕār, “shame”)
(word initially):
Combined with fatha: اَ — IPA: /a/
   * اَلْيَوْمَ (al-yawma, “today”)
Combined with kasra: اِ — IPA: /i/
   * اِبْن (ibn, “son”)
Combined with damma: اُ — IPA: /u/
   * اُكْتُبْ (uktub, “write (imperative)”)

### See also

* Arabic script letters: حُرُوف (ḥurūf) (alphabet appendix, script appendix): ا, ب, ت, ث, ج, ح, خ, د, ذ, ر, ز, س, ش, ص, ض, ط, ظ, ع, غ, ف, ق, ك, ل, م, ن, ه, و, ي
* أ (ʔ)
* إ (ʔ)
* آ (ʔā)
* ى
* ٱ
* ـٰ
* Wikipedia article on the Arabic alphabet
* Search for entries beginning with ا

## Balti
### Pronunciation

* IPA: /ɑ/, /ə/, /e/, /o/

### Letter

ا (transliteration needed)
* The first letter of the Balti alphabet, written in the Perso-Arabic script

## Burushaski
### Etymology 1
#### Pronunciation

* IPA: /aː/, [aː]

#### Letter

ا (aa)
* The first letter of the Burushaski alphabet, written in the Perso-Arabic script

### Etymology 2
#### Pronunciation

* IPA: /u/, [u]

#### Pronoun

اُ (u)
* they; third-person plural pronoun

### References

* Bechtholdt, Astrid (2025) “u”, in Burushaski Hunza Dictionary (Webonary), Dallas, Texas, USA: SIL International, published 2017.

## Chinese
### Pronunciation

* (phoneme): IPA: /a/, [ɑ]

### Letter

ا
* The first letter of the Xiao'erjing abjad.

## Egyptian Arabic
### Etymology

From Arabic ا.

### Pronunciation

* IPA: /aː/
* (word-initial) IPA: /a/, /u/, /i/

### Letter

ا • (ā, a, u, i)
* الف (álif): the first letter of the Arabic alphabet, named Alif, Alef or Aleph
    اموت ― amūt ― I die
    اوكازيون ― ukazyōn ― discount
    انت ― inta ― you (masculine singular)
    مات ― māt ― to die

### Alternative forms

While the distinction is made in literary Arabic, the colloquial language uses these word-initial forms with the hamza interchangeably:
* أ (with damma or fatha)
* إ (with kasra)

## Gujarati
### Pronunciation

* (letter name) IPA: /ɑlif/
* (phoneme) IPA: /ɑ/, /ʔ/

### Letter

ا • (alif)
* The first letter of the Gujarati abjad

#### Forms

| Isolated form | Final form |
| ا | ـا |

#### See also

* Next letter: ب

## Kashmiri
### Pronunciation

* (letter name): IPA: /əlif/
* (phoneme): IPA: /a/, /aː/

### Letter

ا • (a,ā)
* The first letter of the traditional alphabet chart of Kashmiri.

#### Forms

| Isolated form | Final form |
| ا | ـا |

#### See also

* Next letter: ب (b)

## Kazakh
### Pronunciation

* (letter name): IPA: /æˈlip/
* (phoneme): IPA: /ɑ/ (back)
* (phoneme): IPA: /æ/ (front)

### Letter

ا • (a, ä)
* The first letter of the Kazakh in Arabic Script. It represents the Cyrillic letter А or Ә.

#### Forms

| Isolated form | Final form |
| ا | ـا |

#### Usage notes

Represents the back-vowel sound /ɑ/, unless a small ء is placed at the beginning of the word. In Kazakh, the Hamza marks that all vowels in the following word are fronted. If ا is the initial letter of a word and is representing a front vowel, it is combined with the hamza and the variant ٵ is used.

#### See also

* ٵ (front-vowel word-initial variant.
* Next letter: ب
* Arabic script letters: әріптер (ärıpter) (alphabet appendix, script appendix): ا, ب, پ, ت, ج, چ, ح, د, ر, ز, س, ش, ع, ف, ق, ك, گ, ڭ, ل, م, ن, ە, ھ, و, ۇ, ۋ, ۆ, ى, ي

## Khowar
### Pronunciation

* (letter name): IPA: /alif/
* (phoneme): IPA: /a/

### Letter

ا (ālif)
* The first letter of the Khowar abjad.

#### Forms

| Isolated form | Final form |
| ا | ـا |

#### See also

* Next letter: آ

## Kyrgyz
### Pronunciation

* (letter name): IPA: /aˈlif/
* (phoneme): IPA: /ɑ/

### Letter

ا • (alif)
* The first letter of the Kyrgyz in Arabic Script. It represents the Cyrillic letter А

#### Forms

| Isolated form | Final form |
| ا | ـا |

#### See also

* Arabic script letters: тамгалар (tamgalar) (script appendix): ا, ب, پ, ﻥ, ﺕ, ﺝ, ﭺ, ﺡ, ﻑ, ﻕ, ﻉ, ك, گ, ڭ, ﻝ, ﻡ, و, ۅ, ۉ, ﯗ, ﯞ, ﺱ, ﺵ, ﺩ, ﺭ, ﺯ, ﻩ, ﻯ, ﺀ, ﺋ, ﻲ, ﻯ, ء, ۋ, ﻻ

## Malay
### Pronunciation

* (Name of letter) IPA: [alef]
* (Phoneme) IPA: [ä], [ɐ], [ə]

### Letter

ا / ‍ا
* The first letter of the Malay alphabet, written in the Arabic script.

#### See also

* Arabic script letters (alphabet appendix, script appendix): ا, ب, ت, ة, ث, ج, چ, ح, خ, د, ذ, ر, ز, س, ش, ص, ض, ط, ظ, ع, غ, ڠ, ف, ڤ, ق, ک, ݢ, ل, م, ن, و, ۏ, ه, ء, ي, ى, ڽ

## North Levantine Arabic
### Suffix

ـا • (-a, -wa, -ya) f
* Alternative spelling of ـها when it is not pronounced as “-ha”

## Pahari-Potwari
### Alternative forms

* (letter name): الف (alif)

### Pronunciation

* (letter name): IPA: /ə.lɪf/
* (phoneme): IPA: /ə/, /ɑː/, /äː/, /∅/

### Letter

ا (alif)
* The first letter of Pahari-Pothwari written in the Shahmukhi script.

#### Forms

| Isolated form | Final form |
| ا | ـا |

#### See also

* Next letter: ب (b)

## Pashto
### Pronunciation

* (letter name): IPA: /aˈlif/
* (phoneme): IPA: /ɑ/, /ʔ/

### Letter

ا • (alíf)
* The first letter of the Pashto alphabet.

#### Forms

| Isolated form | Final form |
| ا | ـا |

#### Usage notes

* At the start of the word, the letter ا (alif) represents the consonant /ʔ/.
* In the middle or end of a word, ا represents the vowel /ɑ/.

#### See also

* Next letter: ب

## Persian
### Etymology 1
#### Pronunciation

* (phoneme)
    (Classical Persian, Dari) IPA: [ɑː], [ʔ]
    (Iran) IPA: [ɒː], [ʔ]
    Audio (Iran):(file)
* (letter name)
    (Classical Persian) IPA: /alif/, [ʔalif]
    (Dari) IPA: /alɪf/, [ʔalɪf]
    (Iran) IPA: /ælef/, [ʔælef]

#### Letter

ـا or ا • (â or ∅)
* The first letter of the Perso-Arabic alphabet. Its name is اَلِف (alef).

#### Usage notes

All word-initial vowels are proceeded by a glottal stop which is represented by an ا. However in medial and final positions it is not a glottal stop and instead represents the phoneme /ɑː/~/ɒː/. If a word-initial ا is representing the sound [ʔɑː]~[ʔɒː] it's usually written as آ.

#### See also

* Next letter: ب

### Etymology 2
#### Pronunciation

* IPA: /æ/

#### Preposition

ا • (a)
* (dialectal, Hamadan,Harat) from, since

### Further reading

* ا on the Persian Wikipedia.Wikipedia $^{fa}$

## Punjabi
### Alternative forms

* Gurmukhi letter: ਅ (a), ੲ, ੳ, ਾ (ā)
* (letter name): الف (alif)

### Etymology

From Classical Persian ا (alef), from Arabic ا (ʔalif).

### Pronunciation

* (letter name): IPA: /ə.lɪf/
* (phoneme): IPA: /ə/, /ɑː/, /äː/, /∅/

### Letter

ا • (alif)
* The first letter of the Punjabi written in the Shahmukhi script.

#### Forms

| Isolated form | Final form |
| ا | ـا |

#### See also

* Next letter: ب (b)
* Shahmukhi script letters: اکّھر (script appendix): ا, ب, پ, ت, ٹ, ث, ج, چ, ح, خ, د, ڈ, ذ, ر, ڑ, ز, ژ, س, ش, ص, ض, ط, ظ, ع, غ, ف, ق, ک, گ, ل, ࣇ, م, ن, ݨ, ں, ہ, و, ی, ے

## Sindhi
### Pronunciation

* (letter name): IPA: /ɑːlif/
* (phoneme): IPA: /ɑː/, /ʔ/

### Letter

ا • (alif)
* The first letter of the Sindhi abjad.

#### Forms

| Isolated form | Final form |
| ا | ـا |

#### See also

* Arabic script letters: اکر (akharu) (script appendix): ا, ب, ٻ, ڀ, ت, ٿ, ٽ, ٺ, ث, پ, ج, ڄ, جھ, ڃ, چ, ڇ, ح, خ, د, ڌ, ڏ, ڊ, ڍ, ذ, ر, ڙ, ڙھ, ز, س, ش, ص, ض, ط, ظ, ع, غ, ف, ڦ, ق, ڪ, ک, گ, ڳ, گھ, ڱ, ل, م, ن, ڻ, و, ه, ء, ي
* Next letter: ب

## Urdu
### Etymology 1
#### Pronunciation

* (letter name): (Standard Urdu) IPA: /ə.lɪf/
* (phoneme): (Standard Urdu) IPA: /ə/, /ɑː/, /ʔ/

#### Letter

ا • (ālif)
* The first letter of the Urdu abjad.

#### Forms

| Isolated form | Final form |
| ا | ـا |

#### See also

* Next letter: ب (b)

### Etymology 2

Borrowed from Sanskrit अ- (a-).

#### Alternative forms

* انـ (an-) (before vowels)

#### Prefix

اـ • (a-) (Hindi spelling अ-)
* A negating prefix. non-, un-, a-, an-, etc.
    Synonyms: غَیرـ (ġair-), ناـ (nā-)

##### Usage notes

This form is used before words that begin with consonants.

##### Derived terms
## Yoruba
### Pronunciation

* (letter name): IPA: /a/
* (phoneme): IPA: /a/

### Letter

ا (a)
* The first letter of the Yorùbá alphabet in the Ajami Script.

#### Forms

| Isolated form | Final form |
| ا | ـا |

#### See also

* Next letter: ب