Arabic diacritics

Arabic diacritics
Arabic script has numerous diacritics, which include consonant pointing known as , and supplementary diacritics known as . The latter include the vowel marks termed (singular: ).
The Arabic script is a modified abjad, where short consonants and long vowels are represented by letters but short vowels and consonant length are not generally indicated in writing. is optional to represent missing vowels and consonant length. Modern Arabic is always written with the i‘jām—consonant pointing, but only religious texts, children's books and works for learners are written with the full tashkīl—vowel guides and consonant length. It is however not uncommon for authors to add diacritics to a word or letter when the grammatical case or the meaning is deemed otherwise ambiguous. In addition, classical works and historic documents rendered to the general public are often rendered with the full tashkīl, to compensate for the gap in understanding resulting from stylistic changes over the centuries.
Tashkil (marks used as phonetic guides)
The literal meaning of is 'forming'. As the normal Arabic text does not provide enough information about the correct pronunciation, the main purpose of (and ) is to provide a phonetic guide or a phonetic aid; i.e. show the correct pronunciation for children who are learning to read or foreign learners.
The bulk of Arabic script is written without (or short vowels). However, they are commonly used in texts that demand strict adherence to exact pronunciation. This is true, primarily, of the Qur'an and poetry. It is also quite common to add to hadiths (plural: ) and the Bible. Another use is in children's literature. Moreover, are used in ordinary texts in individual words when an ambiguity of pronunciation cannot easily be resolved from context alone. Arabic dictionaries with vowel marks provide information about the correct pronunciation to both native and foreign Arabic speakers. In art and calligraphy, might be used simply because their writing is considered aesthetically pleasing.
An example of a fully vocalised (vowelised or vowelled) Arabic from the Bismillah:
Some Arabic textbooks for foreigners now use as a phonetic guide to make learning reading Arabic easier. The other method used in textbooks is phonetic romanisation of unvocalised texts. Fully vocalised Arabic texts (i.e. Arabic texts with /diacritics) are sought after by learners of Arabic. Some online bilingual dictionaries also provide as a phonetic guide similarly to English dictionaries providing transcription.
Harakat (short vowel marks)
The , which literally means 'motions', are the short vowel marks. There is some ambiguity as to which are also ; the , for example, are markers for both vowels and consonants.
Fatḥah
The is a small diagonal line placed above a letter, and represents a short (like the /a/ sound in the English word "cat"). The word itself means opening and refers to the opening of the mouth when producing an . For example, with (henceforth, the base consonant in the following examples): .
When a is placed before a plain letter (i.e. one having no hamza or vowel of its own), it represents a long (close to the sound of "a" in the English word "dad", with an open front vowel /æː/, not back /ɑː/ as in "father"). For example: . The is not usually written in such cases. When a fathah is placed before the letter ⟨⟩ (yā’), it creates an (as in "lie"); and when placed before the letter ⟨⟩ (wāw), it creates an (as in "cow").
Although paired with a plain letter creates an open front vowel (/a/), often realized as near-open (/æ/), the standard also allows for variations, especially under certain surrounding conditions. Usually, in order to have the more central (/ä/) or back (/ɑ/) pronunciation, the word features a nearby back consonant, such as the emphatics, as well as , or . A similar "back" quality is undergone by other vowels as well in the presence of such consonants, however not as drastically realized as in the case of .
Kasrah
A similar diagonal line below a letter is called a and designates a short (as in "me", "be") and its allophones [i, ɪ, e, e̞, ɛ] (as in "Tim", "sit"). For example: .
When a is placed before a plain letter , it represents a long (as in the English word "steed"). For example: . The is usually not written in such cases, but if is pronounced as a diphthong , should be written on the preceding consonant to avoid mispronunciation. The word means 'breaking'.
Ḍammah
The is a small curl-like diacritic placed above a letter to represent a short /u/ (as in "duke", shorter "you") and its allophones [u, ʊ, o, o̞, ɔ] (as in "put", or "bull"). For example: .
When a is placed before a plain letter , it represents a long (like the 'oo' sound in the English word "swoop"). For example: . The is usually not written in such cases, but if is pronounced as a diphthong , should be written on the preceding consonant to avoid mispronunciation.
The word ḍammah (ضَمَّة) in this context means rounding, since it is the only rounded vowel in the vowel inventory of Arabic.
Alif Khanjariyah
The superscript (or dagger) , is written as short vertical stroke on top of a consonant. It indicates a long sound for which is normally not written. For example: or .
The dagger occurs in only a few words, but they include some common ones; it is seldom written, however, even in fully vocalised texts. Most keyboards do not have dagger . The word Allah is usually produced automatically by entering . The word consists of + ligature of doubled with a and a dagger above .
Maddah
The is a tilde-shaped diacritic, which can only appear on top of an (آ) and indicates a glottal stop followed by a long .
In theory, the same sequence could also be represented by two s, as in *, where a hamza above the first represents the while the second represents the . However, consecutive s are never used in the Arabic orthography. Instead, this sequence must always be written as a single with a above it, the combination known as an . For example: .
Alif waslah
The , or looks like a small letter on top of an (also indicated by an without a ). It means that the is not pronounced when its word does not begin a sentence. For example: , but (imshū not mshū). This is because no Arab word can start with a vowel-less consonant: If the second letter from the has a kasrah, the alif-waslah makes the sound /i/. However, when the second letter from it has a dammah, it makes the sound /u/.
It occurs only in the beginning of words, but it can occur after prepositions and the definite article. It is commonly found in imperative verbs, the perfective aspect of verb stems VII to X and their verbal nouns. The alif of the definite article is considered a .
It occurs in phrases and sentences (connected speech, not isolated/dictionary forms):
To replace the elided hamza whose alif-seat has assimilated to the previous vowel. For example: or ‘in Yemen’.
In hamza-initial imperative forms following a vowel, especially following the conjunction ‘and’. For example: َ ‘rise and then drink the water’.
Like the superscript alif, it is not written in fully vocalized scripts, except for sacred texts, like the Quran and Arabized Bible.
Sukūn
The is a circle-shaped diacritic placed above a letter. It indicates that the consonant to which it is attached is not followed by a vowel, i.e., zero-vowel.
It is a necessary symbol for writing consonant-vowel-consonant syllables, which are very common in Arabic. For example: .
The may also be used to help represent a diphthong. A followed by the letter with a over it indicates the diphthong (IPA ). A , followed by the letter with a , indicates .
The may have also an alternative form of the small high head of , particularly in some Qurans. Other shapes may exist as well (for example, like a small comma above ⟨ʼ⟩ or like a circumflex ⟨ˆ⟩ in ).
Tanwin (final postnasalized or long vowels)
The three vowel diacritics may be doubled at the end of a word to indicate that the vowel is followed by the consonant n. They may or may not be considered and are known as , or nunation. The signs indicate, from left to right, .
These endings are used as non-pausal grammatical indefinite case endings in Literary Arabic or classical Arabic (triptotes only). In a vocalised text, they may be written even if they are not pronounced (see pausa). See for more details. In many spoken Arabic dialects, the endings are absent. Many Arabic textbooks introduce standard Arabic without these endings. The grammatical endings may not be written in some vocalized Arabic texts, as knowledge of varies from country to country, and there is a trend towards simplifying Arabic grammar.
The sign is most commonly written in combination with (alif hamzah) or stand-alone . should always be written (except for words ending in or diptotes) even if is not. Grammatical cases and endings in indefinite triptote forms:
: nominative case;
: accusative case, also serves as an adverbial marker;
: genitive case.
Shaddah (consonant gemination mark)
The shadda or shaddah , or tashdid , is a diacritic shaped like a small written Latin "w".
It is used to indicate gemination (consonant doubling or extra length), which is phonemic in Arabic. It is written above the consonant which is to be doubled. It is the only that is commonly used in ordinary spelling to avoid ambiguity. For example: ; ('school') vs. ('teacher', female).
I‘jām (phonetic distinctions of consonants)
The i‘jām (sometimes also called nuqaṭ) are the diacritic points that distinguish various consonants that have the same form, such as ب, ت, ث, ن, and ي. Typically i‘jām are not considered diacritics but part of the letter.
Early manuscripts of the did not use diacritics either for vowels or to distinguish the different values of the . Vowel pointing was introduced first, as a red dot placed above, below, or beside the , and later consonant pointing was introduced, as thin, short black single or multiple dashes placed above or below the rasm (image). These i‘jām became black dots about the same time as the became small black letters or strokes.
Typically, Egyptians do not use dots under final , which looks exactly like in handwriting and in print. This practice is also used in copies of the (Qurʾān) scribed by . The same unification of and has happened in Persian, resulting in what the Unicode Standard calls "", that looks exactly the same as in initial and medial forms, but exactly the same as in final and isolated forms .
Several ways of writing .
At the time when the i‘jām was optional, unpointed letters were ambiguous. To clarify that a letter would lack i‘jām in pointed text (i.e. ), the letter could be marked with a small v- or seagull-shaped diacritic above, also a superscript semicircle (crescent), a subscript dot (except in the case of ; three dots were used with ), or a subscript miniature of the letter itself. A superscript stroke known as jarrah, resembling a long fatħah, was used for a contracted (assimilated) sin. Thus were all used to indicate that the letter in question was truly and not . These signs, collectively known as ‘alāmātu-l-ihmāl, are still occasionally used in modern Arabic calligraphy, either for their original purpose (i.e. marking letters without i‘jām), or often as purely decorative space-fillers. The small above the kāf in its final and isolated forms was originally an ‘alāmatu-l-ihmāl that became a permanent part of the letter. Previously this sign could also appear above the medial form of kāf, when that letter was written without the stroke on its ascender. When kaf was written without that stroke, it could be mistaken for lam, thus kaf was distinguished with a superscript kaf or a small superscript hamza (nabrah), and lam with a superscript l-a-m (lam-alif-mim).
Hamza (glottal stop semi-consonant)
Although normally a diacritic is not considered a letter of the alphabet, the hamza (glottal stop), often stands as a separate letter in writing, is written in unpointed texts and is not considered a . It may appear as a letter by itself or as a diacritic over or under an or .
Which letter is to be used to support the depends on the quality of the adjacent vowels;
If the glottal stop occurs at the beginning of the word, it is always indicated by hamza on an : above if the following vowel is or and below if it is .
If the glottal stop occurs in the middle of the word, above is used only if it is not preceded or followed by or :
If is before or after the glottal stop, a with a is used (the two dots which are usually beneath the disappear in this case): .
Otherwise, if is before or after the glottal stop, a with a is used: .
If the glottal stop occurs at the end of the word (ignoring any grammatical suffixes), if it follows a short vowel it is written above or the same as for a medial case; otherwise on the line (i.e. if it follows a long vowel, diphthong or consonant).
Two s in succession are never allowed: is written with and is written with a free on the line .
Consider the following words: ("brother"), ("Ismael"), ("mother"). All three of above words "begin" with a vowel opening the syllable, and in each case, is used to designate the initial glottal stop (the actual beginning). But if we consider middle syllables "beginning" with a vowel: ("origin"), ("hearts"—notice the syllable; singular ), ("heads", singular ), the situation is different, as noted above. See the comprehensive article on for more details.
Tone markers
Historically Arabic script has been adopted and used by many tonal languages, examples include Xiao'erjing for Mandarin Chinese as well as Ajami script adopted for writing various languages of Western Africa. However, one of the shortcomings of Arabic, especially in comparison to Latin-derived scripts or other indigenous writing systems was that Arabic did not have a way of indicating tones.
However, in the adoption of the Arabic Script for Rohingya language, known as Rohingya Fonna, 3 tone markers have been developed and used in manuscripts. These tone markers form part of the standardized and accepted orthographic convention of Rohingya. This is the only known instance of tone markers within the Arabic script.
Tone markers act as "modifiers" of vowel diacritics. In simpler words, they are "diacritics for the diacritics". They are written "outside" of the word, meaning that they are written above the vowel diacritic if the diacritic is written above the word, and they are written below the diacritic if the diacritic is written below the word. They are only ever written where there are vowel diacritics. This is important to note, as without the diacritic present, there is no way to distinguish between tone markers and I‘jām i.e. dots that are used for purpose of phonetic distinctions of consonants.
The Hārbāy as it is called in Rohingya, is a single dot that's placed on top of Fatḥah and Ḍammah, or curly Fatḥah and curly Ḍammah (vowel diacritics unique to Rohinghya), or their respective Fatḥatan and Ḍammatan versions, and it's placed underneath Kasrah or curly Kasrah, or their respective Kasratan version. (e.g. ) This tone marker indicates a short high tone.
The Ṭelā as it is called in Rohingya, is two dots that are placed on top of Fatḥah and Ḍammah, or curly Fatḥah and curly Ḍammah, or their respective Fatḥatan and Ḍammatan versions, and it's placed underneath Kasrah or curly Kasrah, or their respective Kasratan version. (e.g. ) This tone marker indicates a long falling tone.
The Ṭāna as it is called in Rohingya, is a fish-like looping line that is placed on top of Fatḥah and Ḍammah, or curly Fatḥah and curly Ḍammah, or their respective Fatḥatan and Ḍammatan versions, and it's placed underneath Kasrah or curly Kasrah, or their respective Kasratan version. (e.g. ) This tone marker indicates a long rising tone.
History
According to tradition, the first to commission a system of harakat was Ali who appointed Abu al-Aswad al-Du'ali for the task. Abu al-Aswad devised a system of dots to signal the three short vowels (along with their respective allophones) of Arabic. This system of dots predates the , dots used to distinguish between different consonants.
Abu al-Aswad's system
Abu al-Aswad's system of Harakat was different from the system we know today. The system used red dots with each arrangement or position indicating a different short vowel.
A dot above a letter indicated the vowel , a dot below indicated the vowel , a dot on the side of a letter stood for the vowel , and two dots stood for the .
However, the early manuscripts of the Qur'an did not use the vowel signs for every letter requiring them, but only for letters where they were necessary for a correct reading.
Al Farahidi's system
The precursor to the system we know today is Al Farahidi's system. found that the task of writing using two different colours was tedious and impractical. Another complication was that the had been introduced by then, which, while they were short strokes rather than the round dots seen today, meant that without a color distinction the two could become confused.
Accordingly, he replaced the with small superscript letters: small alif, yā’, and wāw for the short vowels corresponding to the long vowels written with those letters, a small s(h)īn for shaddah (geminate), a small khā’ for khafīf (short consonant; no longer used). His system is essentially the one we know today.
Automatic diacritization
The process of automatically restoring diacritical marks is called diacritization or diacritic restoration. It is useful to avoid ambiguity in applications such as Arabic machine translation, text-to-speech, and information retrieval. Automatic diacritization algorithms have been developed. For Modern Standard Arabic, the state-of-the-art algorithm has a word error rate (WER) of 4.79%. The most common mistakes are proper nouns and case endings. Similar algorithms exist for other varieties of Arabic.
See also
Arabic alphabet:
, the case system of Arabic
, the basic system of Arabic consonants
, the phonetic rules of recitation of Qur'an in Arabic
Hebrew:
Hebrew diacritics, the Hebrew equivalent
Niqqud, the Hebrew equivalent of
Dagesh, the Hebrew diacritic similar to Arabic and shaddah
References
Alexis Neme and Sébastien Paumier (2019), "Restoring Arabic vowels through omission-tolerant dictionary lookup", Lang Resources & Evaluation, Vol. 53, pp. 1-65
Arabic words and phrases
Quranic orthography
Phonetic guides