Hamza and Taa Marbuuta(ء and ة / ة)
This symbol was included in the alphabet charts but not fully explained.
| hamza | أ إ ئ ء ئ ؤ | ' (an apostraphe) | Glottal Stop |
It represents a GLOTTAL STOP, which is the sound found in the middle of the word "backgammon." You'll notice that, unless you are going out of your way to speak slowly and over articulate, you do not actually say the "ck" in "backgammon". Instead, there is the abrupt stop after the short "a" before continuing on to articulate the "gammon". This abrupt stop in the back of your throat is the GLOTTAL STOP. When you see the Hamza, this is the sound you will make.
The Hamza is a very strange little symbol because it can show up in 6 different forms, and most of the time it is seated on another letter. Its forms are as follows:
| أ | إ | ئ | ء | ئ | ؤ |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| seated on an alif with an fatha or damma | seated on an alif with a kasra | seated on a yaa tail | by itself | seated on yaa in the middle of the word | seated on a waaw |
The rules to hamza seats are very complicated and memorizing word spellings is actually easier and less confusing.
The taa marbuuta:
taa marbuuta is a letter that generally indicates feminine gender for a nouns and adjectives, (though not always) and ONLY EVER appears at the end of the word.
| Name | Alone | End | Middle | Beginning | Transcript |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| taa marbuuta | ة | ة | XX | XX | a or t* |
In certain situations in English, if there is a short vowel in a word, and it is unstressed, it does not get highly articulated and just sounds like an "uh". Compare the distinctive "a" sound in the word "cat" versus the barely noticed "a" sound in the word "about". The taa marbuuta generally represents this unstressed "uh" sound when it occurs at the end of a feminine word in Arabic.
*So why might it be written as a "t"? For certain word combinations and structures in Arabic in which a word ending in a taa marbuuta is followed by another word that modifies it, the "a" sound of the taa marbuuta changes to a "t" sound so that articulation of the next word can happen more smoothly.
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Related Links: Arabic Vowels(حورف العلة) Sun and Moon Letters(حورف شم س ية و قمرية) |