Arabic letters: the features of their writing. Arabic alphabet

Unlike most languages of the world, Arabic letters are written "viscous", connecting in a word with each other. It does not matter whether the text is written by hand or printed. Another feature, which is not immediately used by beginners to learn Arabic, is writing the text from right to left. Let's understand the peculiarities of writing and transcription of the letters of the Arabic language.

General principles of the Arabic language

Only the Koran, and also the scientific, children's and educational literature are written using vowels, in other cases words are recorded without vowels. That's why when writing a transcription the Arabic text is not transliterated, but is written as it should be pronounced. Before you start writing transcription, a vowel is added to the words and sentences.

When writing texts with a vowel, the most commonly used are damme, fatha and kyasra (vowel signs), shadda (doubling sign), and tannin (which is extremely rare and is a sign of nunation).

Sometimes you can see in the text a mule (a sign of the absence of a vowel) and a vaslu (a sign of the absence of a guttural bow), as well as a hamzu (separates the two vowels of the sound from each other).

Features of transcription

The presence of unique sounds (pharyngeal, emphatic, interdental), which are absent in most European languages, significantly complicate the task for a person who is trying to translate Arabic letters into transcription. After all, this sound can be transmitted only approximately.

To date, there are two types of transcription. Scientific - with the most accurate pronunciation, and practical, allowing approximately to reflect how Arabic letters are pronounced. Translation, or rather, transliteration is carried out using symbols of the Russian or Latin alphabet. The most famous transcriptions, both practical and scientific, were developed by the Arabists Krachkovsky and Yushmanov.

Alphabet

From the Phoenicians came to the Arabs alphabet. It includes not only all of their letters, but also graphic images of language-specific sounds. These are Arabic letters such as "sa" (similar to soft interdental English th), "ha" (exhalation sound similar to the one that the dog emits when breathing), "hall" (the sonorous sound that happens when you put the tip of the tongue between Teeth, and say "sa"), "dad" (it turns out if you pronounce the sound "d" and at the same time take the tongue back and slightly lower the jaw), "for" (an emphatic sound similar to "z", but pronounced with the back of the tongue And easy lowering of the lower jaw), "gine" (similar in sound to the French "r").

It should be mentioned that all letters of the Arabic alphabet are consonants. For the designation of vowels, special superscripts 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, you can hear other vowels. This is due to different variations of the pronunciation within the consonant sounds. Depending on the consonant, the sign-vowel may sound like "e" (in most cases), but in syllables-diphthongs and with solid consonants it acquires an "o" -like sound. With the sign "Sukun" it is already pronounced with a pronounced "e" sound.

The sign-vowel "and" can be transformed into "s" with solid consonants, but the "y" vowel rarely changes its sound to the other in classical Arabic, but in some dialects one encounters a transition to the "o" sound.

How many letters are in the Arabic alphabet? There are 28 of them and all of them are consonants (the exception is 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 as a solid sound "b" in the word "ram", but at the end of the word it is never deafened (in the Russian oak it is pronounced "dope", in Arabic this will not happen).

Features of writing

Arabic letters are quite difficult to write, especially for beginners. By the way, the "ligature" is used not only by the Arabs, but also by some Turkic peoples, as well as by people who speak Pashto or Urdu. Writing is strictly from right to left.

The process of writing looks like this:

1. First, write the part of the letters, when writing a pen from the paper do not need to tear.
2. Further, parts that are included in the graphics of the letter are added, but they can not be written without a break. These include points, steep and inclined lines.
3. If necessary, arrange the vowels.

The very writing of each letter depends on its location in the word. Arabic letters often have four types of inscription (separately standing, at the beginning or end of the word, middle). The exception concerns only 6 letters: "alif", which is always written separately, and also "distance", "hall", "ra", "zain" and "wav", which do not combine with the symbol following them.

Very often many people who begin learning Arabic speak words in transliteration. And this is the main mistake. To correctly pronounce Arabic words, you need to start with the study of the alphabet and the correct pronunciation of each letter. Only by digesting the alphabet well, one can proceed to the pronunciation of words and the construction of phrases.