Vowel:

1. a speech sound made with the vocal tract open2. A letter, such as a, e, i, o, u, and sometimes y in the English alphabet, that represents a vowel. In linguistics, vowel length is the

perceived duration of a vowel sound.

In the English alphabet, there are 5 vowels: A, E, I, O, U. But there are many more vowel sounds in the English language. The number of vowels in English is uncertain, because there are different varieties of English.

Examples of vowels:I i /ɪ/ /aɪ/ "twin" / "twine"O o /ɒ/ /oʊ/ "not" / "note"U u /ʌ/ /juː/ "cub" / "cube"

Vowels in ArabicThere are 6 vowels - 3 short and 3 long - and 2 diphthongs in Arabic.

Long Vowels

The three long vowel sounds in Arabic are represented by the following three letters.1. 'Alif األلف حرف

2. Waw - الواو حرف3. Ya' - الياء حرف

Short Vowels

The three short vowels sounds in Arabic are represented using the following symbols either above or below the letters.

1. Fatha الفتحة - indicated by a small diagonal stroke above the consonant.  This is the neutral a vowel sound, such as in the words, nun and woman.

2. Kasra الكسرة - indicated by a small diagonal stroke below the consonant. Similar to the sound in the middle of the word did.

Short Vowels

3. Damma ةLالضّم - written like a miniature واو above the letter. It's pronounced like the u in bull.

→ Sukun سكون - indicated by a small circle above the letter. It is used to signify the absence of a vowel, for example, تT .كْنand T بْن

Diphthongs

A diphthong is a combination of two vowel sounds occurring next to each other within the same syllable. The two diphthongs in Arabic are the two sounds:

1. ay as in the word بيت 2. aw as in the word يوم

: الليْن الّمفتوح حروف الساكْنان والياء الواو هّما” " " ": بيت و خوف مثل قبلهّما ما

Nunation

Nunation التْنويْن is found at the end of nouns and adjectives when they are indefinite.

It is indicated using a doubled vowel sign. With the sounds un (double damma), in (double kasra), or an (double fatha).

When the fatha is doubled, the letter 'alif is added except when the word end in a ta' marboota.

Stress - The Syllable A syllable is a unit of sound containing either a

vowel sound alone e.g. eye, you; or a vowel sound with one or more consonants e.g. not, stop.

Examples of two-syllable words: seven, water. Stress: when a word has more than one syllable,

one of them is spoken with special force, called stress. A spoken word is recognized not only by its pronunciation but also by its stress pattern. If the pronunciation of a word is correct, but the stress is wrong then the word may not be understood e.g.

Record(n): BrE /ˈrekɔːd/ ; NAmE /ˈrekərd/ Record(v): BrE /rɪˈkɔːd/ ; NAmE /rɪˈkɔːrd/ 

Stress - The Syllable The Arabic language is a language of syllable

length, not stress. While reading Arabic all syllables should be given their full length, but no effort should be made to emphasize any syllable at the expense of the other. The result will sound as if some syllables are stronger than others, but this is because of their length.

In Arabic, there are long and short syllables. The long syllable is the one that contains a long vowel preceded by a matching short vowel (الّمد). The short syllable, on the other hand, contains a short vowel or a diphthong.

Examples:

qَبq qت has three short syllables ك qا) has a long syllable كاتَب and a short (ك

syllable (تَب) and two short (بات) has a long syllable مكتبات

syllables (كqم) and (ت) and a long (أو) has a short syllable أوراق

syllable (راق) and a short(بير) has a long syllable تكبير

syllable (تك) (ضة) and (ف) has two short syllables فضة has one short syllable بيت has one short syllable خوف

Abbreviations

As in the English language, some abbreviations are used in the Arabic language, such as الخ.

The Alphabet as Numbers

The letters of the Arabic alphabet are sometimes used for numbering. The order followed is found in the following line:

ضqِظ{غ qِخ{ذ َث ت qق�ر{َش سعفص كلّمْن حطي هوز ابجد

Homework

Indicate how many long syllables and short syllables are in each of the following words:

أشجارقلملومقّم�ة