Arabic diacritics

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The Arabic script has numerous diacritics, including i'jam إِعْجَام (i‘jām, consonant pointing), and tashkil تَشْكِيل (tashkīl, supplementary diacritics). The latter include the ḥarakāt حَرَكَات (vowel marks; singular: ḥarakah حَرَكَة).

The Arabic script is an impure abjad, where short consonants and long vowels are represented by letters but short vowels and consonant length are not generally indicated in writing. Tashkīl is optional to represent missing vowels and consonant length. Modern Arabic is nearly always written with consonant pointing, but occasionally unpointed texts are still seen. Early texts such as the Qur'an were initially written without pointing, and pointing was added later to determine the expected readings and interpretations.

Tashkil (marks used as phonetic guides)[edit]

The literal meaning of tashkīl is 'forming'. As the normal Arabic text does not provide enough information about the correct pronunciation, the main purpose of tashkīl (and ḥarakāt) is to provide a phonetic guide or a phonetic aid; i.e. show the correct pronunciation. It serves the same purpose as furigana (also called "ruby") in Japanese or pinyin or zhuyin in Mandarin Chinese for children who are learning to read or foreign learners.

The bulk of Arabic script is written without ḥarakāt (or short vowels). However, they are commonly used in some religious texts that demand strict adherence to pronunciation rules such as Qur'an الْقُرْآن (al-Qur’ān). It is not uncommon to add ḥarakāt to hadiths الْحَدِيث (al-ḥadīth; plural: aḥādīth) as well. Another use is in children's literature. Harakat are also used in ordinary texts when an ambiguity of pronunciation might arise. Vowelled Arabic dictionaries provide information about the correct pronunciation to both native and foreign Arabic speakers.

Short vowels can be included in cases where readers could not easily resolve word ambiguity from context alone, or simply wherever their writing might be considered aesthetically pleasing.

An example of a fully vocalised (vowelised or vowelled) Arabic from the Qur'ān (Al-Fatiha 1:1):

بِسْمِ ٱللهِ ٱلرَّحْمٰنِ ٱلرَّحِيمِ
bism Allāh al-Raḥmān al-Raḥīm
In the Name of Allāh, the Most Gracious, the Most Merciful...

Some Arabic textbooks for foreigners now use ḥarakāt 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 ḥarakāt/diacritics) are sought after by learners of Arabic. Some online bilingual dictionaries also provide ḥarakāt as a phonetic guide similarly to English dictionaries providing transcription.

Harakat (short vowel marks)[edit]

The ḥarakāt, which literally means 'motions', are the short vowel marks. There is some ambiguity as to which tashkīl are also ḥarakāt; the tanwīn, for example, are markers for both vowels and consonants.


"Fatha" redirects here. For the jazz pianist, see Earl Hines.

The fatḥah فَتْحَة is a small diagonal line placed above a letter, and represents a short /a/. The word fatḥah itself (فَتْحَة) means opening, and refers to the opening of the mouth when producing an /a/. Example with dāl (henceforth, the base consonant in the following examples): دَ /da/.

When a fatḥah is placed before the letter ا (alif), it represents a long /aː/ (as in the English word "father"). Example: دَا /daː/. The fatḥah is not usually written in such cases.



A similar diagonal line below a letter is called a kasrah كَسْرَة and designates a short /i/. Example: دِ /di/.

When a kasrah is placed before the letter (yā’), it represents a long /iː/ (as in the English word "steed"). Example: دِي /diː/. The kasrah is usually not written in such cases but if yā’ is pronounced as a diphthong /aj/, fatḥah should be written on the preceding consonant to avoid mispronunciation. The word kasrah means 'breaking'.



The ḍammah ضَمَّة is a small curl-like diacritic placed above a letter to represent a short /u/. Example: دُ /du/.

When a ḍammah is placed before the letter و (wāw), it represents a long /uː/ (as in the English word "blue"). Example: دُو /duː/. The ḍammah is usually not written in such cases but if wāw is pronounced as a diphthong /aw/, fatḥah should be written on the preceding consonant to avoid mispronunciation.



The maddah مَدَّة is a tilde-like diacritic which can appear mostly on top of an alif and indicates a glottal stop /ʔ/ followed by a long /aː/.

In theory, the same sequence /ʔaː/ could also be represented by two alifs, as in *أَا, where a hamza above the first alif represents the /ʔ/ while the second alif represents the /aː/. However, consecutive alifs are never used in the Arabic orthography. Instead, this sequence must always be written as a single alif with a maddah above it—the combination known as an alif maddah. Example: قُرْآن /qurˈʔaːn/.

Madda can also appear above waw and ya.

Dagger alif[edit]


The superscript (or dagger) alif أَلِف خَنْجَرِيَّة (alif khanjarīyah), is written as short vertical stroke on top of a consonant. It indicates a long /aː/ sound where alif is normally not written, e.g. هٰذَا (hādhā) or رَحْمٰن (raḥmān).

The dagger alif occurs in only a few words, but these include some common ones; it is seldom written, however, even in fully vocalised texts. Most keyboards do not have dagger alif. The word Allah الله (Allāh) is usually produced automatically by entering alif lām lām hāʾ. The word consists of alif + ligature of doubled lām with a shaddah and a dagger alif above lām.

Alif waslah[edit]


The waṣlah وَصْلَة, alif waṣlah أَلِف وَصْلَة or hamzat waṣl هَمْزَة وَصْل looks like a small letter ṣād on top of an alif ٱ (also indicated by an alif ا without a hamzah). It means that the alif is not pronounced, e.g. بٱسم.

It only occurs in the beginning of words (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 (maṣdar). The alif of the definite article is considered a waṣlah.

It occurs in phrases and sentences (connected speech, not isolated/dictionary forms) 1) to replace the elided hamza whose alif-seat has assimilated to the previous vowel, e.g., في ٱليمن or في اليمن (alif by itself is also indicative of the connecting hamza); 2) in hamza-initial imperative forms following a vowel, especially following the conjunction و, e.g., قُم و ٱشرب الماء



The sukūn سُكُون 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; this is a necessary symbol for writing consonant-vowel-consonant syllables, which are very common in Arabic. Example: دَدْ dad.

The sukūn may also be used to help represent a diphthong. A fatḥah followed by the letter (yā’) with a sukūn over it indicates the diphthong ay (IPA /aj/). A fatḥah followed by the letter (wāw) with a sukūn indicates /aw/.

Tanwin (final postnasalized or long vowels)[edit]

Main article: Nunation
ـٌ  ـٍ  ـً

The three vowel diacritics may be doubled at the end of a word to indicate that the vowel is followed by the consonant n. These may or may not be considered ḥarakāt, and are known as tanwīn تَنْوِين, or nunation. The signs indicate, from right to left, -un, -in, -an.

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 i‘rāb for more details. In many spoken Arabic dialects, these 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 i‘rāb varies from country to country, and there is a trend in simplifying the Arabic grammar.

The sign ـً is most commonly written in combination with ـًا (alif), ةً (tā’ marbūṭah) or stand-alone ءً (hamzah). Alif should always be written (except for words ending in tā’ marbūṭah, hamzah or diptotes), even if an is not. Grammar cases and tanwīn endings in indefinite triptote forms:

Shaddah (consonant gemination mark)[edit]

Main article: Shadda

The shadda or shaddah شَدَّة (shaddah), or tashdid تَشْدِيد (tashdīd), 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 ḥarakah that is sometimes used in ordinary spelling to avoid ambiguity. Example: دّ /dd/; madrasah مَدْرَسَة ('school') vs. mudarrisah مُدَرِّسَة ('teacher', female).

I'jam (phonetic distinctions of consonants)[edit]

7th-century kufic script without either ḥarakāt or i‘jām.

The ijam إِعْجَام (i‘jām) are the pointing diacritics that distinguish various consonants that have the same form (rasm), such as ـبـ /b/, ـتـ /t/, ـثـ /θ/, ـنـ /n/, and ـيـ /j/. Typically ijam are not considered diacritics but part of the letter.

Early manuscripts of the Qur’ān did not use diacritics either for vowels or to distinguish the different values of the rasm. Vowel pointing was introduced first, as a red dot placed above, below, or beside the rasm, 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 ḥarakāt became small black letters or strokes.

Typically, Egyptians do not use dots under final yā’ ي, both in handwriting and in print, as alif maqṣūrah ى. This practice is also used in copies of the muṣḥaf (Qurʾān) scribed by ‘Uthman Ṭāhā. The same unification of and alif maqṣūrā has happened in Persian, resulting in what the Unicode Standard calls "arabic letter farsi yeh", that looks exactly the same as in initial and medial forms, but exactly the same as alif maqṣūrah in final and isolated forms یـ  ـیـ  ـی.

Hamza (glottal stop semi-consonant)[edit]

Main article: Hamza
ئ  ؤ  إ  أ

Although often a diacritic is not considered a letter of the alphabet, the hamza هَمْزَة (hamzah, glottal stop), often does stand as a separate letter in writing, is written in unpointed texts, and is not considered a tashkīl. It may appear as a letter by itself or as a diacritic over or under an alif, wāw, or .

Which letter is to be used to support the hamzah depends on the quality of the adjacent vowels.

  • If the syllable occurs at the beginning of the word, the glottal stop is always indicated by hamza on an alif.
  • if the syllable occurs in the middle of the word, alif is used only if it is not preceded or followed by /i/ or /u/.
  • If /i(ː)/ is before or after the glottal stop, a with a hamzah is used (the two dots which are usually beneath the yāʾ disappear in this case): ئ.
  • If /u(ː)/ is before or after the glottal stop, a wāw with a hamzah is used: ؤ.

Consider the following words: أَخ /ʔax/ ("brother"), إِسْرَائِيل /ʔisraːʔiːl/ ("Israel"), أُم /ʔum/ ("mother"). All three of above words "begin" with a vowel opening the syllable, and in each case, alif is used to designate the initial glottal stop (the actual beginning). But if we consider middle syllables "beginning" with a vowel: نَشْأَة /naʃʔa/ ("origin"), إِسْرَائِيل /ʔisraːʔiːl/ ("Israel" — notice the /ʔiːl/ syllable), رُؤُوس /ruʔuːs/ ("heads", singular رَأْس /raʔs/), the situation is different, as noted above. See the comprehensive article on hamzah for more details.


Evolution of early Arabic calligraphy (9th – 11th century). The Basmala was taken as an example, from kufic Qur’ān manuscripts.
(1) Early 9th century, script with no dots or diacritic marks (see image of early Basmala Kufic);
(2) and (3) 9th–10th century under Abbasid dynasty, Abu al-Aswad’s system establish red dots with each arrangement or position indicating a different short vowel; later, a second black-dot system was used to differentiate between letters like fā’ and qāf (see image of middle Kufic);
(4) 11th century, in al-Farāhídi’s system (system we know today) dots were changed into shapes resembling the letters to transcribe the corresponding long vowels (see image of modern Kufic in Qur'an).

According to tradition, the first to commission a system of harakat was Muawiyah I of the Umayyad dynasty, when he ordered Ziad Ibn Abih, his wālī in Basra (governed 664–673), to find someone who would devise a method to transcribe correct reading. Ziad Ibn Abih, in turn, 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 i‘jām, dots used to distinguish between different consonants.

Abu al-Aswad's system[edit]

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, a dot below indicated the vowel i, a dot on the side of a letter stood for the vowel u, and two dots stood for the tanwīn.

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[edit]

This is the precursor to the system we know today. al-Farāhīdī found that the task of writing using two different colours was tedious and impractical. Another complication was that the i‘jām 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 ḥarakāt 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.[1]

See also[edit]

  • Arabic alphabet:
    • I‘rāb إِﻋْﺮَﺍﺏ, the case system of Arabic
    • Rasm رَسْم, the basic system of Arabic consonants
    • Tajwīd تَجْوِيد, the phonetic rules of recitation of Qur'an in Arabic
  • Niqqud, the Hebrew equivalent of ḥarakāt
  • Dagesh, the Hebrew diacritic similar to Arabic i‘jām and shaddah


  1. ^ Versteegh, 1997. The Arabic language. p 56ff.

External links[edit]