Alif/Baa/Taa/Thaa

Hokay, Arabic students, this is a summary of what we learned last Saturday in class.  It may or may not help you in your review.

All Arabic letters have four forms.  The use of each form depends on the letter's placement in any given word.  The first form is called the 'independent' form.  This form is used when the letter follows another letter that is not connecting and nothing comes after it.  For example, if a 'baa' comes after an 'alif', with nothing following the 'baa', we will use the independent form because it is (wonder of wonders) INDEPENDENT, or by itself.

The second form is called the 'initial' form.  This form is used when the letter in question is at the beginning of the word.  Even if this letter is a non-connecting letter, the initial form will be used.  This isn't an issue because the independent and initial forms of non-connecting letters are generally the same, so even if you wanted to use an independent (which you shouldn't and WOULDN'T) it wouldn't make a difference.

The third form is called the 'medial' form.  As this title suggests, you use this form when the letter in question is in the middle of a word or between two other letters. 

The fourth form is the 'final' form.  You use it when the letter in question appears at the end of a word.  BE CAREFUL.  If you have a connecting letter following a non-connecting letter at the END of a word, you're going to use the independent form, not the final.  The final form of the letter is only used when it is the last letter in a word and when it follows a CONNECTING LETTER.

Arabic has three vowels, all of them long.  The first of these is the ALIF.  The alif is NOT a connecting letter.  The independent form is written as a straight line, starting at the top and drawing it down to the bottom, not bottom-to-top.  The initial is the same as the independent.  The medial form is an 'L' shape, starting from the right and going across in a westerly direction before heading due north in the typical 'alif' shape.  The final form is the same as the medial.

In the Arabic alphabet, the 25 consonants are divided into groups depending on shape.  The first group, consisting of 'baa', 'taa', and 'thaa', includes three letters that are all the same shape in each form, the difference lying with the dots.  In the independent form of these letters, a hook is formed on the right, drawn down into a straight line, and then finished with another hook.  The initial form is like a small backwards 'L' (not as tall as the medial and final alif - about half the height at the highest point), starting from the top and going down to the left.  The medial form is a line drawn from right to left, comes up into a tooth and then back down in a continuing line.  The final form is just like the medial, except it finishes off with a hook to close it.

The 'baa' has one dot above each of the forms, the 'taa' has two (think 'T'aa 'T'wo 'T'op) above each form, and the 'thaa' has three above each form (think 'Th'aa 'Th'ree).  The sound of the baa is like a 'b' in English, as in 'bat' or 'boy'.  The taa sounds like a 't' in English, as in 'two' or 'tight'.  The thaa sounds like a hard 'th' sound, as in 'three' or 'thanks', rather than 'the' or 'though'.  All of these letters are connecting characters, meaning they connect to the letter preceding and following (if there is a following letter). 

It is very important that all of you pay close attention to the connecting letters and the non-connecting letters.  If you connect the alif, for example, with the letter following it (the one on the left side of it - remember that we're reading right to left!) it will become a different letter entirely and will change both the sound AND THE MEANING of the word.

Some vocab:

Thank you = shukran

You're welcome = afwaen (pronunciation on this is pretty much objective...'ahfwahn' 'afwan' 'ahfwan' and 'afwahn' are all acceptable)

Hello and welcome! = ahlan wa sahlan (pronounced as though there is another short vowel between the 'h's' and the 'l's')

Hello!  = ahlan

Hello! (optional response - 'ahlan' is also acceptable) = ahlan biik(i) ('i' makes it feminine, so make sure you don't say 'ahlan biiki' to a guy or 'ahlan biik' to a girl.  This would be equivalent to saying, "Hey, girlfriend!"  to a man or vice versa.  *Cringe*)

How are you? = kayf halak/halek?  OR kayf al hal (halak=speaking to a man / halek=speaking to a girl)

I'm fine.  How are you? = bekhair al hamdu lillaah.  Wa inta/inte?  OR  bekhair.  Wa inta/inte? (Masc. = inta Fem. = inte.  Also, be careful with pronunciation.  The 'kh' is not like 'h'.  It's gutteral.)

Goodbye = ma'a elsalaama