Arabic diacritics

File:Elements of Arabic script improved.png

Early written Arabic used only rasm (in black). Later, i‘jām (in red) were added so that letters such as ṣād () and ḍād () could be distinguished. Ḥarakāt (in blue)—which is used in the Qur'an but not in most written Arabic—indicate short vowels, long consonants, and some other vocalizations.

The Arabic script has numerous diacritics, which include consonant pointing known as Template:Transliteration (, Template:Ipa), and supplementary diacritics known as Template:Transliteration (, Template:Ipa). The latter include the vowel marks termed Template:Transliteration (, Template:Ipa; Template:Singular , Template:Transliteration, Template:Ipa).

The Arabic script is a modified abjad, where all letters are consonants, leaving it up to the reader to fill in the vowel sounds. Short consonants and long vowels are represented by letters, but short vowels and consonant length are not generally indicated in writing. Template:Transliteration is optional to represent missing vowels and consonant length. Modern Arabic is always written with the i‘jām—consonant pointing—but only religious texts, children's books and works for learners are written with the full tashkīl—vowel guides and consonant length. It is, however, not uncommon for authors to add diacritics to a word or letter when the grammatical case or the meaning is deemed otherwise ambiguous. In addition, classical works and historical documents rendered to the general public are often rendered with the full tashkīl, to compensate for the gap in understanding resulting from stylistic changes over the centuries.

Moreover, tashkīl can change the meaning of the entire word, for example, the words: (دِين), meaning (religion), and (دَين), meaning (debt). Even though they have the same letters, their meanings are different because of the tashkīl. In sentences without tashkīl, readers understand the meaning of the word by simply using context.

Tashkīl

The literal meaning of Template:Transliteration is 'formation'. As the normal Arabic text does not provide enough information about the correct pronunciation, the main purpose of Template:Transliteration (and Template:Transliteration) is to provide a phonetic guide or a phonetic aid; i.e. show the correct pronunciation for children who are learning to read or foreign learners.

The bulk of Arabic script is written without Template:Transliteration (or short vowels). However, they are commonly used in texts that demand strict adherence to exact pronunciation. This is true, primarily, of the Qur'an Template:Angle bracket (Template:Transliteration) and poetry. It is also quite common to add Template:Transliteration to hadiths Template:Angle bracket (Template:Transliteration; plural: Template:Transliteration) and the Bible. Another use is in children's literature. Moreover, Template:Transliteration are used in ordinary texts in individual words when an ambiguity of pronunciation cannot easily be resolved from context alone. Arabic dictionaries with vowel marks provide information about the correct pronunciation to both native and foreign Arabic speakers. In art and calligraphy, Template:Transliteration might be used simply because their writing is considered aesthetically pleasing.

An example of a fully vocalised (vowelised or vowelled) Arabic from the Bismillah:

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

Ḥarakāt (short vowel marks)

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

Fatḥah

The Template:Transliteration Template:Angle bracket is a small diagonal line placed above a letter, and represents a short (like the /a/ sound in the English word "cat"). The word Template:Transliteration itself () means opening and refers to the opening of the mouth when producing an . For example, with [[Dalet|Template:Transliteration]] (henceforth, the base consonant in the following examples): Template:Angle bracket .

When a Template:Transliteration is placed before a plain letter Template:Angle bracket ([[Aleph|Template:Transliteration]]) (i.e. one having no hamza or vowel of its own), it represents a long (close to the sound of "a" in the English word "dad", with an open front vowel /æː/, not back /ɑː/ as in "father"). For example: Template:Angle bracket . The Template:Transliteration is not usually written in such cases. When a fathah is placed before the letter ⟨⟩ (yā’), it creates an (as in "lie"); and when placed before the letter ⟨⟩ (wāw), it creates an (as in "cow").

Although paired with a plain letter creates an open front vowel (/a/), often realized as near-open (/æ/), the standard also allows for variations, especially under certain surrounding conditions. Usually, in order to have the more central (/ä/) or back (/ɑ/) pronunciation, the word features a nearby back consonant, such as the emphatics, as well as qāf, or rā’. A similar "back" quality is undergone by other vowels as well in the presence of such consonants, however not as drastically realized as in the case of Template:Transliteration.

Template:Transliterations are encoded Template:Unichar, Template:Unichar, Template:Unichar, or Template:Unichar.

Kasrah

A similar diagonal line below a letter is called a Template:Transliteration Template:Angle bracket and designates a short (as in "me", "be") and its allophones [i, ɪ, e, e̞, ɛ] (as in "Tim", "sit"). For example: Template:Angle bracket .

When a Template:Transliteration is placed before a plain letter Template:Angle bracket ([[ي|Template:Transliteration]]), it represents a long (as in the English word "steed"). For example: Template:Angle bracket . The Template:Transliteration is usually not written in such cases, but if [[ي|Template:Transliteration]] is pronounced as a diphthong , Template:Transliteration should be written on the preceding letter to avoid mispronunciation. The word Template:Transliteration means 'breaking'.

Template:Transliterations are encoded Template:Unichar, Template:Unichar, Template:Unichar, or Template:Unichar.

Ḍammah

The Template:Transliteration Template:Angle bracket is a small curl-like diacritic placed above a letter to represent a short /u/ (as in "duke", shorter "you") and its allophones [u, ʊ, o, o̞, ɔ] (as in "put", or "bull"). For example: Template:Angle bracket .

When a Template:Transliteration is placed before a plain letter Template:Angle bracket (Template:Transliteration), it represents a long (like the 'oo' sound in the English word "swoop"). For example: Template:Angle bracket . The Template:Transliteration is usually not written in such cases, but if Template:Transliteration is pronounced as a diphthong , Template:Transliteration should be written on the preceding consonant to avoid mispronunciation.

The word ḍammah (ضَمَّة) in this context means rounding, since it is the only rounded vowel in the vowel inventory of Arabic.

Template:Transliterations are encoded Template:Unichar, Template:Unichar, Template:Unichar, or Template:Unichar.

Alif Khanjarīyah

The [[Dagger alif|superscript (or dagger) Template:Transliteration]] Template:Angle bracket (Template:Transliteration), is written as short vertical stroke on top of a letter. It indicates a long sound for which [[Aleph#Arabic|Template:Transliteration]] is normally not written. For example: Template:Angle bracket (Template:Transliteration) or Template:Angle bracket (Template:Transliteration).

The dagger Template:Transliteration occurs in only a few words, but they include some common ones; it is seldom written, however, even in fully vocalised texts. Most keyboards do not have dagger Template:Transliteration. The word Allah Template:Angle bracket (Template:Transliteration)(God) is usually produced automatically by entering Template:Transliteration. The word consists of Template:Transliteration + ligature of doubled Template:Transliteration with a Template:Transliteration and a dagger Template:Transliteration above Template:Transliteration, followed by ha'.

Maddah

The Template:Transliteration Template:Angle bracket is a tilde-shaped diacritic, which can only appear on top of an alif (آ) and indicates a glottal stop followed by a long .

In theory, the same sequence could also be represented by two Template:Transliterations, as in *Template:Angle bracket, where a hamza above the first Template:Transliteration represents the while the second Template:Transliteration represents the . However, consecutive Template:Transliterations are never used in the Arabic orthography. Instead, this sequence must always be written as a single Template:Transliteration with a Template:Transliteration above it, the combination known as an Template:Transliteration. For example: Template:Angle bracket .

In Quranic writings, a maddah is placed on any other letter to denote the name of the letter, though some letters may take on a dagger alif. For example: Template:Angle bracket (lām-mīm-ṣād) or Template:Angle bracket (yāʼ-sīn)

Alif waṣlah

The Template:Transliteration Template:Angle bracket, Template:Transliteration Template:Angle bracket or Template:Transliteration Template:Angle bracket looks like the head of a small [[Tsade#Arabic Ṣād|Template:Transliteration]] on top of an Template:Transliteration Template:Angle bracket (also indicated by an Template:Transliteration Template:Angle bracket without a Template:Transliteration). It means that the Template:Transliteration is not pronounced when its word does not begin a sentence. For example: Template:Angle bracket (Template:Transliteration), but Template:Angle bracket (imshū not mshū). This is because in Arabic, the first consonant in a word must always be followed by a vowel sound: If the second letter from the Template:Transliteration has a kasrah, the alif-waslah makes the sound /i/. However, when the second letter from it has a dammah, it makes the sound /u/.

It occurs only in the beginning of words, but it 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 (Template:Transliteration). The alif of the definite article is considered a Template:Transliteration.

It occurs in phrases and sentences (connected speech, not isolated/dictionary forms):

• To replace the elided hamza whose alif-seat has assimilated to the previous vowel. For example: or (Template:Transliteration) 'in Yemen'.
• In hamza-initial imperative forms following a vowel, especially following the conjunction Template:Angle bracket (Template:Transliteration) 'and'. For example: َ (Template:Transliteration) 'rise and then drink the water'.

Like the superscript alif, it is not written in fully vocalized scripts, except for sacred texts, like the Quran and Arabized Bible.

Sukūn

The Template:Transliteration Template:Angle bracket is a circle-shaped diacritic placed above a letter (). It indicates that the letter to which it is attached is not followed by a vowel, i.e., zero-vowel.

It is a necessary symbol for writing consonant-vowel-consonant syllables, which are very common in Arabic. For example: Template:Angle bracket (Template:Transliteration).

The Template:Transliteration may also be used to help represent a diphthong. A Template:Transliteration followed by the letter Template:Angle bracket ([[yodh|Template:Transliteration]]) with a Template:Transliteration over it () indicates the diphthong Template:Transliteration (IPA ). A Template:Transliteration, followed by the letter Template:Angle bracket (Template:Transliteration) with a Template:Transliteration, () indicates .

Template:Transliterations are encoded Template:Unichar, Template:Unichar, or Template:Unichar.

Template:Script/Arabic

The Template:Transliteration may have also an alternative form of the small high head of [[ḥāʾ|Template:Transliteration]] (Template:Unichar), particularly in some Qurans. Other shapes may exist as well (for example, like a small comma above ⟨ʼ⟩ or like a circumflex ⟨ˆ⟩ in [[Nastaʿlīq script|Template:Transliteration]]).

Tanwīn

The three vowel diacritics may be doubled at the end of a word to indicate that the vowel is followed by the consonant n. They may or may not be considered Template:Transliteration and are known as Template:Transliteration Template:Angle bracket, or nunation. The signs indicate, from left to right, Template:Transliteration.

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 [[ʾIʿrab|Template:Transliteration]] for more details. In many spoken Arabic dialects, the 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 [[ʾIʿrab|Template:Transliteration]] varies from country to country, and there is a trend towards simplifying Arabic grammar.

The sign Template:Angle bracket is most commonly written in combination with [[aleph|Template:Transliteration]] Template:Angle bracket, [[Ta' marbuta|Template:Transliteration]] Template:Angle bracket, Template:Transliteration Template:Angle bracket, or stand-alone Template:Transliteration Template:Angle bracket. Template:Transliteration should always be written (except for words ending in Template:Transliteration or diptotes) even if Template:Transliteration is not. Grammatical cases and Template:Transliteration endings in indefinite triptote forms:

• Template:Transliteration: nominative case;
• Template:Transliteration: accusative case, also serves as an adverbial marker;
• Template:Transliteration: genitive case.

Shaddah

The shadda or shaddah Template:Angle bracket (Template:Transliteration), or tashdid Template:Angle bracket (Template:Transliteration), 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 Template:Transliteration that is commonly used in ordinary spelling to avoid ambiguity. For example: Template:Angle bracket ; Template:Transliteration Template:Angle bracket ('school') vs. Template:Transliteration Template:Angle bracket ('teacher', female). Note that when the doubled letter bears a vowel, it is the shaddah that the vowel is attached to, not the letter itself: Template:Angle bracket , Template:Angle bracket .

Template:Transliterations are encoded Template:Unichar, Template:Unichar, or Template:Unichar.

I‘jām

File:Kufic Quran, sura 7, verses 86-87.jpg

7th-century kufic script without any Template:Transliteration or Template:Transliteration.

The i‘jām (; sometimes also called Template:Transliteration) are the diacritic points that distinguish various consonants that have the same form (Template:Transliteration), such as Template:Angle bracket , Template:Angle bracket . Typically i‘jām are not considered diacritics but part of the letter.

Early manuscripts of the Quran did not use diacritics either for vowels or to distinguish the different values of the Template:Transliteration. Vowel pointing was introduced first, as a red dot placed above, below, or beside the Template:Transliteration, and later consonant pointing was introduced, as thin, short black single or multiple dashes placed above or below the rasm. These i‘jām became black dots about the same time as the Template:Transliteration became small black letters or strokes.

Typically, Egyptians do not use dots under final Template:Transliteration (), which looks exactly like alif maqsurah () in handwriting and in print. This practice is also used in copies of the [[Mus'haf|Template:Transliteration]] (Qurʾān) scribed by [[Uthman Taha|Template:Transliteration]]. The same unification of Template:Transliteration and Template:Transliteration has happened in Persian, resulting in what the Unicode Standard calls "Arabic Letter Farsi Yeh", that looks exactly the same as Template:Transliteration in initial and medial forms, but exactly the same as Template:Transliteration in final and isolated forms.

File:Arabic letter kaf forms with ‘alāmat al-ihmāl.png

Isolated kāf with ‘alāmātu-l-ihmāl and without top stroke next to initial kāf with top stroke.

At the time when the i‘jām was optional, unpointed letters were ambiguous. To clarify that a letter would lack i‘jām in pointed text, the letter could be marked with a small v- or seagull-shaped diacritic above, also a superscript semicircle (crescent), a subscript dot (except in the case of Template:Angle bracket; three dots were used with Template:Angle bracket), or a subscript miniature of the letter itself. A superscript stroke known as jarrah, resembling a long fatħah, was used for a contracted (assimilated) sin. Thus Template:Angle bracket were all used to indicate that the letter in question was truly Template:Angle bracket and not Template:Angle bracket. These signs, collectively known as ‘alāmātu-l-ihmāl, are still occasionally used in modern Arabic calligraphy, either for their original purpose (i.e. marking letters without i‘jām), or often as purely decorative space-fillers. The small above the kāf in its final and isolated forms Template:Angle bracket was originally an ‘alāmatu-l-ihmāl that became a permanent part of the letter. Previously this sign could also appear above the medial form of kāf, when that letter was written without the stroke on its ascender. When kaf was written without that stroke, it could be mistaken for lam, thus kaf was distinguished with a superscript kaf or a small superscript hamza (nabrah), and lam with a superscript l-a-m (lam-alif-mim).

Hamza

Although not always considered a letter of the alphabet, the hamza (Template:Transliteration, glottal stop), often stands as a separate letter in writing, is written in unpointed texts and is not considered a Template:Transliteration. It may appear as a letter by itself or as a diacritic over or under an Template:Transliteration, Template:Transliteration, or Template:Transliteration.

Which letter is to be used to support the Template:Transliteration depends on the quality of the adjacent vowels and its location in the word;

• If the glottal stop occurs at the beginning of the word:
  • Indicated by hamza on an Template:Transliteration: above if the following vowel is or and below if it is .
    • In order to clarify a starting /a/ or /u/, a respective fathah or dammah can be used
• If the glottal stop occurs in the middle of the word the following prioritization of writing qualities are used:
  • First: if hamza is it is preceded or followed by , hamza sits on a tooth; ex: <عَائِلَة>
  • Second: if hamza is preceded or followed by /u/, hamza sits on Template:Transliteration, <ؤ>
  • Third: else hamza sits on alif, <أ>
• If the glottal stop occurs at the end of the word (ignoring any grammatical suffixes),
  • First: if hamza follows a short vowel it is written above Template:Transliteration, Template:Transliteration, or Template:Transliteration the same as for a medial case;
  • Second: if it follows a long vowel, diphthong or consonant, hamza is written on the line <ء>
• Exception: Two Template:Transliterations in succession are never allowed: is written with [[#Maddah|Template:Transliteration]] Template:Angbr and is written with a free Template:Transliteration on the line Template:Angbr.

Consider the following words: Template:Angle bracket ("brother"), Template:Angle bracket ("Ismael"), Template:Angle bracket ("mother"). All three of above words "begin" with a vowel opening the syllable, and in each case, Template:Transliteration is used to designate the initial glottal stop (the actual beginning). But if we consider middle syllables "beginning" with a vowel: Template:Angle bracket ("origin"), Template:Angle bracket ("hearts"—notice the syllable; singular Template:Angle bracket ), Template:Angle bracket ("heads", singular Template:Angle bracket ), the situation is different, as noted above. See the comprehensive article on hamzah for more details.

Diacritics not used in Modern Standard Arabic

Diacritics not used in Modern Standard Arabic but in other languages that use the Arabic script, and sometimes to write Arabic dialects, include (the list is not exhaustive):

Description	Unicode	Example	Language(s)	Notes
Bars and lines
diagonal bar above		گ	Arabic (Iraq), Balti, Burushaski, Kashmiri, Kazakh, Khowar, Kurdish, Kyrgyz, Persian, Sindhi, Urdu, Uyghur	Diagonal bar above kaf to create gaf: گ (IPA ) When writing Arabic, often used in Iraq to represent the sound Template:IPAslink. Often used in Iraq to represent the /g/ sound to write foreign words in Arabic script, while in Morocco the variant ݣ is seen.
horizontal bar above		Template:Script/Arabic	Pashto	zwarakay, equivalent to Latin ə, IPA Template:IPAslink
vertical line above		ئۈ	Uyghur	the letter ئۈ (IPA Template:IPAslink) contains a vertical line above the vav
Dots
2 dots (vertical)		Template:Script/Arabic Template:Script/Arabic
4 dots		Template:Script/Arabic ٿ ڐ ڙ	Sindhi, Shina, Khariboli
dot below	Template:Unichar	ٜ   بٜ	African languages	also used in Quranic text in African and other orthographies
Variants of standard Arabic diacritics
wavy hamza		ٲ اٟ	Kashmiri	The Kashmiri language written in Arabic script includes the diacritic or "wavy hamza". In Kashmiri the diacritic is called āmālü mad when used above alif: ٲ to create the vowel Template:IPAslink. Kashmiri calls the wavy hamza sāȳ when below the alif: اٟ to create the sound Template:IPAslink.
curly dammah above		Template:Script/Arabic	Rohingya	Latin "ou"
			Rohingya	Latin "oñ"
double dammah above		Template:Script/Arabic	Rohingya	Latin "uñ"
inverted and regular curly dammahs above		Template:Script/Arabic	Rohingya	Latin "ouñ"
Tildes
diagonal tilde shape above		Template:Script/Arabic	Rohingya	Latin "o"
diagonal tilde shape below		Template:Script/Arabic	Rohingya	Latin "e"
Arabic letters
miniature Arabic letter hah (initial form) ﺣ above		Template:Script/Arabic	Rohingya	Sukun (zero-vowel)
miniature Arabic letter tah ط above		Template:Script/Arabic	Urdu
Eastern Arabic numerals
Eastern Arabic numeral 2: ٢ above	U+0775, U+0778, U+077A		Burushaski	Present in the Burushaski letters Template:Script/Arabic and Template:Script/Arabic
Eastern Arabic numeral 3: ٣ above	U+0776, U+0779, U+077B		Burushaski	Present in the Burushaski letters Template:Script/Arabic, Template:Script/Arabic and Template:Script/Arabic
Urdu number 4: ۴ above or below	U+0777, U+077C, U+077D		Burushaski	Present in the Burushaski letters Template:Script/Arabic and Template:Script/Arabic
Other shapes
Nūn ġuṇnā, "u" shape above		ن٘	Urdu	Vowel nasalization is represented by nun ghunna, which in medial form is written as nun with the diacritic (also called ulta jazm, Unicode U+0658) above: Template:Nastaliq.
"v" shape above		ۆ ێ ئۆ	Azerbaijani, Turkmen, Kurdish, Kazakh, Uyghur، Bosnian (Arebica)	used on top of waw: ۆ to represent "o" Template:IPAslink in Kurdish, and "ü" Template:IPAslink in Azerbaijani and Turkmen used on top of ye: ێ represents "ê" Template:IPAslink in Kurdish. used on top of waw: ۆ to represent "v" Template:IPAslink in Kazakh. In Uyghur it used as part of the letter digraph ئۆ to represent "ö" Template:IPAslink.
inverted "v" shape above		یٛ	Azerbaijani, Turkmen, Bosnian (Arebica)	in Azerbaijani, used only on top of ye: یٛ (rarely used) is equivalent to Latin ı, Cyrillic ы, IPA Template:IPAslink in Turkmen, used only on top of ye: یٛ is equivalent to Latin y, Cyrillic ы, IPA Template:IPAslink
dotted fatha		Template:Script/Arabic	Wolof	Latin à
circle with fatha		Template:Script/Arabic	Wolof	Latin ë
less than sign - below		Template:Script/Arabic	Wolof	Latin e
greater than sign - below		Template:Script/Arabic	Wolof	Latin é
less than sign - above		Template:Script/Arabic	Wolof	Latin o
greater than sign - above		Template:Script/Arabic	Wolof	Latin ó
ring		ګ	Pashto	kaf with ring (ګ) is used for IPA //
Other shapes
"fish" shape above		دࣤ࣬  دࣥ࣬  دࣦ࣯	Rohingya	Ṭāna, e.g. Template:Script/Arabic written above or below other diacritics to mark a long rising tone (Template:IPAslink).
Various			Urdu	Special diacritics usually found only in dictionaries for clarification of irregular pronunciation include kasrah-e-majhool, fathah-e-majhool, dammah-e-majhool, and alif-e-wavi.

Rohingya tone markers

Historically Arabic script has been adopted and used by many tonal languages, examples include Xiao'erjing for Mandarin Chinese as well as Ajami script adopted for writing various languages of Western Africa. However, the Arabic script never had an inherent way of representing tones until it was adapted for the Rohingya language. The Rohingya Fonna are 3 tone markers which are part of the standardized and accepted orthographic convention of Rohingya. It remains the only known instance of tone markers within the Arabic script.

Tone markers act as "modifiers" of vowel diacritics. In simpler words, they are "diacritics for the diacritics". They are written "outside" of the word, meaning that they are written above the vowel diacritic if the diacritic is written above the word, and they are written below the diacritic if the diacritic is written below the word. They are only ever written where there are vowel diacritics. This is important to note, as without the diacritic present, there is no way to distinguish between tone markers and I‘jām i.e. dots that are used for purpose of phonetic distinctions of consonants.

Hārbāy Template:Symb

The Hārbāy as it is called in Rohingya, is a single dot that's placed on top of Fatḥah and Ḍammah, or curly Fatḥah and curly Ḍammah (vowel diacritics unique to Rohinghya), or their respective Fatḥatan and Ḍammatan versions, and it's placed underneath Kasrah or curly Kasrah, or their respective Kasratan version. (e.g. Template:Script/Arabic) This tone marker indicates a short high tone ().

Ṭelā Template:Symb

The Ṭelā as it is called in Rohingya, is two dots that are placed on top of Fatḥah and Ḍammah, or curly Fatḥah and curly Ḍammah, or their respective Fatḥatan and Ḍammatan versions, and it's placed underneath Kasrah or curly Kasrah, or their respective Kasratan version. (e.g. Template:Script/Arabic) This tone marker indicates a long falling tone ().

Ṭāna Template:Symb

The Ṭāna as it is called in Rohingya, is a fish-like looping line that is placed on top of Fatḥah and Ḍammah, or curly Fatḥah and curly Ḍammah, or their respective Fatḥatan and Ḍammatan versions, and it's placed underneath Kasrah or curly Kasrah, or their respective Kasratan version. (e.g. Template:Script/Arabic) This tone marker indicates a long rising tone ().

History

File:Arabic script evolution.svg

Evolution of early Arabic calligraphy (9th–11th century). The basmala was taken as an example, from Kufic Qur'an 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 established 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 Template:Transliteration and Template:Transliteration; (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.

According to tradition, the first to commission a system of ḥarakāt was Ali who 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 Template:Transliteration, dots used to distinguish between different consonants.

• Early Basmala Kufic
  Early Basmala Kufic
• Middle Kufic
  Middle Kufic
• Modern Kufic in Qur'an
  Modern Kufic in Qur'an

Abu al-Aswad's system

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 Template:Transliteration, a dot below indicated the vowel Template:Transliteration, a dot on the side of a letter stood for the vowel Template:Transliteration, and two dots stood for the [[tanwin|Template:Transliteration]].

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

The precursor to the system we know today is Al Farahidi's system. [[Al Farāhídi|Template:Transliteration]] found that the task of writing using two different colours was tedious and impractical. Another complication was that the Template:Transliteration 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 Template:Transliteration 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.

Automatic diacritization

The process of automatically restoring diacritical marks is called diacritization or diacritic restoration. It is useful to avoid ambiguity in applications such as Arabic machine translation, text-to-speech, and information retrieval. Automatic diacritization algorithms have been developed. For Modern Standard Arabic, the state-of-the-art algorithm has a word error rate (WER) of 4.79%. The most common mistakes are proper nouns and case endings. Similar algorithms exist for other varieties of Arabic.

See also

• Arabic alphabet:
  • [[ʾIʿrab|Template:Transliteration]] (), the case system of Arabic
  • [[Rasm|Template:Transliteration]] (), the basic system of Arabic consonants
  • [[Tajwid|Template:Transliteration]] (), the phonetic rules of recitation of Qur'an in Arabic
• Hebrew:
  • Hebrew diacritics, the Hebrew equivalent
  • Niqqud, the Hebrew equivalent of Template:Transliteration
  • Dagesh, the Hebrew diacritic similar to Arabic Template:Transliteration and shaddah

References

• Alexis Neme and Sébastien Paumier (2019), "Restoring Arabic vowels through omission-tolerant dictionary lookup", Lang Resources & Evaluation, Vol. 53, pp. 1-65