Arabic alphabet

The Arabic alphabet is an abjad script, therefore each symbol stands for a consonant leaving it for the reader to infer an appropriate vowel. The alphabet and the language itself is written from right to left. There are 28 letters with many sounds similar to European languages.

Pronunciation:

* = there are many throat sounds in Arabic – when making these sounds you need to push air from your throat as if to clear a bloackage – begin by exaggerating this and over time it will normalise and become more comfortable

# = the rolled r is similar to the spanish perro

Alif – A as in arm

Ba’ – B as in barn

Ta’ – T as in task

Tha’ – Th as in think

Jim – J as in jar

Haa’ – throatal* H as in hard

Khaa’ – throatal* KH as in scottish loch

Dal – D as in dark

Thal – Th as in that

Ra’ – rolled# R as in curd

Zayn – Z as in zebra

Sin – S as in sin

Shin – Sh as in shin

Sod – S as in psalm (differentiated from sin by pressing tongue against roof of mouth near to teeth prior to making sound – for sin sound tongue does not touch roof of mouth)

Dod – D as in board (differentiated from dal by pressing tongue against roof of mouth near to teeth prior to making sound – for dal the tongue touches roof of mouth further back)

T0′ – T as in autumn (differentiated from ta by pressing tongue against roof of mouth near to teeth prior to making sound – for ta the tongue only touches and is not pressed against the roof of the mouth)

Th0′ – Th as in the (differentiated from thal by pressing tongue against roof of mouth near to teeth prior to making sound – for ta the tongue only touches and is not pressed against the roof of the mouth)

‘Ayn – throatal* ‘ah’ similar to the sound you would make at the dentist (differentiated from alif by longer throatal sound)

Ghayn – throatal* g as in garlic

Fa – F as in fast

Qaf – Q as in mocha

Kaf – K as in cat (differentiated from qaf by touching tongue against roof of mouth prior to making sound – for qaf the tongue stays on the floor of the mouth)

Lam – L as in last

Mim – M as in mask

Nun – N as in nasty

Ha – H as in hard (differentiated from Haa’ which has a throatal sound)

Waw – W as in water

Ya – Y as in yard

Written Arabic

The spoken Arabic is very friendly to those learning it as letters vary little phonetically regardless of their use. The written language however does have variation with letters appearing differently whether at the beginning, middle of end of the word. A useful comparison is cursive where certain letter hook to others depending on adjacent letters.