Arabic: An Essential Grammar

135

Chapter 20

Rules for writing the hamzah

(hamzatu l-qat

̇



i)

20.1 With regard to the discussion in chapter 7 of the hamzah and the

difficulties with its orthography, the following rules can contribute to

the student’s understanding of the biggest part of this problem.

It is not necessary to learn all these rules by heart now. The idea is to

become acquainted with them, and to use them for reference.

20.2 As mentioned in chapter 7, the hamzah can be written on any

of the three letters

alif (^) أ, wa ̄w (^) ؤ and ya ̄


(^) ئـ.. .. ـئـ.. ئ without dots.
When they have the hamzah, these three letters are not pronounced as
vowels, but function merely as bearers (seats) of the hamzah. In some
cases the hamzah is left without a bearer, however.
It is important to remember that each of these three letters is related to
one of the three vowels as follows:
(a) The related letter of fath
̇
ah (^) ـَـــ /a/ is


alif (^) ا.
(b) The related letter of d
̇
ammah (^) ــُــ /u/ is wa ̄w (^) و.
(c) The related letter of kasrah (^) ـِـــ /i/ is ya ̄


(^) ى (without dots).
The three vowels have different strengths, as explained in the list below.
The letter bearing the hamzah in a word is decided by the relative
strength of the vowels, when one compares the vowel of the hamzah
itself and the vowel of the preceding letter. The stronger vowel (usually)
decides which related letter becomes the bearer of the hamzah.
(a) The strongest vowel is kasrah (^) ـِـــ /i/. (The ya ̄


with the suku ̄n
ْ يـ.. ..ـ ْيـ.. ْي /y/ is considered to be as strong as the kasrah.)