17Chapter 5
Suku ̄n, sˇaddah, noun cases
and nunation as indefinite
form
5.1 Suku ̄n: (^) ــْـــ
A small circle written above a consonant indicates the absence of a
vowel, e.g.
5.2 Sˇaddah: (^) ــّــــ (doubling of a consonant)
(a) When a consonant occurs twice without a vowel in between, the
consonant is written only once but with the sign sˇaddah above and
the pronunciation is also doubled, e.g.
(b) When kasrah (^) ــِـــ /i/ appears together with sˇaddah ـــّـــ , the
kasrah is usually placed above the consonant but under the
sˇaddah, e.g.
5.3 Noun cases
Case inflection is called ِإ ْعـ َرا ُب ِْلا ْس ِم
i
ra ̄bu l-ismi in Arabic.
Arabic nouns and adjectives have three cases. For the most part they
ُه ْم hum, they ِم ْن min, from َت ْح َت tah
̇
ta, under
َل ْو law, i f َك ْي kay, in order to َك ْي َف kayfa, how
ل َمََّع^
allama, to teach ر َبََّج g ̆arraba, to try دََّع
adda, to count
ر ْبَّ َج g ̆arrib, try! ل ْمََّع^
allim, teach!