Arabic: An Essential Grammar

39

Chapter 9

Sun and moon letters,

hamzatu l-was

̇

li (was

̇

lah)

9.1 Sun and moon letters

The Arabic consonants are phonetically divided into two major classes

called:

sun letters, ي ٌةَُّح ُرو ٌف َش ْم ِسـ h

̇

uru ̄fun sˇamsiyyatun, assimilating

moon letters, ي ٌةَُّح ُرو ٌف َق َم ِر h

̇

uru ̄fun qamariyyatun, non-assimilating

9.2 Sun letters

The sun letters have received their name from the Arabic word for

‘sun’, َشـ ْم ٌس sˇamsun, whose first letter, شـ... /sˇ/, belongs to the class

of assimilating letters.

There are fourteen sun letters. These letters are pronounced with the

tongue touching the teeth or front part of the mouth:

9.3 When the definite article َأْلـ... /

al.../ is attached to a word

which begins with a sun letter, the sound لـ... /l/ of the definite article is

assimilated to the sound of the following sun letter. Although the لـ...

/l/ is not pronounced, it is written as such (without a suku ̄n), but in the

transliteration it is omitted. Owing to the assimilation, the first con-

sonant of the word is doubled, which is indicated by a sˇaddah (^) ــّــــ
above it.
صضطظ لنتثدذرزسش
sˇ szrd
̄
dt
̄
tnld
̄ ̇
t
̇
d
̇
s
̇