Arabic: An Essential Grammar

9.4 Moon letters

The other fourteen letters are called moon letters, because the first letter,

قـ... /q/, of the Arabic word for ‘moon’, َق َم ٌر^ qamarun, represents the

class of non-assimilating letters:

9.5 When the definite article َأْلـ... /

al.../ is attached to a word

beginning with a moon letter, the la ̄m لـ... /l.../ of the article is not

assimilated and retains its pronunciation, e.g.

Note: The letters ج /g ̆/ and ي /y/ are counted as moon letters (non-assimilating),

although they are pronounced with the tongue touching the front part of the

mouth, e.g.

َأْلـ َج َب ُل^

al-g ̆abalu, the mountain

9.6 Hamzatu l-was

̇

li (or was

̇

lah)

Hamzatu l-was

̇

li, َه ْم َز ُة ْل َو ْص ِل , also called was

̇

lah, َو ْصَلة, means

‘joining hamzah’. It is a small sign written above the

alif (), which is

not pronounced and appears only at the beginning of a word.

The role of hamzatu l-was

̇

li (was

̇

lah) is to connect two words together

in one pronunciation without an intervening glottal stop (hamzatu

l-qat

̇



i). It may be compared to the French apostrophe in l’homme

(instead of le homme).

َشـ ْم ٌس شـ ْم ُسَّ َأل (not: َأْل َش ْمـ ُس

sˇamsun, a sun

asˇ-sˇamsu, the sun

al-sˇamsu)

َر ُج ٌل ر ُج ُلََّأل (not: َأْل َر ُجـ ُل

rag ̆ulun, a man

ar-rag ̆ulu, the man

al-rag ̆ulu)

أبجحخعغفقكمهـوي

ywhmkqf g ̇



h

̆

h

̇

g ̆ b

َق َم ٌر qamarun, a moon َأْل َق َم ُر^

al-qamaru, the moon

ِكـ َتا ٌب kita ̄bun, a book َأْل ِكـ َتا ُب^

al-kita ̄bu, the book

Sun and

moon

letters,

hamzatu

l-was

̇

li

(was
̇

lah)

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