Hamza

For other uses, see Hamzah

The Arabic alphabet




History · Transliteration Diacritics · hamza {{ar Numerals · Numeration

For Hamza, the letter ء in the Arabic alphabet, representing the glottal stop [ʔ]. Hamza is not one of the 28 "full" letters, and owes its existence to historical orthographical inconsistencies in early Islamic times. In the Phoenician and Aramaic alphabets, from which the Arabic alphabet is descended, the glottal stop was expressed by ʼāleph, continued by Arabic ʼalif. However, alif was used to express both a glottal stop, and a long vowel [a:]. To indicate that a glottal stop, and not a mere vowel, was intended, hamza was added diacritically to alif. In modern orthography, under certain circumstances, hamza may also appear on the line, as if it were a full letter, independent of an alif.

Hamza can be written alone or on a support in which case it becomes a diacritic:

alone: ء ;
with a support: إ, أ (above and under a ʼalif), ؤ (above a wāw), ئ (above a dotless yāʼ or yāʼ hamza).

Rules for hamza

Summary

Initial hamza is always written over or under an alif. Otherwise, surrounding vowels determine the seat of the hamza – but, preceding long vowels or diphthongs are ignored (as are final short vowels).
/i/ over /u/ over /a/ if there are two conflicting vowels that “count”; on the line if there are none.
As a special case, /āʼa/, /ūʼa/ and /awʼa/ require hamza on the line, instead of over an alif as you would expect from rule #1. (See III.1b below.)
Two adjacent alifs are never allowed. If the rules call for this, replace the combination by a single alif-madda.

Detailed Description

Logically, hamza is just like any other letter, but it may be written in different ways. It has no effect on the way other letters are written. In particular, surrounding long vowels are written just as they always are, regardless of the “seat” of the hamza – even if this results in the appearance of two consecutive waws or yaas.
Hamza can be written in four ways – on its own (“on the line”) or over an alif, waw, or yaa, called the “seat” of the hamza. When written over yaa, the dots that would normally be written underneath disappear.
When, according to the rules below, an hamza with an alif seat would occur before another alif, instead a single alif is written with the madda symbol over it.
The rules for hamza depend on whether it occurs as the initial, middle, or final letter (not sound) in a word. (Thus, final short inflectional vowels do not count, but when –an is written as alif-tanwiin, it does count and the hamza is considered middle.)

I. If the hamza is initial:

It is always written on an alif – over it if the following sound is /a/ or /u/, under it if /i/ follows.
If long /ā/ follows, alif-madda will occur.

II. If the hamza is final:

If a short vowel precedes, the hamza is written over the letter (alif, waw, or yaa) corresponding to the short vowel.
Otherwise (i.e. long vowel, diphthong or consonant preceding), the hamza is written on the line.

III. If the hamza is middle:

If a long vowel or diphthong precedes, the seat of the hamza is determined mostly by what follows:

*If /i/ or /u/ follows, the hamza is written over yaa or waw, accordingly.

*Otherwise, the hamza wants to be written on the line. If a yaa precedes, however, this would conflict with the stroke joining the yaa to the following letter, so the hamza is (in print, at least) written over yaa.

Otherwise, both preceding and following vowels have an effect on the hamza.

*If there is only one vowel (or two of the same kind), that vowel determines the seat (alif, waw, or yaa).

*If there are two conflicting vowels, /i/ takes precedence over /u/, /u/ over /a/.

*Alif-madda will occur if appropriate.

Not surprisingly given the complexity of these rules, there is some disagreement.

*Barron’s "201 Arabic Verbs" follows these rules exactly (although the sequence /ūʼū/ does not occur; see below).

*John Mace’s "Teach Yourself Arabic Verbs and Essential Grammar" presents alternative forms in almost all cases when hamza is followed by a long /ū/. The motivation appears to be to avoid two waws in a row. Generally, the choice is between the form following the rules here, or an alternative form using hamza over yaa in all cases. Example forms are /masʼūl/, /yaǧīʼūna/, /yašāʼūna/. Exceptions:

:*In the sequence /ūʼū/, e.g. /yasūʼūna/, the alternatives are hamza on the line, or hamza over yaa, when the rules here would call for hamza over waw. Perhaps the resulting sequence of three waws would be especially repugnant?

:*In the sequence /yaqraʼūna/, the alternative form has hamza over alif, not yaa.

:*The forms /yabṭuʼūna/, /yaʼūbu/ have no alternative form. (But note /yaqraʼūna/ with the same sequence of vowels!)

*Haywood and Nahmad’s "A new Arabic grammar" doesn’t write the paradigms out in full but in general agrees with John Mace’s book, including the alternative forms – and sometimes lists a third alternative where the entire sequence /ʼū/ is written as a single hamza over waw instead of as two letters.

*"Al-Kitaab fii Ta:allum ..." presents paradigms with hamza written the same way throughout, regardless of what the rules above say. Thus /yabdaʼūna/ with hamza only over alif, /yaǧīʼūna/ with hamza only over yaa, /yaqraʼīna/ with hamza only over alif although this is not allowed in any of the previous three books. (This appears to be an over-generalization on the part of the Al-Kitaab writers.)

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