Arabic Vowels

Vowels and Tanween (The ‘N’ sound)

The "N" sound

The three short vowels dealt with in the lesson about vowels have their doubled forms, i.e, ــً ــٌ ــٍ. The doubled vowels are pronounced like their single equivalents but with an "N" sound appended. This "N" sound is only pronounced and never rendered in writing. So, whereas the 3 single vowels are pronounced as a, oo and i, the doubled vowels are pronounced as an, oon and in (like in anti, wounded and pin).

So a ب with the doubled vowels will be written as بً بٌ بٍ but pronounced as بَنْ بُنْ بِنْ. In fact, بً will be written as بًا, i.e, with an additional ا; this will be dealt with below.

Where are they found?

The doubled vowels only come at the end of words; you will never come across a doubled vowel above/below other than over the last letter of a word.

"Doubled" here refers to the way these vowels are written, not the way they are pronounced.

With nouns/adjectives only

The doubled vowel is only placed on the last letter of a word, and this word should necessarily be a noun/adjective. No doubled vowels with verbs or prepositions or particles. The doubled vowel is in fact a sign that a word is a noun and not a verb or particle.

The additional ا

To the word ending in ــً is added an ا, so with the 3 doubled vowels above/below ش we will have شًا   شٌ   شٍ . However, if the ــً is on a ة, no ا is added and the word ends in ـةً.

There are also some cases where the ا is omitted after a ء vowelled with ـً. More on this later.

Various forms of some letters

There are variations of some of the letters of the Alphabet caused by vowelling, among other things. For example, the ء sometimes comes on its own and sometimes needs a supporting letter, in which case this letter is either ا or و or ي depending on the vowel above/below ء, and where the ء is placed in the word.

note1	ء
note2	ؤ
note3	إ
note3	ئ
note4	آ
note5	ا
note5	ى
note6	ة

A word about ء

When ء comes at the beginning of a word it must be above/below an ا. It is placed below if it is vowelled with a ــِـ, otherwise it is placed above. In any other position in a word, if it is supported by an ا it is always placed above, even if vowelled with a ــِـ.

Notes:

1. Here ء is without support

2. ء support by و

3. إ is only found at the beginning of a word, ئ never at the beginning.

4. أ with the long vowel ــَا

5. sometimes in place of ا in the long vowel ــَا; always at the end of a word

6. another form of ت, frequently suffixed to a noun to indicate that it is feminine. Always comes at the end of nouns; never found with verbs of particles.

Identical consecutive letters

Shadda (ــّـ)

When an unvowelled letter is followed by itself (but vowelled) in the same word, it is written only once and a tiny w-like sign ــّـ is placed above it. The vowel of the second letter is placed above/below the w-like sign (details below). Though it is written only once, the letter is pronounced twice, once together with the preceding letter and the second time as a vowelled letter, like in: 

مَدَّ : mad-da 

كُلُّ : kul-lu 

Note: 

This rule of contracting the identical letters into one does not apply when the definite article is followed by a word starting with ل.

The vowel of the second letter is placed on the ــّـ if it is a ــَـ or ــُـ. If it is a ــِـ it is placed either below the ــّـ or below the letter itself. The second letter must carry a single or a double vowel; it cannot have a ــْـ.