Long vowels with alif, wāw and yā’, and the small alif

Lesson 9 taught the three short vowels, each a mark on a letter. Arabic has three long vowels too, and the script writes each of them with two things: a short vowel mark on one letter, and one of three letters after it that carries no mark of its own. The three letters are alif, wāw and yā’.

The three pairs

• A fatḥah, and then an alif: a long ā.
• A kasrah, and then a yā’: a long ī.
• A ḍammah, and then a wāw: a long ū.

The letter that lengthens the vowel carries no vowel mark, no sukūn and no shaddah; in this text an alif never carries a vowel mark. A wāw or a yā’ with a vowel mark, a sukūn or a shaddah of its own is a letter in its own right, not a long vowel. Two other things may stand on the letter of a long vowel without making it one: the maddah of the next lesson, and the small signs of lesson 19. The names of the letters already show the three: the ā of bā’, the ī of jīm, the ū of nūn.

The small alif

In many words a long ā is said where the muṣḥaf writes no alif. There it writes a small alif: a short upright stroke above the letter, after its fatḥah, which the letter keeps. After a letter that joins forward, the small alif is set over a stretching line (lesson 8), so that it stands clear of the letter; after one that does not join forward, such as rā’, dāl, dhāl or wāw, it stands directly over the letter. In a few words it stands over a wāw that has no fatḥah of its own, the fatḥah being on the letter before, and often it stands over the alif maqṣūrah of lesson 16, which carries no fatḥah either.

In the Qur’ān

The last word of the first verse of al-Fātiḥah has a ḥā’ with a kasrah and a bare yā’ after it: a long ī.

The first word of the fourth verse has a small alif. The mīm has its fatḥah, and the small alif stands over a stretching line after it.

In the sixth verse the small alif stands directly over a rā’, after its fatḥah, because rā’ does not join forward.

In the fifth verse every alif, wāw and yā’ is picked out: six letters. The alif with a hamzah beneath it, first in the first word and second in the third, is a hamzah's seat (lesson 15) and is not. The two alifs, each after a fatḥah, are long ā. The wāw at the start of the third word carries a fatḥah, so it is a letter of its own. The yā’ in the first word and in the third carries a shaddah and a fatḥah: a letter of its own too. Only the yā’ in the last word, bare after a kasrah, is a long ī.

In the last verse nine are picked out; the alif waṣlah that begins three of its words (lesson 18) and the hamzah's seat that begins the third are not. The yā’ of the second word and the yā’ near the end of the last word, bare after a kasrah, are long ī; the wāw of the sixth word, bare after a ḍammah, is a long ū; the alif of the eighth word, after a fatḥah, is a long ā. The three yā’ with a sukūn, in the fourth, fifth and seventh words, and the wāw with a fatḥah at the start of the eighth, are letters of their own. The alif of the last word carries a small wavy sign, the maddah, which the next lesson teaches.

Recall

• Which three letters write the long vowels?
• What mark does the alif, wāw or yā’ of a long vowel carry?
• Where is the small alif written?

Answers: alif, wāw and yā’; none; above a letter, after its fatḥah, where a long ā is said and no alif is written, over a stretching line after a letter that joins forward and directly over one that does not.

Next

The next lesson teaches the maddah, the wavy sign written over a long vowel in certain places.