Arabic Vowel Marks (Tashkeel or "Harakat") - Lesson 4 : Arabic Language Course (Fadi's Free Arabic Language Tutorial)

Lesson 4

Arabic Vowel Marks (Tashkeel or Harakat)

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As you should have guessed; the words from last lesson's example were as follows: The first was "DISK" and the second was "TELEPHONE"...... Now, let's go on with the the lesson:

In Arabic there are three kinds of vowels:

The three vowel letters, which are (Alef, Waw and Ya') and are used for long vowels (You should be familiar with them by now).

The "Hamza" which will be explained in the last lesson.

The vowel marks which are used for short vowels. They are called "Tashkeel" in Arabic and they are explained in this lesson (They are also known as Harakat.. just a different name by some references).

To make short vowels distinct from long ones when words are read, the Arabic script uses vowel marks to do so. This is implemented by writing the marks over or under a letter. Let's write the letter "Seen " with the four different vowel marks applied to it:

The Mark's Name Applied to the letter
(Seen) Pronounced as..

Fat-ha Sa

Dhamma Su

Kas-ra Si

Sukoon S

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Let's take a look at how a "Tashkeel" is applied to letters:

The "Fat-ha" is an accent mark (a short slanting line over the letter). It is put over a letter when a short sound of "A" is supposed to be pronounced after the letter.

The "Dhamma" is a small letter "Waw" over a letter. It is put over a letter when a short sound of "U" is supposed to be pronounced after the letter.

The "Kasra" is a short slanting line under the letter. It is put under a letter when a short sound of "i" is supposed to be pronounced after the letter.

The "Sukoon" is a small circle over the letter. It is put over a letter when no sound should be pronounced after the letter.

Notes :

In Arabic the the words (Fat-ha, Dhamma, Kasra & Sukun) originally have the following meanings:

Fat-ha means "an opening".

Dhamma means "a closing".

Kasra means "a breaking".

Sukoon means "Static".

These meanings refer to the shape of the mouth. For example, you open your mouth wide when you say the sound of the Fat-ha (which is "A"), and you close your mouth when you say the sound of the "Dhamma" (which is "U"), and your mouth is static when you say a letter that have a "Sukoon" put on top of it. I just wanted you to know this because I think it could help you understand how "Tashkeel" works.

Using the Tashkeel is not obligatory when writing in Arabic, but it is most helpful in some cases (The words are read with the right pronunciation -without writing Tashkeel- by convention and the context of the sentence).

Vowel marks are very important in Arabic. The word's meaning may differ completely if a vowel mark applied to one letter is changed. Take a look at these examples:

write

books

gold

went

Vowel marks play a major role in grammar in Arabic (oh! Just forget grammar for now!!! Maybe later!!!!).

About the "My name" from previous lesson, I think that it should be written (FADY) in English because in Arabic it ends with the letter "Ya' "which is a "Y" in English, but if the name was to be written in Arabic with a "Kasra" at the end instead of the letter "Ya' " then it will be "Fadi" with an "I" at the end (what we are talking about here is the difference between the pronunciation of the letter "Ya' " and the "Kasra", and this is true for the letter "Alef" and a "Fat-ha" and for the letter "Waw" and the "Dhamma"). Anyway I think that I first learnt to write my name in non-Arabic alphabets in French..... ( just forget it !!!).

There are two other marks used in Arabic script and they represent an extra letter, they are:

1 - Shadda:
"Shadda" represents the doubling of a letter and it is a small shape that looks like the letter "Seen" and is put over the letter. For example, the following is the word "Qissah" (which means "Story" by the way) notice the "Shadda" over the letter "Sad":

Notes :

When a shadda is applied to a letter and the "Tashkeel" is also written, the tashkeel is put over or under the shadda itself not the letter.

Notice the two dots over the last letter at the end of the word "Qissah" above. It looks like a "Ha' " but in fact it is not a "Ha' " but the other form of the letter "Ta' " (it is called "Ta' Marbootah" which means "Tied Ta' " from its tied shape. It looks like a "Ha' " because it is pronounced as one in general (The word above is pronounced "Qissah"), but when other letters (suffix) are added at the end of the word (for grammatical reasons) the letter "Ta' " is written in its ordinary form. let's look at the word "Qissatuna" (which means "Our Story") after adding the letters "NA" at the end of the word which is a pronoun:

I know that this is confusing but I just wanted to give you an idea about the "Ta' Marboota" to understand its concept for a start.

2 - Tanween :
The "Tanween" is pronouncing the letter "Noon" at the end of a word (This is also grammar, so just have a general idea for now!!). It has three forms very similar to the "Tashkeel" but it is only put over or under the last letter of a word. The following table show the "Tanween" for the letters "Alef", "Ba' " and "Ta' ":

The letters Pronunciation

AN

BON

TIN

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Fadi's Arabic Tutorial. 1999 (Fadi S.)

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