LESSON 1
We are glad to know that you are interested to learn Arabic. Learning this language will be .helpful when you think to visit Arab countries. for any purpose.
Learning a foreign language needs patience, perseverance, and practice The Arabic language is different from European languages in two aspects
1The words of this language are formed of connected alphabets.
2The words have vowel signs on them, and some have dots.
After this short and necessary introduction, let us proceed to introduce you – my dear student – to the Arabic Alphabets. Arabic Alphabets are twenty-eight in number having two more alphabets than the English language.
These alphabets have more than one shape according to their position in the word.
Here are these alphabets
from right to left. the top lines are Arabic letters. the middle line indicates their English equivalents. the bottom line gives their names.
| خ Kh Khā̛ | ح H Hā̛ | ج J Jim | ث Th Thā̛ | ت T Tā̛ | ب B Bā̛ | ا A, Alif |
| ص S Sād | ش Sh Shin | س S Sin | ز Z Zāy | ر R Rā̛ | ذ B Bā̛ | د D Dāl |
| ق Q Qāf | ف F Fā̛ | غ Gh Ghayn | ع Ayn | ظ Z Zā̛ | ط T Tā̛ | ض D Dād |
| ي Y Yā̛ | و W Wāw | هـ H Hā̛ | ن N Nun | م M Mim | ل L Lām | كـ / ك K Kāf |
Notes:
No 1. the first character of the Arabic alphabet called HAMAZAH or ALIF, has the sound of the glottal stop which occurs in the beginning of an English word with an initial vowel, like apple, uncle, ink, and umlaut. the English vowels in these words; namely, the a, the u, and the i serve two functions’ to give the sound fo a glottal stip and to serve as a vowel. They are not merely like the a, the u and I. in fat, mud, pin and put, but, in addition, denote a glottal stop sound
However. The English glottal stop occurs in the beginning of the word only.
The Arabic glottal stop, on the other hand, may occur in the beginning or in the middle or at the end of the word. When we transliterate an Arabic word with the glottal stop in the beginning, the glottal stop is to be written as a, i or u, depending on its vowel.
When the glottal stop cccurs in the middle or at the end of the Arabic word. It is represented by a sign which resembles the regular apostrophe: namely:
No 2. When a letter is written twice in this table. It means that it may assume either of the two characters.
(Note that the Arabic Alphabet consists of consonants only. It des not contain and characters that would denote vowels)