Hamza ( ar, همزة ') () is a letter in the
Arabic alphabet, representing the
glottal stop . Hamza is not one of the 28 "full" letters and owes its existence to historical inconsistencies in the
standard writing system. It is derived from the Arabic letter ''
ʿAyn
''Ayin'' (also ''ayn'' or ''ain''; transliterated ) is the sixteenth letter of the Semitic scripts, including Phoenician , Hebrew , Aramaic , Syriac ܥ, and Arabic (where it is sixteenth in abjadi order only).
The letter represents a ...
'' (). In the
Phoenician and
Aramaic
The Aramaic languages, short Aramaic ( syc, ܐܪܡܝܐ, Arāmāyā; oar, 𐤀𐤓𐤌𐤉𐤀; arc, 𐡀𐡓𐡌𐡉𐡀; tmr, אֲרָמִית), are a language family containing many varieties (languages and dialects) that originated in ...
alphabets, from which the Arabic alphabet is descended, the glottal stop was expressed by ''
alif'' (), continued by ''Alif'' ( ) in the Arabic alphabet. However, Alif was used to express both a glottal stop and also a long vowel . In order to indicate that a glottal stop is used, and not a mere vowel, it was added to Alif
diacritic
A diacritic (also diacritical mark, diacritical point, diacritical sign, or accent) is a glyph added to a letter or to a basic glyph. The term derives from the Ancient Greek (, "distinguishing"), from (, "to distinguish"). The word ''diacriti ...
ally. In modern orthography, hamza may also appear on the line, under certain circumstances as though it were a full letter, independent of an Alif.
Etymology
''Hamza'' is derived from the verb ' (
) meaning 'to prick, goad, drive' or 'to provide (a letter or word) with hamzah'.
Hamzat al-waṣl ( ٱ )
The letter hamza (
) on its own always represents ' (
, "the ''hamzah'' which breaks, ceases or halts", i.e. the broken, cessation, halting"), that is, a phonemic glottal stop unlike the ' (
, "the ''hamzah'' which attaches, connects or joins", i.e. the attachment, connection, joining"), a non-phonemic glottal stop produced automatically only if at the beginning of an utterance, otherwise assimilated. Although the ' can be written as an
alif carrying a ' sign
(only in the
Quran
The Quran (, ; Standard Arabic: , Quranic Arabic: , , 'the recitation'), also romanized Qur'an or Koran, is the central religious text of Islam, believed by Muslims to be a revelation from God. It is organized in 114 chapters (pl.: , s ...
), it is normally indicated by a plain alif without a hamza.
occurs in:
* the definite article '
* some short words with two of their three-consonant roots apparent: ''ism''
, ''ibn''
, ''imru
(fem. ''imra'ah''
), ''ithnāni''
(fem. ''ithnatāni''
)
* the imperative verbs of forms I and VII to X
* the perfective aspect of verb forms VII to X and their verbal nouns
* some borrowed words that start with consonant clusters such as '
It is not pronounced following a vowel (, '). This event occurs in the
definite article
An article is any member of a class of dedicated words that are used with noun phrases to mark the identifiability of the referents of the noun phrases. The category of articles constitutes a part of speech.
In English, both "the" and "a(n)" a ...
or at the beginning of a noun following a
preposition or a verb following a
relative pronoun
A relative pronoun is a pronoun that marks a relative clause. It serves the purpose of conjoining modifying information about an antecedent referent.
An example is the word ''which'' in the sentence "This is the house which Jack built." Here the r ...
. If the definite article ''al-'' is followed by a
sun letter, -''l-'' also gives way for the next letter for ''lām'' is assimilated.
Orthography
The hamza can be written either alone, as if it were a
letter
Letter, letters, or literature may refer to:
Characters typeface
* Letter (alphabet), a character representing one or more of the sounds used in speech; any of the symbols of an alphabet.
* Letterform, the graphic form of a letter of the alphabe ...
, or with a carrier, when it becomes a
diacritic
A diacritic (also diacritical mark, diacritical point, diacritical sign, or accent) is a glyph added to a letter or to a basic glyph. The term derives from the Ancient Greek (, "distinguishing"), from (, "to distinguish"). The word ''diacriti ...
:
* Alone: (only one isolated form):
* By itself:
*''High Hamza'' (not used in Arabic language; only one isolated form, but actually used in medial and final positions where it will be non joining), after any Arabic letter (if that letter has an initial or medial form, these forms will be changed to isolated or final forms respectively):
*''Three-Quarter High Hamza'' (used in
Malay; only one isolated form, but actually used in medial and final positions where it will be non joining):
Position in word:
|
Isolated
|
Final
|
Medial
|
Initial
|
Glyph form: (Help
Help is a word meaning to give aid or signal distress.
Help may refer to:
Arts, entertainment, and media
Films
* ''Help'' (2010 film), a Bollywood horror film
* ''Help'' (2021 theatrical film), a British psychological thriller film
* '' ...
)
|
ء
|
(none)
|
(none)
|
(none)
|
''This form is in the process of being encoded into the Unicode Standard and is currently being displayed using a standard Arabic Hamza with an altered vertical position.
''
* Combined with a letter:
* Above or below an :
* Above a :
* Above a dotless , also called
'. Joined medially and finally in Arabic, other languages written in
Arabic-based script may have it initially as well (or it may take its isolated or initial shape, even in Arabic, after a non-joining letter in the same word):
* Above . In the
Persian alphabet, not used in Arabic:
* Above . In the
Pashto alphabet
The Pashto alphabet () is a version of Perso-Arabic script used to write the Pashto language.
Form
Pashto is written in the Arabic Naskh. Pashto uses all 28 letters of the Arabic alphabet, and shares 3 letters (, , and ) with Persian in the ...
, not used in Arabic:
* Above . In the
Khowar alphabet
The Khowar alphabet is the right-to-left alphabet used for the Khowar language. It is a modification of the Urdu alphabet, which is itself a derivative of the Persian alphabet and Arabic alphabet and uses the calligraphic Nastaʿlīq script.
...
, not used in Arabic:
Arabic "seat" rules
The rules for writing hamza differ somewhat between languages even if the writing is based on the
Arabic abjad. The following addresses Arabic specifically.
Summary
* Initial hamza is always placed over (أ for or ) or under (إ for ) an alif.
* Medial hamza will have a seat or be written alone:
** Surrounding vowels determine the seat of the hamza with preceding long vowels and diphthongs (such as or ) being ignored.
** ' (ئ) over ' (ؤ) over ' (أ) if there are two conflicting vowels that count; on the line (ء) if there are none.
** As a special case, ' and ' require hamza on the line, instead of over an alif as one would expect. (See III.1b below.)
* Final hamza will have a seat or be written alone:
** Alone on the line when preceded by a long vowel or final consonant.
** Has a seat matching the final short vowel for words ending in a short vowel.
* ''Two adjacent alifs are never allowed.'' If the rules call for this, replace the combination by a single
alif maddah.
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 wāws or yāʾs.
*Hamza can be written in five ways: on its own ("on the line"), under an alif, or over an alif, wāw, or yāʾ, called the "seat" of the hamza. When written over yāʾ, the dots that would normally be written underneath are omitted.
*When according to the rules below, a hamza with an alif seat would occur before an alif which represents the vowel ''ā'', a single alif is instead written with the maddah 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 ' is written as alif +
nunation
Nunation ( ar, تَنوِين, ' ), in some Semitic languages such as Literary Arabic, is the addition of one of three vowel diacritics (''ḥarakāt'') to a noun or adjective.
This is used to indicate the word ends in an alveolar nasal without ...
, counts, and the hamza is considered medial.)
I. If the hamza is initial:
*If the following letter is a short vowel, ' (a) (as in
') or ' (u) (as in
'), the hamza is written over a place-holding alif; ' (i) (as in
') the hamza is written under a place-holding alif and is called "hamza on a wall."
*If the letter following the hamza is an alif itself: (as in
') alif maddah will occur.
II. If the hamza is final:
*If a short vowel precedes, the hamza is written over the letter (' or ') corresponding to the short vowel.
*Otherwise, the hamza is written on the line (as in
' "thing").
III. If the hamza is medial:
*If a long vowel or diphthong precedes, the seat of the hamza is determined mostly by what follows:
:*If ' or ' follows, the hamza is written over ' or , accordingly.
:*Otherwise, the hamza would be written on the line. If a ' precedes, however, that would conflict with the stroke joining the ' to the following letter, so the hamza is written over ''.'' (as in
)
*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 (' or ').
:*If there are two conflicting vowels, ' takes precedence over ', ' over ' so ' 'hundred' is written
, with hamza over the ''.''
:*''Alif-maddah'' occurs if appropriate.
Not surprisingly, the complexity of the rules causes some disagreement.
*Barron's ''201 Arabic Verbs'' follows the rules exactly (but the sequence ' 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 '. The motivation appears to be to avoid two 's in a row. Generally, the choice is between the form following the rules here or an alternative form using hamza over yāʾ in all cases. Example forms are ''masʾūl'' (
,
dj: responsible, in charge, accountable oun: official, functionary, ''yajīʾūna'' (
, verb: ''jāʾa''
"to come"), ''yashāʾūna'' (
, verb: ''shāʾa''
"to will, to want, to intend, to wish"). Exceptions:
:*In the sequence ' (', verb: ''sā'a''
"to act badly, be bad") the alternatives are hamza on the line
, or hamza over '
, when the rules here would call for hamza over '. Perhaps, the resulting sequence of three wāws would be especially repugnant.
:*In the sequence ' (
, verb: ''qaraʾa''
"to read, to recite, to review/ study") the alternative form has hamza over alif, not ''.''
:*The forms ''yabṭuʾūna'' (
, verb: ''baṭuʾa''
"to be or become slow, late or backward, "to come late", "to move slowly") and ''yaʾūbu'' (
, verb:
"move to the back", "to return to come back", "to repent") have no alternative form. (Note ' with the same sequence of vowels.)
*Haywood and Nahmad's ''A new Arabic Grammar of the Written Language'' does not 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 with the entire sequence ' written as a single hamza over ' instead of as two letters.
* ''Al-Kitāb fī Taʿallum...'' presents paradigms with hamza written the same way throughout, regardless of the rules above. Thus ' with hamza only over alif, ' with hamza only over '','' ' with hamza only over alif, but that is not allowed in any of the previous three books. (It appears to be an overgeneralization on the part of the ''al-Kitāb'' writers.)
Overview tables
The letter (''ṭ'') stands here for any consonant.
:Note: The table shows only potential combinations and their graphic representations according to the spelling rules; not every possible combination exists in Arabic.
''Colours'':
''Notes'':
Hamza in other Arabic-script alphabets
Jawi alphabet
In the
Jawi alphabet
Jawi (; ace, Jawoë; Kelantan-Pattani: ''Yawi''; ) is a writing system used for writing several languages of Southeast Asia, such as Acehnese, Banjarese, Kerinci, Maguindanaon, Malay, Minangkabau, Tausūg, and Ternate. Jawi is based ...
(Arabic script used to write
Malay), hamza is used for various purposes, but is rarely used to denote a glottal stop except in certain Arabic loanwords. The default isolated hamza form ( ms, hamzah setara) is the second least common form of hamza,
whereas another form unique to the Jawi script, the three-quarter high hamza (
Malay: hamzah tiga suku) is most commonly used in daily Jawi writing. The three-quarter high hamza itself is used in many cases:
* Separating vowel letters of a diphthongsuch as ''ai'', ''au'', and ''oi'' when present in certain positions within words
* Preceding certain suffixes such as (''-an'') and (''-i'')
* To write non-Malay single-syllable words (most commonly names) that starts with a vowel other than ''alif''
* Glottal stops for archaic words (specifically titles and names which have a fixed spelling)
* In some instances Arabic loanwords which change their original spelling may change the hamza to the three-quarter high hamza instead
This form, however, has yet to be added to the
Unicode Standard
Unicode, formally The Unicode Standard,The formal version reference is is an information technology standard for the consistent encoding, representation, and handling of text expressed in most of the world's writing systems. The standard, whic ...
as it is in the process of being proposed to the
Unicode Consortium
The Unicode Consortium (legally Unicode, Inc.) is a 501(c)(3) non-profit organization incorporated and based in Mountain View, California. Its primary purpose is to maintain and publish the Unicode Standard which was developed with the intentio ...
. Currently, the only way of writing this form is by using a normal hamza and altering its vertical position.
Hamza above alif is used for prefixed words using the prefixes , , or , where its root word starts with a vowel (such as (), becomes ()). This form as well as hamza below alif are both also in Arabic loanwords where the original spelling has been retained.
The hamza above ya is known as a "housed hamzah" ( ms, hamzah berumah), and is most commonly used in Arabic loanwords. It is also used for words which repeat or combine "''i''" and "''é''" vowels like ( meaning "taunt") and for denoting a glottal stop in the middle of a word after a consonant such as (subeditor). More commonly, however, it is used for denoting a schwa after the vowels "''i''", "''é''", "''o''", and "''u''" such as (chandelier).
Hamza above waw is completely removed from the Jawi alphabet, and for Arabic loanwords using the letter, it is replaced with a normal waw followed by a three-quarter high hamza instead.
Urdu (Shahmukhi) alphabet
In the
alphabet, hamza does not occur at the initial position over alif since alif is not used as a glottal stop in Urdu. In the middle position, if hamza is surrounded by vowels, it indicates a
diphthong between the two vowels. In the middle position, if hamza is surrounded by only one vowel, it takes the sound of that vowel. In the final position hamza is silent or produces a glottal sound, as in Arabic.
In Urdu, hamza usually represents a diphthong between two vowels. It rarely acts like the Arabic hamza except in a few loanwords from Arabic.
Hamza is also added at the last letter of the first word of
ezāfe
Ezāfe ( fa, اضافه, lit=extra), also romanized as ''ezâfe'', ''izafet'', ''izafe'', ''izafat'', ''izāfa'', ''ezafe'', and ''izofa'' ( tg, изофа, izofa), is a grammatical particle found in some Iranian languages, as well as Persian-i ...
compound to represent -e- if the first word ends with
yeh or with
he or over
bari yeh if it is added at the end of the first word of the ezāfe compound.
Hamza is always written on the line in the middle position unless in
waw
Waw or WAW may refer to:
* Waw (letter), a letter in many Semitic abjads
* Waw, the velomobile
* Another spelling for the town Wau, South Sudan
* Waw Township, Burma
*Warsaw Chopin Airport, an international airport serving Warsaw, Poland (IATA ai ...
if that letter is preceded by a non-joiner letter; then, it is seated above waw. Hamza is also seated when written above bari yeh. In the final form, Hamza is written in its full form. In ezāfe, hamza is seated above he, yeh or bari yeh of the first word to represent the -e- of ezāfe compound.
Uyghur alphabet
In the
Uyghur Arabic alphabet, the hamza is not a distinct letter and is not generally used to denote the glottal stop, but rather to indicate vowels. The hamza is only depicted with vowels in their initial or isolated forms, and only then when the vowel starts a word. It is also occasionally used when a word has two vowels in a row.
Latin representations
There are different ways to represent hamza in Latin transliteration:
* In the
International Phonetic Alphabet
The International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA) is an alphabetic system of phonetic notation based primarily on the Latin script. It was devised by the International Phonetic Association in the late 19th century as a standardized representation ...
(IPA), the sound of the
glottal stop is represented by the letter
ʔ, resembling a dotless question mark.
* There is a tradition of using
, the simple apostrophe; and a
grave accent ‹
› represents `ayn ().
* Some
standard transliterations, such as
DIN 31635 DIN 31635 is a Deutsches Institut für Normung (DIN) standard for the transliteration of the Arabic alphabet adopted in 1982. It is based on the rules of the Deutsche Morgenländische Gesellschaft (DMG) as modified by the International Orientalist ...
, transliterate it with a
modifier letter right half ring
The modifier letter right half ring () is a character of the Unicode Spacing Modifier Letters range, used to transliterate:
* the letter aleph
* the Arabic letter hamza
See also
* Modifier letter left half ring
* Half ring
* Apostrophe
* Glottal ...
ʾ and others such as
ALA-LC
ALA-LC (American Library AssociationLibrary of Congress) is a set of standards for romanization, the representation of text in other writing systems using the Latin script.
Applications
The system is used to represent bibliographic information by ...
with the
modifier letter apostrophe
The modifier letter apostrophe is a letter in Unicode encoding, used primarily for various glottal sounds.
Encoding
The letter apostrophe is encoded at , which is in the ''Spacing Modifier Letters'' Unicode block.
In Unicode code charts it loo ...
ʼ and sometimes substituted with the Right Single Quotation Mark
’.
* Different unstandardized symbols exist such as ''
2'' in
Arabic chat alphabet.
See also
*
ʼ and
ʾ
*
ʻOkina
*
Aleph
*
Arabic alphabet
*
Arabic phonology
*
Dagger alif
The dagger alif or superscript alif ( ar, ألف خنجرية ) is written as a short vertical stroke on top of an Arabic letter. It indicates a long sound where alif is normally not written, e.g. or . The dagger alif occurs in only a few ...
*
Glottal stop (letter)
The character , called glottal stop, is an alphabetic letter in some Latin alphabets, most notably in several languages of Canada where it indicates a glottal stop sound. Such usage derives from phonetic transcription, for example the Inter ...
*
Hamza (name)
*
Harakat
The Arabic script has numerous diacritics, which include: consonant pointing known as (), and supplementary diacritics known as (). The latter include the vowel marks termed (; singular: , ').
The Arabic script is a modified abjad, where s ...
*
Help:IPA/Arabic
*
Romanization of Arabic
The romanization of Arabic is the systematic rendering of written and spoken Arabic in the Latin script. Romanized Arabic is used for various purposes, among them transcription of names and titles, cataloging Arabic language works, language e ...
*
Varieties of Arabic
The varieties (or dialects or vernacular languages) of Arabic, a Semitic language within the Afroasiatic family originating in the Arabian Peninsula, are the linguistic systems that Arabic speakers speak natively. There are considerable variati ...
References
External links
*
Interactive lesson for learning hamza
{{Arabic language
Arabic letters
Arabic diacritics
Spelling
Graphemes