All about vowels in VS .NET

Creation UPC - 13 in VS .NET All about vowels

Arabic has three main vowels Luckily, they re very simple to pronounce because they re similar to English vowels However, it s important to realize that Arabic also has vowel derivatives that are as important as the main vowels These vowel derivatives fall into three categories: double vowels, long vowels, and diphthongs In this section, I walk you through all the different vowels, vowel derivatives, and vowel combinations

The three main Arabic vowels are:

fatHah: The first main vowel in Arabic is called a fatHa (feht-hah) A fatHa is the equivalent of the short a in hat or cat Occasionally, a fatHa also sounds like the short e in bet or set Much like the other vowels, the way you pronounce a fatHa depends on what consonants come before or after it In Arabic script, the fatHa is written as a small horizontal line above a consonant In English transcription, which I use in this book, it s simply represented by the letter a, as in the words kalb (kah-leb; dog) or walad (wah-lahd; boy) damma: The second main Arabic vowel is the damma (dah-mah) A damma sounds like the uh in foot or book In Arabic script, it s written like a tiny backward e above a particular consonant In English transcription, it s represented by the letter u, as in funduq (foon-dook; hotel) or suHub (soo-hoob; clouds) kasra: The third main vowel in Arabic is the kasra (kahs-rah), which sounds like the long e in feet or treat The kasra is written the same way as a fatHa as a small horizontal line except that it goes underneath the consonant In English transcription, it s written as an i, as in bint (bee-neht; girl) or islaam (ees-lahm; Islam)

One type of vowel derivative is the double vowel, which is known in Arabic as tanwiin (tahn-ween) The process of tanwiin is a fairly simple one: Basically, you take a main vowel and place the same vowel right next to it, thus creating two vowels, or a double vowel The sound that the double vowel makes depends on the main vowel that s doubled Here are all possible combinations of double vowels: Double fatHa: tanwiin with fatHa creates the an sound, as in ahlan wa sahlan (ahel-an wah sahel-an; Hi) Double damma: tanwiin with damma creates the oun sound For example, kouratoun (koorah-toon; ball) contains a double damma

Double kasra: tanwiin with kasra makes the een sound, as in SafHatin (sahf-hah-teen; page)

Long vowels are derivatives that elongate the main vowels Think of the difference between long vowels and short (main) vowels in terms of a musical beat, and you should be able to differentiate between them much more easily If a main vowel lasts for one beat, then its long vowel equivalent lasts for two beats Whereas you create double vowels by writing two main vowels next to each other, you create long vowels by adding a letter to one of the main vowels Each main vowel has a corresponding consonant that elongates it Here are a few examples to help you get your head around this long-vowel process: To create a long vowel form of a fatHa, you attach an alif to the consonant that the fatHa is associated with In English transcription, the long fatHa form is written as aa, such as in kitaab (kee-taab; book) or baab (bahb; door) The aa means that you hold the vowel sound for two beats as opposed to one The long vowel form of damma is obtained by attaching a waaw to the consonant with the damma This addition elongates the vowel uh into a more pronounced uu, such as in nuur (noohr; light) or ghuul (ghoohl; ghost) Make sure you hold the uu vowel for two beats and not one To create a long vowel form of a kasra, you attach a yaa to the consonant with the kasra Just as the alif elongates the fatHa and the waaw elongates the damma, the yaa elongates the kasra Some examples include the ii in words like kabiir (kah-beer; big) and Saghiir (sah-gheer; small) The Arabic characters for the long vowels are shown in Table 1-2