The Arabic alphabet

28 letters, each with its name and roughly the sound it makes. The sounds are English approximations — enough to sound a word out, not enough to pass for a local.

ا Arabic · An abjad: the consonants are written and the short vowels are not.

Twenty-eight letters, written right to left and joined up — every letter changes shape depending on whether it opens, sits inside or ends a word, and six of them never join to the left. Short vowels are not written; a reader supplies them.

• ا alif long a
• ب ba b
• ت ta t
• ث tha th in thin
• ج jim j
• ح ha hard h from the throat
• خ kha ch in loch
• د dal d
• ذ dhal th in this
• ر ra rolled r
• ز zay z
• س sin s
• ش shin sh
• ص sad heavy s
• ض dad heavy d
• ط ta heavy t
• ظ za heavy th
• ع ayn a catch deep in the throat
• غ ghayn French r
• ف fa f
• ق qaf k from the back of the throat
• ك kaf k
• ل lam l
• م mim m
• ن nun n
• ه ha h
• و waw w, or long u
• ي ya y, or long i

Now read something in it

The letters are the smaller half. The 7,589 commonest Arabic words are where they start meaning something.

Arabic is also used for Persian. The letters mostly carry over; a handful do not.

Reading it is one thing.

Being understood when you say it is another. That takes a person.

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