Today we’re continuing our discovery of the letters of the alphabet, with six letters that have one thing in common: unlike the others, they never join up on the left (so, if you follow the direction of the Arabic script, never with the letter that follows)! This is why they are called orphan letters.
As luck would have it, you’ll only have to learn one shape and add a little ligature on the right. A very quick lesson, but some very useful letters that will enable us to make a lot more words (and therefore extend the lesson).
As in the previous lesson, we’re going to find letters that differ only by the dots: you should always learn them in pairs, to remember the difference in pronunciation.
Letter ا ( Alif )
ا is the first letter of the alphabet. It is one of the three Arabic vowels, and its basic sound is an elongated ‘A’.
As well as never attaching itself on the left, it has a few peculiarities, which we’ll come back to in detail ‘later, but for now you just need to remember them:
- when it stands alone or at the beginning of a word, it is written with a small sign above it, which is like this for an ‘a’ sound أ
- or, for an ‘i’ sound, the hamza goes underneath إ
ر ( Râ ) : the rolled R sound
It’s an r sound reminiscent of Spanish, and one that the English people often struggle to do correctly – unless they come from Scotland! So you practise little by little. Fortunately, in Arabic, the is not pronounced very loudly.
The ر does not attach on the left, like the ا.
ز ( Zâ ) : normal Z sound
The Arabic language has several letters that are pronounced like Z and are VERY difficult for us, so make the most of this one: with its little dot, it’s the basic z, from Zoo and Zebu.
And exactly like the ر , the ز doesn’t attach on the left.
Letter د ( Dal )
A pretty little letter in the shape of a nose, that’s dal (the D sound). It’s very easy to write.
When you write it, be careful to tilt it a little, and to raise it slightly, very slightly. It’s better not to raise it at all, than to raise it too much: otherwise you risk confusing it with one of the ‘square’ letters from the previous lesson.
Letter ذ ( Thal )
(In the previous lesson, we learnt ث which is the wet th, from thing… this thing: ذ then ث ).
The dot is put at the beginning of the letter, just above the rising line (not in the middle, as if it were an N ن ).
And the last, the letter و ( Waw )
The second vowel in the Arabic alphabet is the ‘Ou[a]’ sound, often transcribed as ‘W’.
Words using these new letters
The door : باب
We take the letter ب from yesterday’s lesson, and add a ا in the middle. This gives باب , the door.
بيت or دار
Two synonymous words, both meaning ‘house’. The first is pronounced ‘Baÿt’, and is used to refer to one’s home. The second, ‘Dar’, also refers to an establishment, a rest home or a building. The three letters are clearly isolated, since none of them links up with the next!
A city: ورزازات
It’s the city where I spent my first years in Morocco. It’s very famous for its films, and if you’re a Game Of Throne fan like me, some of the scenes with Daenerys were filmed there.
It’s a ‘real’ word, with lots of letters, which may look impressive, but in reality it’s easy to decipher.
The first two letters are ور , and are pronounced ouar (there normally, you’ve guessed, haven’t you?).
Then there’s a ز followed by a ا : za , and twice in a row, so zaza
… the final letter is ت , ‘tt’ … and there you have it, Ouarzazate. Another word without any ligature!
The Minister: وزير
The four letters form a word that we know well in English, just pronounced a little differently!
We start almost like Ouarzazate, but with a small dot, so it’s Ouaz وز
Then there’s the ي we saw in the previous lesson, which is a long i.
And we finish with Ra, which is linked to Yâ: ير .
Wazir, in English we transformed into ‘vizier’, the minister.
Incidentally, the story of the great وزير Iznogoud was partly filmed in ورزازات !
Cold: بارد
Four letters, to say ‘Bard (or berd)’ = the cold. The ا is linked to the ب , and the ر and د are unligated.
Brother of the daughter : إبت the son
Yesterday (well, in the previous lesson), we made our first word, بنت , which means daughter.
For son, it’s almost the same letters, we’re talking about the same root, but we start with a إ , which this time is pronounced ‘i’ (the little sign, the hamza, is underneath). We pick up the next two letters, ب and ن , and stop there (This the mark of the feminine, very often).
It’s pronounced ‘Ibn’, or more loosely ‘Ben’ …. and it’s a word you’ve heard so often in surnames, isn’t it?
Bonus word: وادي
The good thing about the signs in Morocco is that they’re bilingual, which really helps you learn to read. (Actually trilingual (Arabic, Amazigh and “French”, but this photo was taken before)
Here’s another word we know all the letters of, but which isn’t pronounced exactly the same in Arabic and French.
You probably recognise the final ya. Waw, Alif, Dal, Ya… ‘Wadi’, which has been Francized into Oued, meaning “River”. Oued is largely used in Morocco, in daily language. (No ligatured letters yet!!)
And there you have it: in two days, you’ve already learnt eleven letters, and with those eleven letters, we’ve formed nine words.
Did you expect it to be as quick as that?
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