Your path to mastering the Arabic language (Part 2)

Students will know that The harakaat are short vowels in Arabic and they are small marks written on top of consonants.

Most of the time, the short vowels are not written on each word because the pronunciation of the word is understood from the context and also because it is time consuming to write them on each word. But I suggest that you learn how to read with them until you reach a level where you’re comfortable without them.

The sukūn ⟨سُكُونْ⟩ is a circle-shaped diacritic placed above a letter ( ْ). It indicates that the consonant to which it is attached is not followed by a vowel, i.e., zero-vowel.

It is a necessary symbol for writing consonant-vowel-consonant syllables, which are very common in Arabic. For example: ⟨دَدْ⟩ (dad).

The sukūn may also be used to help represent a diphthong. A fatḥah followed by the letter ⟨ﻱ⟩ (yā’) with a sukūn over it (ـَيْ‎) indicates the diphthong ay (IPA /aj/). A fatḥah, followed by the letter ⟨ﻭ⟩ (wāw) with a sukūn, (ـَوْ‎) indicates /aw/.

The sukūn may have also an alternative form of the small high head of hāʾ (U+06E1 ۡ ), particularly in some Qurans. Other shapes may exist as well (for example, like a small comma above ⟨ʼ⟩ or like a circumflex ⟨ˆ⟩ in nastaʿlīq)

The Shaddah (It is form we put it above the letter like this (بّ)

The shadda or shaddah ⟨شَدَّة⟩ (shaddah), or tashdid ⟨تَشْدِيد⟩ (tashdīd), is a diacritic shaped like a small written Latin "w".

It is used to indicate gemination (consonant doubling or extra length), which is phonemic in Arabic. It is written above the consonant which is to be doubled. It is the only ḥarakah that is commonly used in ordinary spelling to avoid ambiguity. For example: ⟨دّ⟩ /dd/; madrasah ⟨مَدْرَسَة⟩ ('school') vs. mudarrisah ⟨مُدَرِّسَة⟩ ('teacher', female).

The three vowel diacritics may be doubled at the end of a word to indicate that the vowel is followed by the consonant n. They may or may not be considered ḥarakāt and are known as tanwīn ⟨تَنْوِين⟩, or nunation. The signs indicate, from right to left, -un, -in, -an.

These endings are used as non-pausal grammatical indefinite case endings in Literary Arabic or classical Arabic (triptotes only). In a vocalised text, they may be written even if they are not pronounced (see pausa). See i‘rāb for more details. In many spoken Arabic dialects, the endings are absent. Many Arabic textbooks introduce standard Arabic without these endings. The grammatical endings may not be written in some vocalized Arabic texts, as knowledge of i‘rāb varies from country to country, and there is a trend towards simplifying Arabic grammar.

The sign ⟨ـً⟩ is most commonly written in combination with ⟨ـًا⟩ (alif), ⟨ةً⟩ (tā’ marbūṭah), ⟨أً⟩ (alif hamzah) or stand-alone ⟨ءً⟩ (hamzah). Alif should always be written (except for words ending in tā’ marbūṭah, hamzah or diptotes) even if an is not. Grammatical cases and tanwīn endings in indefinite triptote forms.