Page:Simplified grammar of Hindustani, Persian and Arabic.pdf/17

4 The vowels are u (as in bull) and  a (pronoucned like u in but), both written above the letter; and  ī written below the letter.

Combined with a,  w, and  y, these become  aa (ā),  uw (ū),  iy (ī),  aw (pronounced as ow in cow),  ai (like i in fine).

No word can commence with a vowel in the Arabic character; if it does the vowel is introduced by alif.

When a syllable begins with a vowel, the mark hamzeh is used to introduce it.

But this hamzeh being written above the line requires a prop: this in the case of a is, in the case of u it is , and in the case of i it is , only that in the initial form this last is distinguished from the ordinary y by losing its dots: e.g. sū-ar, "a pig,"  jā-ūṅ, "I go,"  ko-ī, "any," "some,"  fā-ida, "advantage."

Tashdīd doubles the letter it is placed over.

Sukūn shows that the letter it is placed over has no vowel.

Waṣlah is only used over an initial alif in an Arabic word, or over the Arabic article al, and shows it is elided.

Maddah is placed over an initial alif and shows it should be pronounced long, as ānā, "to come."

If the first letter of an Arabic word be a sibilant or liquid