he Arabic Alphabet contains 28 letters whose forms

and values are as follows:

Alif

Bay

Tay

Thay.

Jim

| Hhay.

2 Khay

3 Dal

4 Thal

Ray

Zay

is commonly added, but this is merely a combination of Jand and cannot properly be reckoned as an independent letter.

The office of short vowels in Arabic is discharged by 3 accents, fethah, kesrah, and dammah.

Arabic is read and written from right to left.

is equivalent to a long, but if I be accented with kesrah or dammah it assumes the sound of short i or u,

as Idrib, outee, the I serving as a slight

breathing.

=au, as, yaum.

.lail دلیل ai, as =

At the end of nouns, and to distinguish their cases, the accents fethah, kesrah, and dammah are doubled,

This accentuation is called the nun et tanwin, and the nunnation in oun 5, in an, and in in indicates the nominative, accusative and genitive cases respectively, as

N. J Rajoutoun, Acc. Rajoulan, Gen. Ja,

Rajoulin.

NOTE.—The - is followed by, except when it is placed over or the orthographic sign hamzah

8

(see

below), or when it precedes mute; thus we write, as

above,

in the Accusative, but is caldo Words of this last class do not admit a distinction of nunnation in the different cases.

Alif serves sometimes as a mere breathing, sometimes as a slight guttural, and is occasionally mute, as in the 3rd pl. masc. of the Past Tense; but when preceded by