Arabic can be a very hard language to learn, and the Arabic script can also be insanely
hard to use, that's why I'm here to teach you how to read/write Arabic, well at least
the basics.
[Intro] First, for those of you who don't know, the
Arabic script is written right-to-left, and is an abjad, which means that there are a
lot of symbols for consonants, but little-to-no vowels.
Well, there are plenty of vowels, but they're completely optional, and some consonants,
like waw and yodh can be used as the "w" and "y" sounds, and the "u" and "i" sounds, respectively.
In order to learn the 28 letters of the Arabic abjad, you need to remember the isolated form,
as well as what it looks like when it's the first letter of a word, the middle and the
last, essentially conjugating the letters.
Here's a list of the letters in the hijā'ī order.
If you want to see them in more detail, pause the video.
Alif Baa
Taa Thaa
Jim Haa (a hard H)
Khaa Dal
Dhal (between D and TH) Raa
Zayn, zay or zaa Sin
Shin Saad
Daad Taa
Zaa 'Ayn (actually a glottal stop)
Ghayn Faa
Qaaf (makes a sound similar to a K, but in the back of the throat)
Kaaf Laam
Mim Nun
Hā' Waw
Yodh, or yaa
There are also a few rarely used letters, such as the alif maqsurah, which looks like
a yodh, but is pronounced the same way as an alif.
There are also some letters that are modified to fit the phonologies of other languages
spoken in south and central asia, as most of those languages are either Indo-European
or Turkic, and not Afro-Asiatic like Arabic.
The letters include this V sound, and this V sound used in Tunisia, this P sound used
in south Asia, mainly Persia and Pakistan, and in languages like Pashto.
There's also this weird letter which mostly makes a CH sound, but also a ZH sound in Egypt
(with the Jim making a G sound), while THIS letter makes the G sound on road signs in
Israel.
There's also this G sounding Qaaf variant used in Tunisia and sometimes Algeria, this
G sound in Morocco, and this CH sound also used in Morocco.
While we're at it, many south Asian languages like Pashto use this ZH sounding letter.
It's a bit of a mess.
It's almost like how Polish letters use weird accent marks basically no other languages
use.
Some cultures make the independent Kaaf to look this this…, presumably because it makes
more sense considering what it usually looks like when in words.
There's also the letter Gaf, which can have a line in Farsi, or a dot in Malay.
Despite being an abjad, Arabic does have vowels, like the hamzah, usually used with the alif,
when used above, it can make an A or U sound, while below, it makes an I sound, and when
independent of any letters, it makes a glottal stop, hence how similar it looks to the 'ayn.
In the abjad, letters often go together in weird ways, like the lam followed by the alif.
At the beginning of a word, it looks like this… and like this… at the middle or
end of a word.
Before I end this video, it's also important to mention that any letter following an alif,
dal, dhal, raa, zayn or waw looks exactly the way it does at the beginning of a word.
Well, I hope this at least helped you understand the basics of the Arabic abjad, and I'll see
you on Wednesday.
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