Harakat: Fatha, Kasra, Damma, Sukun, Shadda, Tanwin

What are harakat in Arabic?

Harakat are the small marks written above or below Arabic letters to show the short vowels: fatha for a, kasra for i and damma for u. With them come sukun, which marks no vowel, shadda, which doubles a consonant, and tanwin, three endings that add an n sound. Together the marks are called tashkil. Ordinary print leaves most of them out.

What harakat are, and what tashkil is

The Arabic alphabet has 28 letters, and all of them are consonants or long vowels. The short vowels have no letters. They are written as small marks on the consonant that comes before them, and those marks are the harakat, a word that means “movements”: a vowel moves you from one consonant to the next.

Tashkil, “forming”, is the wider word. It covers the three vowel marks and everything else written around the letters to fix the pronunciation: sukun, shadda and tanwin. The dots that tell ب from ت are a different thing. They are part of the letter and are never left out.

The shapes are small letters. Damma is a tiny و, the letter of the long u. Fatha and kasra are short strokes, and shadda is the top of the letter ش. The system is credited to the grammarian al-Khalil ibn Ahmad, in the eighth century.

The three short vowels: fatha, kasra, damma

Fatha is a short stroke above the letter and sounds like a short a. Kasra is the same stroke below the letter and sounds like a short i. Damma is a small loop above the letter and sounds like a short u. On the letter ب they give ba, bi and bu.

One three-letter skeleton shows why they matter. The letters ك ت ب can be read kataba, “he wrote”, kutiba, “it was written”, or kutub, “books”. The consonants are identical. Only the marks, or the reader’s knowledge, tell them apart.

Sukun: the letter with no vowel

Sukun is a small circle above a letter. It means that no vowel follows, so the letter closes the syllable. In مَكْتَب the circle on ك tells you to say mak-tab, not ma-ka-tab.

When you stop at the end of a sentence, Arabic reads the last letter as if it had a sukun. That is why kitābun, “a book”, is said kitāb when it is the last word or stands alone.

Shadda: say the consonant twice

Shadda looks like a small w above the letter. It means the consonant is doubled: you hold it for a moment before the vowel. For a doubled consonant inside a word, Arabic does not write the letter twice. It writes one letter and a shadda.

The vowel of a doubled letter is written on the shadda. Fatha and damma sit above it. Kasra sits under the shadda, or under the letter.

Doubling changes meaning. دَرَسَ, darasa, is “he studied”. دَرَّسَ, darrasa, is “he taught”.

Tanwin: the n that is not written as a letter

Tanwin is a doubled vowel mark at the end of a noun or an adjective. It adds an n sound to the vowel: two fathas give -an, two kasras give -in, two dammas give -un. The n is heard but never written as the letter ن.

It usually marks an indefinite word. كِتَابٌ, kitābun, is “a book”; with the article, الْكِتَابُ, the tanwin disappears. The three forms are the three grammatical cases, which is why the same word can end in -un, -an or -in.

The -an form is written with an extra alif after the letter that carries the two fathas: كِتَابًا. Words that end in ة do not take that alif. It is the reason so many Arabic adverbs end in alif: شُكْرًا, thank you; جِدًّا, very.

Long vowels, and two marks beginners ask about

A long vowel is a short vowel followed by the matching letter: fatha and ا give ā, as in بَاب, door; kasra and ي give ī, as in كَبِير, big; damma and و give ū, as in نُور, light. A fatha before و or ي with a sukun gives the two diphthongs: يَوْم, yawm, day, and بَيْت, bayt, house.

Madda is a wavy line over an alif: آ. It stands for a hamza followed by a long ā. The dagger alif is a small upright stroke above a letter. It writes a long ā in a few very common words whose spelling has no alif, such as هٰذَا, this.

Where you will see the marks, and where you will not

The Qurʼan is printed with every mark. So are children’s books, school readers, poetry and most material written for learners. Dictionaries mark each headword.

Newspapers, novels, websites and messages leave the marks out. A writer adds one only where a word could be misread. Adult readers supply the vowels from the word’s pattern and from the grammar of the sentence, as English readers know that “read” has two pronunciations.

So the marks are a support that you learn to lean on less. Read fully marked text first, then text with only the marks that prevent a misreading, then plain text.

Eight words that carry every mark

Read each one aloud. Between them they use every mark in this guide.

1. Three fathas: كَتَبَ — he wrote
2. Kasra and sukun: بِنْتٌ — a girl
3. Damma twice, then tanwin: كُتُبٌ — books
4. Shadda with kasra: مُعَلِّمٌ — a teacher
5. Tanwin with an alif: كِتَابًا — a book (as an object)
6. Long ū: نُورٌ — light
7. Madda: الْآنَ — now
8. Dagger alif: هٰذَا — this

What is the difference between harakat and tashkil?

Harakat are the three short vowel marks: fatha, kasra and damma. Tashkil is the whole set of pronunciation marks, which adds sukun, shadda and tanwin. In everyday use the two words are often treated as the same.

What does the small circle above an Arabic letter mean?

It is a sukun. It means the letter has no vowel after it and closes the syllable.

Is tanwin a letter?

No. Tanwin is a doubled vowel mark that is pronounced as a vowel and an n. The n is never written with the letter ن.

Why do Arabic newspapers have no vowel marks?

Because a fluent reader does not need them. The pattern of the word and the grammar of the sentence give the short vowels. Print adds a mark only where a word could be misread.

Do I have to learn the harakat if adults read without them?

Yes. They are how you learn what each word sounds like in the first place. Later you read without them because you already know the word.

Is shadda a vowel?

No. Shadda doubles a consonant. The doubled consonant still has its own vowel, which is written on the shadda.

Sources

• Wikipedia, Arabic diacritics (the marks, their names and their history)
• Wikipedia, Al-Khalil ibn Ahmad al-Farahidi (the grammarian credited with the current vowel marks)
• Wikipedia, Nunation (tanwin and what it marks)

About Fasaha

Fasaha is a reading-first Arabic app for Fusha. Its Reading Key course teaches the letters, their joined shapes and the vowel marks in 29 short lessons before a learner moves on to longer texts.

• Reading Key has lessons on doubled letters, on the tanwin endings and on what happens to an ending at a pause.
• A text can be read with all vowel marks, with a minimal set, or with none, so the support comes off in steps.
• Dictionary entries are fully vowelled, with audio.
• Available on iPhone, iPad, Mac and Android, with the interface in 17 languages.
• Free to start; Premium opens the full library.

Download on the App Store · Get it on Google Play

Keep reading

• Arabic writes the consonants and trusts you with the rest: You learned twenty-eight letters, opened a real page, and could not read it. That is not a gap in the alphabet you were taught. It is that ordinary Arabic writes almost none of its vowels, and nobody told you what fluent readers use instead.
• Three Arabic sentences read without vowels, step by step: Three unvowelled Arabic sentences decoded word by word, from root and pattern to case ending, plus one spelling that is three different words.
• Where Arabic words run together: the joining alif, sun and moon letters, and ة: A joining alif is said only when you start speaking. Before a sun letter, the ل of ال is silent and the letter is said double. Before an added ending, ة becomes ت.

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