Hamza


The hamza is an Arabic script character that, in the Arabic alphabet, denotes a glottal stop and, in non-Arabic languages, indicates a diphthong, vowel, or other features, depending on the language. Derived from the letter ʿayn, the hamza is written in initial, medial, and final positions as an unlinked letter or placed above or under a carrier character. Despite its common usage as a letter in Modern Standard Arabic, it is generally not considered to be one of its letters, although some argue that it should be considered so.
The hamza is often romanized as a typewriter apostrophe, a modifier letter apostrophe, a modifier letter right half ring, or as the International Phonetic Alphabet symbol. In Arabizi, it is either written as "2" or not written at all.
In the Phoenician, Hebrew and Aramaic alphabets, from which the Arabic alphabet is descended, the glottal stop was expressed by aleph, continued by alif in the Arabic alphabet. However, alif was used to express both a glottal stop and a long vowel. In order to indicate that a glottal stop is used and not a mere vowel, it was added to alif diacritically. Just as Greek vowels were used as diacritical marks to indicate vowel sounds in Western Syriac, the hamza was used as a diacritical mark in Arabic to indicate the original Aleph glottal stop. In modern Arabic orthography, hamza may also appear on the line under certain circumstances as though it were a full letter, independent of an alif.

Etymology

Hamza is derived from the verb meaning 'to prick, goad, drive' or 'to provide with hamzah'.

Hamzat al-waṣl ()

The hamza on its own is ', otherwise referred to as ', that is, a phonemic glottal stop unlike the ', a non-phonemic glottal stop produced automatically only if at the beginning of an utterance, otherwise assimilated. Although the ' can be written as an alif carrying a ' sign ٱ, it is normally indicated by a plain alif without a hamza.
ٱ occurs in:
  • the definite article '
  • some short words with two of their three-consonant roots apparent: ism اسْم, ibn ابْن, imru امْرُؤ, ithnāni اثْنَانِ
  • the imperative verbs of forms I and VII to X
  • the perfective aspect of verb forms VII to X and their verbal nouns
  • some borrowed words that start with consonant clusters such as '
It is not pronounced following a vowel. This event occurs in the definite article, or at the beginning of a noun following a preposition, or a verb following a relative pronoun. If the definite article al- is followed by a sun letter, -l- also gives way for the next letter for lām'' is assimilated.

Orthography

The hamza can be written either alone, as if it were a letter, or with a carrier, when it becomes a diacritic:
  • Low hamza :













Position in word:
Isolated
Final
Medial
Initial
Glyph form:

ء
ء
ء



  • By itself:

  • High Hamza, after any Arabic letter :













Position in word:
Isolated
Final
Medial
Initial
Glyph form:

ٴ
ٴ
ٴ



  • Three-Quarter High Hamza :













Position in word:
Isolated
Final
Medial
Initial
Glyph form:

ء
ء
ء


This form has been proposed for the inclusion to the Unicode Standard, but the Unicode Script Ad Hoc Group stated that it can be unified with the existing. The form above currently being displayed using a standard Arabic Hamza with an altered vertical position.

  • Combined with a letter:

  • Above or below an :


  • Above a :


  • Above a dotless, also called . Joined medially and finally in Arabic, other languages written in Arabic-based script may have it initially as well :











Arabic "seat" rules

The rules for writing hamza differ somewhat between languages even if the writing is based on the Arabic abjad. The following addresses Arabic specifically.

Summary

  • Initial hamza is always placed over or under an alif.
  • Medial hamza will have a seat or be written alone:
  • * Surrounding vowels determine the seat of the hamza with preceding long vowels and diphthongs being ignored.
  • * ' over ' over ' if there are two conflicting vowels that count; on the line if there are none.
  • * As a special case, ' and ' require hamza on the line, instead of over an alif as one would expect.
  • Final hamza' will have a seat or be written alone:
  • * Alone on the line when preceded by a long vowel or final consonant.
  • * Has a seat matching the final short vowel for words ending in a short vowel.
  • Two adjacent alifs are never allowed.'' If the rules call for this, replace the combination by a single alif maddah.

    Detailed description

  • Logically, hamza is just like any other letter, but it may be written in different ways. It has no effect on the way other letters are written. In particular, surrounding long vowels are written just as they always are, regardless of the "seat" of the hamza—even if this results in the appearance of two consecutive wāws or yāʾs.
  • The hamza can be written in five ways: on its own, under an alif, or over an alif, wāw, or yāʾ, called the "seat" of the hamza. When written over yāʾ, the dots that would normally be written underneath are omitted.
  • When according to the rules below, a hamza with an alif seat would occur before an alif which represents the vowel ā, a single alif is instead written with the maddah symbol over it.
  • The rules for hamza depend on whether it occurs as the initial, middle, or final letter in a word.
I. If the hamza is initial:
  • If the following letter is a short vowel, ' or ' , the hamza is written over a place-holding alif; ' the hamza is written under a place-holding alif and is called "hamza on a wall."
  • If the letter following the hamza is an alif itself: alif maddah will occur.
II. If the hamza is final:
  • If a short vowel precedes, the hamza is written over the letter corresponding to the short vowel.
  • Otherwise, the hamza is written on the line.
III. If the hamza is medial:
  • If a long vowel or diphthong precedes, the seat of the hamza is determined mostly by what follows:
  • Otherwise, both preceding and following vowels have an effect on the hamza.
Not surprisingly, the complexity of the rules causes some disagreement.
  • Barron's 201 Arabic Verbs follows the rules exactly.
  • John Mace's Teach Yourself Arabic Verbs and Essential Grammar presents alternative forms in almost all cases when hamza is followed by a long '. The motivation appears to be to avoid two 's in a row. Generally, the choice is between the form following the rules here or an alternative form using hamza over yāʾ in all cases. Example forms are masʾūl, yajīʾūna, yashāʾūna. Exceptions:
  • Haywood and Nahmad's A new Arabic Grammar of the Written Language does not write the paradigms out in full, but in general agrees with John Mace's book, including the alternative forms and sometimes lists a third alternative with the entire sequence ' written as a single hamza over ' instead of as two letters.
  • Al-Kitāb fī Taʿallum... presents paradigms with hamza written the same way throughout, regardless of the rules above. Thus ' with hamza only over alif, ' with hamza only over , ' with hamza only over alif, but that is not allowed in any of the previous three books.

    Overview tables

The letter stands here for any consonant.
Colours:
Notes:

Hamza in other Arabic-script alphabets

Jawi alphabet

In the Jawi alphabet, hamza is used for various purposes, but is rarely used to denote a glottal stop except in certain Arabic loanwords. The default isolated hamza form is the second least common form of hamza, whereas another form unique to the Jawi script, the three-quarter high hamza is most commonly used in daily Jawi writing. The three-quarter high hamza itself is used in many cases:
  • Separating vowel letters of a diphthongs such as ai, au, and oi when present in certain positions within words
  • Preceding certain suffixes such as and
  • To write non-Malay single-syllable words that starts with a vowel other than alif
  • Glottal stops for archaic words
  • In some instances Arabic loanwords which change their original spelling may change the hamza to the three-quarter high hamza instead
This exact form is not available in Unicode Standard, as it is unified with, but the common way of writing this form is by using a normal hamza and altering its vertical position.
Hamza above alif is used for prefixed words using the prefixes,, or, where its root word starts with a vowel, becomes ). This form as well as hamza below alif are both also in Arabic loanwords where the original spelling has been retained.
The hamza above ya is known as a "housed hamzah", and is most commonly used in Arabic loanwords. It is also used for words which repeat or combine "i" and "é" vowels like and for denoting a glottal stop in the middle of a word after a consonant such as . More commonly, however, it is used for denoting a schwa after the vowels "i", "é", "o", and "u" such as .
Hamza above waw is completely removed from the Jawi alphabet, and for Arabic loanwords using the letter, it is replaced with a normal waw followed by a three-quarter high hamza instead.

Urdu (Shahmukhi) alphabet

In the Urdu alphabet, hamza does not occur at the initial position over alif since alif is not used as a glottal stop in Urdu. In the middle position, if hamza is surrounded by vowels, it indicates a diphthong or syllable break between the two vowels. In the middle position, if hamza is surrounded by only one vowel, it takes the sound of that vowel. In the final position hamza is silent or produces a glottal sound, as in Arabic.
In Urdu, hamza usually represents a diphthong between two vowels. It rarely acts like the Arabic hamza except in a few loanwords from Arabic.
Hamza is also added at the last letter of the first word of ezāfe compound to represent -e- if the first word ends with yeh or with he or over bari yeh if it is added at the end of the first word of the ezāfe compound.
Hamza is always written on the line in the middle position unless in waw if that letter is preceded by a non-joiner letter; then, it is seated above waw. Hamza is also seated when written above baṛi yeh. In the final form, Hamza is written in its full form. In ezāfe, hamza is seated above choṭi he, yeh or baṛi yeh of the first word to represent the -e- of ezāfe compound.

Uyghur alphabet

In the Uyghur Arabic alphabet, the hamza is not a distinct letter and is not generally used to denote the glottal stop, but rather to indicate vowels. The hamza is only depicted with vowels in their initial or isolated forms, and only then when the vowel starts a word. It is also occasionally used when a word has two vowels in a row.

Kazakh alphabet

In the Kazakh Arabic alphabet, the hamza is used only at the beginning of words, and the only form is high hamza. It is not used to denote any sound, but to indicate that the vowels in the word will be the four front vowels: , , , . However, it is not used for words containing another front vowel or words containing four consonants , , , .

Persian alphabet

In the Persian alphabet, the hamza often denotes glottal stop, and is commonly found in Arabic loanwords only. Hamza below alif ⟨إ‎⟩ is completely removed from the Persian alphabet, and in Arabic loanwords, alif maddah ⟨آ⟩ is used instead.
The hamza may be used over the letters heh or yeh for the ezāfe suffix, though a non-connecting yeh may be used instead.

Wavy hamza in Kashmiri

The Kashmiri language written in Arabic script includes the diacritic or "wavy hamza". In Kashmiri the diacritic is called āmālü mad when used above alif: ٲ to create the vowel. Kashmiri calls the wavy hamza sāȳ when below the alif: اٟ to create the sound.

Latin representations

There are different ways to represent hamza in Latin transliteration: