Sun and moon letters
In Arabic and Maltese, all consonants are classified into two distinct groups known as sun letters and moon letters.
This distinction affects the way the definite article is assimilated or pronounced before consonants: when a word begins with a sun letter, the definite article assimilates with the initial consonant of the word.
The names stem from how the definite article interacts with the nouns "Sun" and "Moon" in Arabic. In Arabic, al-shams becomes ash-shams, while al-qamar remains unchanged. Similarly, in Maltese, "the Sun" is ix-xemx, while "the Moon" is il-qamar.
Rule
When followed by a sun letter, the of the Arabic definite article assimilates to the initial consonant of the following noun, resulting in a doubled consonant. For example, "the Nile" is pronounced, not.When the Arabic definite article is followed by a moon letter, no assimilation takes place.
The sun letters represent the coronal consonants according to the phonology of Classical Arabic, and the moon letters represent all others. Note that the mnemonic اِبْغِ حَجَّكَ وَخَفْ عَقِيمَهُ groups all moon letters.
The sun and moon letters are as follows:
Jīm
The letter Gimel is pronounced differently depending on the region of the speaker. In many regions it represents a coronal consonant such as or. However, in Classical Arabic, it represented a palatalized voiced velar plosive or a voiced palatal plosive. A contemporary pronunciation as is retained in Egypt, Oman, and coastal Yemen or in eastern hinterland Yemen, and as a variant in Sudan. As a result, it was classified as a moon letter, and it does not assimilate the article in Classical Arabic. Maltese ġ is also considered a moon consonant, whereas its voiceless counterpart ċ is a sun consonant.However, in some varieties of Moroccan, Mesopotamian, and Palestinian Arabic, assimilates, like a sun letter, e.g., 'camel'.
Emphatic consonants
In Arabic dialects, like Palestinian, al before an emphatic consonant only assimilates in place of articulation but not in pharyngealization, hence instead of .Maltese
The sun and moon letters are as follows:If a word starts with any of the moon letters, the definite article il- stays the same and does not assimilate, while with the sun letters it assimilates accordingly to: iċ-, id-, in-, ir-, is-, it-, ix-, iż-, iz-. It is also worth mentioning that words starting with vowels, and the letters għ, and h get the definite article l-. When the definite article comes exactly after a word ending in a vowel, the initial
The sound function in the same way no matter it is sun or moon letter, e.g. is il-laħam in Maltese and الْلَحْمْ al-laḥm in Arabic or is il-logħba in Maltese and الْلُعْبَة al-luʿ
Orthography
In the written language, the ⟨⟩ is retained regardless of how it is pronounced. When full diacritics are used, assimilation may be expressed by putting a ⟨ ّ⟩ on the consonant after the ⟨⟩. Non-assimilation may be expressed by placing a Sukun| over the ⟨⟩.Most modern-written Arabic names do not follow the consonant assimilation rule or the shaddah when Latinized in Latin-spelled languages. Sometimes the sun and moon rules are not followed in casual speech. They are also mostly spaced rather than hyphenated.
E.g. personal name:
- - Al Rahman or El Rahman instead of Ar-Raḥmān
- - Al Jumhuriyah Al Tunisiyah instead of ''al-Jumhūrīyatu t-Tūnisīyah''