Lesson 3 – Harakaat | Arabic Diacritic Vowel Symbols

Why to learn Harakaat?

In order to speak Arabic language with correct meaning and grammar, it is necessary to learn these with correct identification and pronunciation.

What is harakat?

Diacritics are nothing both the symbols that are added to letters and have both pronunciation, meaning as well as grammatical value. In this lesson, we will be learning the first three Arabic diacritics which are similar to english vowel sounds -a,  -i, -u represented by the three symbols Damma, fatah and kasrah.

 ُ     =  Dammah  (paish, A mark somewhat like the Arabic letter و , placed on top of the letter)

 َ   =   fatah   (zabar, A semi-flat hyphen-like mark added on top of a letter)

 ِ   =   kasrah  (zer, A semi-flat hyphen-like mark added to the bottom of a letter)

How to Pronounce Mutaharrik Letters?

1. Pronounce the Harakaat in an Arabic accent without stretching or suddenly pausing the voice.
2. The Fathah is pronounced by opening the mouth and raising the voice
   Kasrah is pronounced by dropping the voice and Dammah  produced by the rounding of the lips.
3. If the letter ‘را ‘has a Fathah or Dammah on it pronounce it with a thick voice. If the letter ‘را ‘has a Kasrah [Zayr] below it, pronounce it with a thin tone.
4. If a Harakah is present on an ‘Alif’ then pronounce it as Hamzah

aa ee oo     ba bi bu     ta ti tu     tha thi thu     ja ji ju     h’a h’i hiu     Khua Khui Khuu     da di du     Ra ri Ru      za zi zu     sa si su     sha shi shu     Sua Sui Suu     Dua Dui Duu     Tua Tui Tuu     Zua Zui Zuu     a’a e’e u’o    Ghua Ghui Ghuu     fa fi fu     Qa Qi Qu    ka ki ku     la li lu     ma mi mu     na ni nu     wa wi wu     ha hi hu     aa ee oo ya yi yu

What happens if I do not learn the Symbols correctly?

For example, if you take the letter ل  /laam/, it is pronounced as /la/, with a fatHah لَ , as /li/, with a kasrah لِ , as /lu/, with a Dhammah لُ with a sukoon لْ. These changes in articulation significantly alter the meaning or the grammatical values of words. If you look at following figure, it is the same word but with 15 different variants, especially in symbolic pronunciations. To explain, let’s look at the first three words. These three words have a single meaning, i.e. flag, with three different grammatical values. At some place it acts as a object, and at some place acts as a subject which is decided by its mark.