English Symbols for Arabic Vowels

Symbol		English Keyword
a	asin	but
ā	as in	father, wall or acid, depending on the nature of the accompanying consonants (see Lesson 18 for details)
i	as in	sit
ī	as in	seat
u	as in	put
ū	as in	pool

The above chart gives the learner only approximate relations between the Arabic vowels and English vowels already known to him and provides the contrast between short and long vowels which is very important in Arabic. Please note that long vowels must be very long.

THE GLOTTAL STOP

The symbol ‘ (explained in lesson 13) represents a glottal stop, similar to the sound frequently made in English at the beginning of a word with an initial vowel, e.g., "absolutely", "essential", etc. At the end of symbol ā, thus ā’, it indicates a short but complete pause, e.g., ‘Inshā’allāh.

THE SPELLING OF THE WORD ‘QUR’AN’

According to the rules of transliteration, the correct spelling is ‘Qur’ān’, but standard books not using diacritical marks have adopted ‘Qur’ān’, without the macron on a, so the generally-used ‘Qur’an’, has been adopted in this book for the sake of consistency.