Sun and moon letters
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- In this article, the phonemes are transliterated according to the DIN 31635
In the Arabic language, the letters may be divided into two groups: sun letters (or solar letters) and moon letters (or lunar letters), based on whether or not they assimilate with the ﻝ (l) of a preceding article. The word for "the sun",aš-šams, assimilates, while the word for "the moon", al-qamar, does not, and it was from this circumstance that the two categories of letters were named.
When followed by a sun letter, the Arabic definite article al- is not pronounced al-. Instead, the l-sound of al- assimilates to the initial consonant of the following noun, which is doubled (geminated). For example, for "the Nile", one does not say al-Nīl, but an-Nīl. When the definite article is followed by a moon letter, the assimilation does not occur.
The 14 sun letters are: ﻥ ,ﻝ ,ﻅ ,ﻁ ,ﺽ ,ﺹ ,ﺵ ,ﺱ ,ﺯ ,ﺭ ,ﺫ ,ﺩ ,ﺙ ,ﺕ; transliterated as t, ṯ, d, ḏ, r, z, s, š, ṣ, ḍ, ṭ, ẓ, l, n.
The 14 moon letters consist of 12 of the consonants (ه ,ﻡ ,ﻙ ,ﻕ ,ﻑ ,ﻍ ,ﻉ ,ﺥ ,ﺡ ,ﺝ ,ﺏ ,ء; transliterated as ʾ, b, ǧ, ḥ, ḫ, ʿ, ġ, f, q, k, m, h) and the two semivowels (ﻭ and ﻱ; or w and y).
In the written language, the الـ (al-) is retained, and the gemination may be expressed by putting šadda on the following letter.
The solar letters all have in common that they are dental, alveolar and postalveolar consonants in the classical language, and the lunar letters are not. (ج / ǧ is pronounced postalveolar in most varieties of Arabic today, but was actually a palatalized voiced velar plosive in the classical language, and is thus considered a lunar letter.)
