Religion:Dagger alif

From HandWiki
Short description: Form of the Arabic letter alif
Alif maqṣūra with alif khanjariah above it, often used in Egypt, Sudan, Iran, and various other countries to distinguish it from the dotless yā (ی)[citation needed].
ــٰ

The dagger alif (Arabic: ألف خنجرية Script error: The function "transl" does not exist.) or superscript alif is written as a short vertical stroke on top of an Arabic letter. It indicates a long /aː/ sound where alif is normally not written, e.g. هَٰذَا Script error: The function "transl" does not exist. or رَحْمَٰن Script error: The function "transl" does not exist.. The dagger alif occurs in only a few modern words, but these include some common ones; it is seldom written, however, even in fully vocalised texts, except in the Qur'an.[1][2] As Wright notes "[alif] was at first more rarely marked than the other long vowels, and hence it happens that, at a later period, after the invention of the vowel-points, it was indicated in some very common words merely by a fatḥa [i.e. the dagger alif.]"[3] Most keyboards do not have dagger alif. The word الله (Script error: The function "transl" does not exist.) is usually produced automatically by entering "Script error: The function "transl" does not exist.". The word consists of alif + ligature of doubled Script error: The function "transl" does not exist. with a shadda and a dagger alif above Script error: The function "transl" does not exist..

With fatḥah

There are two possible ways of representing the dagger alif in modern editions of Quran. In the editions printed in the Middle East the dagger alif is written with fatḥah: الرَّحْمَٰنِ Script error: The function "transl" does not exist.. In the editions printed in South Asia (Pakistan, India and Bangladesh) the dagger alif is written without fatḥah: الرَّحْمٰنِ Script error: The function "transl" does not exist..

See also

References