A Quick note on Transliteration Before Introducing the Alphabet

As I introduce letters and later words in Arabic, I will often transliterate them--i.e. write out how they sound using the Roman Alphabet.  However, there are a number of difficulties to overcome in this process.  First of all, 10 of the 28 consonants in Arabic don't exist in English.  They are called Emphatic or Dark consonants, that are similar to sounds we have in English but throatier and different.  I will use the term Dark because it is more visual.  When transcribing these consonants I will use a Capitalized Consonant or a pair of Consonants where the first one is capitalized and the second one is not.  This will not create confusion because there is no capitalization in Arabic, so we can use that function for this other purpose.  As for using two consonants together to represent one sound, this will only be done by using a lowercase "h" as the second consonant, which we already are familiar with in English as we do the same in English for the th, sh, and ch sounds.  In Arabic we will need to loose the ch in this set and replace it with Kh, dh, Dh, and Rh.  These will be explained on the posts dedicated to those letters.

As for vowels, they follow very strict rules in Modern Standard Arabic, unlike in English, so I will use a strict formula to denote both how a word is spelled and how it is pronounced simultaneously.  Do not memorize these now.  I will give you a dreamscape guide after the alphabet.  But just to give you a preview, the formula that I am using (where "x" denotes any consonant) is as follows:

combinations of the short and long "a(e)" vowels in Arabic
(X)a or (X)aa(x) = aw as in awesome, on, audio -> only after the 10 Capitalized "Dark" Consonant Sounds
Terminal (...x)a = u, as in under, umbrellas
(x)a(x)-(x)... = @ as in afternoon, at, Applebee's
(x)ae or (x)ae(x) = long a, as in ate, aged, eggs
(x)e = short e, as in elephant.

combinations of the short and long "u(oo)" vowels in Arabic

(X)u, (x)u, (X)uu(x), or (x)uu(x) all = u as in blue, glue, etc.

(X)u(x)-(x) = oo as in look, cook, book

combinations of the short and long "i(ee)" vowels in Arabic

(x)i or (x)ii(x) = ee as in ski, skiing, feet

(X)i or (x)i(x) = i as in it, hit, igloo

After learning the 29th, 30th, and 31st short vowels we are adding to the alphabet we will be reading to memorize these rules in a meaningful way.  

Sky