Saturday, April 30, 2011

Abjad 1: New Complete Elif Mnemonic

Welcome to the new series.  All rights reserved--these are copied images.

1) The truck of a tree looks like the number one--it is our basic icon for the number 1.

2) The first letter of the Arabic alphabet is Elif, which sounds like Elephant.

3) The Elif with Med on top looks like the Palm tree.  It only appears in the initial position.  The mud at the foot of the tree and the maid scolding the elephant for getting near the mud remind us of the word "Med."

4) The Elif with Wasl is a slight glottal stop that comes in the beginning of a word on the article "el," but only after another word in a sentence.  The Whistle icon on the tower reminds us of Wasl and the shape of the racing flag on top reminds us of both it's shape and that we have to race through with no glottal stop.

5) The Elif with Hamza can have the Hamza on either the top or bottom on the Elif.  It is the only sign that can move to the bottom, so the path at the bottom of the last tower reminds us of the shape of the Hamza.  The people singing Hymns remind us of how to pronounce the word.

6) The twin towers themselves serve as an icon that reminds us of 2001, which is the first year in our series of 9 years from 2001 to 2009 that remind us of the first 9 numbers in of Arabic Adjad Numerological values for the letters of the alphabet. 

7) The moon blocked in part by the rain cloud tells us that Elif and all these extra markers are Lunar in nature.  They do not shine through proceedings article Laams.

8) The fact that the Elephant is light gray (or any color but black) tells us that this letter is light and non-emphatic, which means vowels are not deepened in sound next to this letter.

9) Finally, the "e" in Elephant is the clue that reminds us that the primarily sound of the Elif is "e."


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