Damma

Damma is a diacritic mark used in the Arabic script to indicate a short sound of the vowel "u." It is one of the harakat, the diacritic signs that guide pronunciation in Arabic. The damma appears as a small rounded mark placed above a consonant, and when read aloud the consonant is followed by a short "u" vowel, as in the syllable bu on a letter such as بُ.

In ordinary Arabic writing, short vowels are typically omitted; diacritics like damma are mainly found in texts where precise pronunciation is necessary. This includes pedagogical materials for learners, dictionaries and lexical entries, and editions of the Qur’an or other religious texts where vocalization guides correct recitation.

The damma is used not only in Arabic but also in other languages that employ the Arabic-based script, such as Persian, Urdu, Kurdish, and Ottoman Turkish. In general writing these languages, short vowels are often not indicated, but damma may be added in instructional materials or in religious texts to clarify pronunciation or grammatical forms.

The term damma derives from the Arabic word ضَمّة (dammah). The diacritics were developed in early Arabic writing to aid reading, especially in contexts requiring exact pronunciation or grammatical clarity, and they remain important in teaching and in fully vocalized texts.