alif

Alif is the first letter of the Arabic alphabet and is written as ا in its isolated form. It is used across the Arabic script family, including Persian, Urdu, and many other languages that adopt the Arabic script. Alif is the basic vowel carrier in these systems and, unlike most Arabic letters, it does not connect to the following letter in a word. Its basic shape remains largely the same in isolated, initial, medial, and final positions.

Phonetics and uses: Alif itself is not a consonant in the usual sense. It can represent a long /aː/ sound when used as a mater lectionis, extending a preceding syllable. It can also participate in diacritic combinations to indicate distinct vowel or glottal-stop sounds. In Arabic, two specialized forms involve hamza: أ (alif with hamza above) and إ (alif with hamza below), which signal a glottal stop followed by a vowel. A third form, آ (alif with maddah), indicates a prolonged /aː/ across syllables.

Orthography and variants: The plain letter ا serves as the long vowel marker in many words, and appears in many ligatures. In languages that use the Arabic script, the same shape is adapted for their phonology; for example, Persian and Urdu commonly employ alef (the equivalent of alif) to indicate similar vowel sounds or to serve as a carrier for vowels in writing.

Origin and history: Alif traces its lineage to the Phoenician aleph, through Aramaic and Nabataean scripts, and it historically signified a glottal stop. Today it functions primarily as a vowel marker and as a consonant-bearing letter when combined with hamza in Arabic.