fathatan

Fathatan is a term in Arabic morphosyntax for one form of the diacritic known as tanween. It denotes an indefinite noun in the accusative case and represents the nasalized ending pronounced as “an.” Fathatan is one of three tanween forms, the others being dammatan (un) and kasratan (in), which correspond to the nominative and genitive cases respectively.

In written Arabic, fathatan appears as a small diacritic on the last letter of a word, typically rendered as two short marks that resemble a fatha. In printed or fully vowelized text, it is shown as the symbol for tanween fathatan (often written as the character ً). The pronunciation is an ending “an” after the word, with an implied nasal sound coming from the nun that marks tanween.

Usage and grammar: tanween, including fathatan, marks indefiniteness of a noun. The form chosen depends on the grammatical case of the word in a sentence. For a masculine or feminine noun in the accusative indefinite, fathatan is used (for example, رَجُلًا rajulan, “a man” as a direct object). Dammatan is used for the nominative indefinite (رَجُلٌ rajulun, “a man” as the subject), and kasratan for the genitive indefinite (رَجُلٍ rajulin, “of a man” or after certain prepositions). In unvowelled text, tanween is typically not written; fathatan appears in pedagogy, dictionaries, and Qur’anic or liturgical texts.

Fathatan is thus a specific tanween form that helps indicate both indefiniteness and the accusative case in classical and modern Arabic grammar. See also tanween and Arabic diacritics.