Harakat commonly refers to the diacritic marks used in Arabic to represent vowel sounds. Since Arabic is an abjad, the vowels are often left out, and the default vowel sounds attached to each letter-("consonant") bear the most use in combining letters to form words. Unlike a syllabulary, though as in Japanese kana, the letters in the abjad are not

For vowel sounds, the first letter "aleph" is used for the strong "A" sound as in "car"

  • A / called a fatha, when abovea letter, represents a harder "A" sound, such as in "cat."
  • The same / below a letter is called a kasra and makes an "ih" sound as in "big."
    • The same kasra, but with two dots to its left, makes an "ee" sound as in "beet."
  • A damma (a loop like a small letter "waw" ) is placed above a letter to represent an "uh" sound as in "sugar."
    • A damma above a letter "waw" is used to represent an "oo" sound, as in "noon" -- though the damma may not be directly over the "waw."
  • A sukuun is a circle above a letter to make an "ah" sound as in "far."
  • A sukuun with two dots below the letter represents an "ai" sound, as in "pyro."
  • A letter "ya" at the end of the word, with a dotted-kasra beneath it makes an "ee" ending.
  • A tiny hamza must accompany a vowel at the beginning of a word -- often "alef" and makes an "a" sound.
  • A madda signals a long vowel sound