sun letter

sun letter - English

Noun

sun letter (plural sun letters)

  1. (linguistics) One of fourteen Arabic letters that cause the "L" of a preceding definite article اَل (al-) to be assimilated in pronunciation. The sun letter suppresses the sound of the "L" and then geminates: al + ṣīn = aṣ-ṣīn. The effect of the sun letter is limited to pronunciation and does not affect the spelling, except that a shadda may be written over the sun letter and in the fully vocalised spelling lām lacks any diacritics: الصِّين (aṣ-ṣīn). The fourteen sun letters are ت (t), ث (), د (d), ذ (), ر (r), ز (z), س (s), ش (š), ص (), ض (), ط (), ظ (), ل (l), ن (n). Phonetically, they represent coronal consonants.

Usage notes

  • ج (j) is not traditionally among the sun letters, as its corresponding sound was originally a palatal /ɟ/. However, its pronunciation in Modern Standard Arabic varies per region from /d͡ʒ/, /ʒ/, to /ɡ/, respectively both of which are coronal, and velar; prescriptively, it should still avoid assimilating the definite article in observance of tradition, but certain speakers may incorporate it as a sun letter regardless.

Synonyms

Antonyms

Translations

  • Arabic: حَرْف شَمْسِيّ m (ḥarf šamsiyy) (plural: حُرُوف شَمْسِيَّة m pl (ḥurūf šamsiyya))
  • French: lettre solaire f
  • German: Sonnenbuchstabe (de) m
  • Kazakh: күн әрпі (kün ärpı)
  • Malay: huruf syamsiah
  • Maltese: konsonanti xemxin
  • Russian: со́лнечная бу́ква f (sólnečnaja búkva)
  • Spanish: letra solar f
Meaning and Definition of sun letter
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