| Ḍād | |
|---|---|
| Arabic | ﺽ |
| Phonemic representation | dˤ,(ðˤ) |
| Position in alphabet | 26 |
| Numerical value | 800 |
| Alphabetic derivatives of the Phoenician | |
| Ḍād ضاد | |
|---|---|
| ﺽ | |
| Usage | |
| Writing system | Arabic script |
| Type | Abjad |
| Language of origin | Arabic language |
| Sound values | |
| Alphabetical position | 15 |
| History | |
| Development |
|
| Other | |
| Writing direction | Right-to-left |
| This article containsphonetic transcriptions in theInternational Phonetic Alphabet (IPA). For an introductory guide on IPA symbols, seeHelp:IPA. For the distinction between[ ],/ / and ⟨ ⟩, seeIPA § Brackets and transcription delimiters. | |
Ḍād (ﺽ) is the fifteenth letter of theArabic alphabet, one of the six letters not in the twenty-two akin to thePhoenician alphabet (the others beingṯāʾ,ḫāʾ,ḏāl,ẓāʾ,ġayn). In name and shape, it is a variant ofṣād. Its numerical value is 800 (seeAbjad numerals). It is related to theAncient North Arabian 𐪓,South Arabian𐩵.
The letter itself is distinguished a derivation, by addition of adiacritic dot, fromصṣād (representing /sˤ/).
| Position in word: | Isolated | Final | Medial | Initial |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Glyph form: (Help) | ض | ـض | ـضـ | ضـ |
Based on ancient descriptions of this sound, it is clear that inQur'anic Arabicḍ was some sort of unusuallateral sound.[1][2][3][4][5]Sibawayh, author of the first book onArabic grammar, explained the letter as being articulated from "between the first part of the side of the tongue and the adjoiningmolars". It is reconstructed by modern linguists as having been either apharyngealizedvoiced alveolar lateral fricative[ɮˤ]ⓘ or a similaraffricated sound[d͡ɮˤ] or[dˡˤ].[2][3] The affricated form is suggested by loans ofḍ into Akkadian asld orlṭ and into Malaysian asdl.[1] However, not all linguists agree on this; the French orientalist André Roman supposes that the letter was actually a voiced emphatic alveolo-palatal sibilant/ʑˤ/, similar to the Polishź.[2][3][6]
This is an extremely unusual sound, and led the early Arabic grammarians to describe Arabic as theلغة الضادlughat aḍ-ḍād "the language of theḍād", since the sound was thought to be unique to Arabic.[1] While other Arabic grammarians likeal-Dani have described the letter ẓāʾظ as "being unique to Arabs among other nations".[7][8]
The emphatic lateral nature of this sound is possibly inherited fromProto-Semitic, and is compared to a phoneme inSouth Semitic languages such asSoqotri, but also inMehri where it is usually anejectivelateral fricative. The corresponding letter in theSouth Arabian alphabet is
ṣ́, and in theGeʽez scriptṢ́appaፀ), although inGeʽez it merged early on withṣ.
The reconstruction ofProto-Semitic phonology includes an emphaticvoiceless alveolar lateral fricative[ɬʼ] oraffricate[t͡ɬʼ] forṣ́. This sound is considered to be the direct ancestor of Arabicḍād, while merging withṣād in most otherSemitic languages.
The standard pronunciation of this letter inModern Standard Arabic is the "emphatic"/d/:pharyngealizedvoiced alveolar stop[dˤ]ⓘ, pharyngealized voiced dental stop[d̪ˤ] orvelarized voiced dental stop[d̪ˠ].[1]
In most Najdi influenced Arabic vernacularsضḍād andظẓāʾ merged quite early;[2] in the varieties where the dental fricatives are preserved such asNajdi Arabic andMesopotamian Arabic, both the letters are pronounced/ðˤ/.[2][3][5] However, there are dialects in South Arabia and inMauritania and theSahrawi where both the letters are kept different but not in all contexts.[2] In other vernaculars such as Egyptianضḍād andظẓāʾ contrast; but Classical Arabicẓāʾ becomes/zˤ/, e.g.ʿaẓīm[ʕɑˈzˤiːm] (< Classicalعظيمʿaḏ̣īm[ʕɑˈðˤiːm]) "great".[2][3][9]
One of the important aspects in someTihama dialects is the preservation of the emphatic lateral fricative sound[ɮˤ], this sound is likely to be very similar to the original realization of ḍād, but this sound ([ɮˤ]) and[ðˤ] are used as two allophones for the two sounds ḍādض and ẓāʾظ.[10]
"De-emphaticized" pronunciation of both letters in the form of the plain/z/ entered into other non-Semitic languages such as Persian, Urdu, and Turkish.[2] However, there do exist Arabic borrowings intoIbero-Romance languages as well as Hausa and Malay, whereḍād andẓāʾ are differentiated.[2]
| Language | Alphabet name | Pronunciation (IPA) |
|---|---|---|
| Malay | Jawi | /d/* |
| Javanese | Pegon | |
| Swahili | Ajami | /ð/ |
| Hausa | Ajami | /l/* |
| Azeri | Arabic script | /z/ |
| Brahui | ||
| Hindko | ||
| Kashmiri | ||
| Pashto | ||
| Persian | ||
| Punjabi | Shahmukhi | |
| Saraiki | ||
| Sindhi | Arabic script | |
| Urdu | ||
| Uzbek | Arabic script | |
Note: in Pegon and Jawi scriptsضḍād is/d/ whileظẓāʾ is/z/, and in Hausaضḍād is/l/ whileظẓāʾ is/z/, but in other languages they merge.
ض is transliterated asḍ (D withunderdot) inromanization. The combination ⟨dh⟩ is also sometimes used colloquially. In varieties where the Ḍād has merged with theẒāʾ, the symbol for the latter might be used for both (eg. ⟨ظل⟩ 'to stay' and ⟨ضل⟩ 'to be lost' may both be transcribed asḏ̣al inGulf Arabic).
When transliterating Arabic in the Hebrew alphabet, it is either written asד (the letter for/d/) or asצ׳ (tsadi withgeresh), which is also used to represent the /tʃ/ sound. The Arabic lettersṣādص andḍādض share the sameSemitic origin with the Hebrewtsadi.
InJudeo-Arabic orthography, it has been written asצׄ/ץׄ(tsade withholam), emulating Arabic orthography, where the letter is created by adding a dot toṣādص.
| Preview | ض | |
|---|---|---|
| Unicode name | ARABIC LETTER DAD | |
| Encodings | decimal | hex |
| Unicode | 1590 | U+0636 |
| UTF-8 | 216 182 | D8 B6 |
| Numeric character reference | ض | ض |
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