Reading · Lesson 5 · 6 min
Hamza
The glottal stop: א's day job, with its own letter
The hamza ء writes the glottal stop — the little catch in the throat in the middle of 'uh-oh'. It is a real consonant, as real as b or k, and Arabic treats it with full respect: it gets its own mark, its own spelling rules, and it can distinguish words.
Hamza rides different 'seats' depending on the vowels around it: on an alif (أ or, when the vowel is i, tucked underneath as إ), on a wāw (ؤ), on a dotless yāʾ (ئ), or seatless on the line (ء). The choice follows a pecking order of vowels — i outranks u outranks a — but you do not need the rules yet. You need to recognize all five costumes as one sound.
| Seat | Looks like | Typical habitat | Example | Say it |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| On alif | أ | word start, with a or u | أَب | ab |
| Under alif | إ | word start, with i | إِنْسَان | insān |
| On wāw | ؤ | next to u | سُؤَال | suʾāl |
| On a dotless yāʾ | ئ | next to i | بِئْر | biʾr |
| On the line | ء | word end, after a long vowel | سَمَاء | samāʾ |
Hamza cognates — Hebrew writes them all with א
- أَبאבab
father
אָב أَڤav
Two letters, four thousand years, zero change.
- أَخאח'akh
brother
אָח أَخakh
Your אח — with the kh sound (خ) that Hebrew folded into ח.
- رَأْسראסraʾs
head
רֹאשׁ رُوشrosh
Hebrew still writes the hamza — it is the א of רֹאשׁ, silent today. Arabic still pronounces it: ra-ʾs. Ras el-Hanout, Ras Beirut — heads everywhere.
- بِئْرבארbiʾr
well (of water)
בְּאֵר بِئِرbe'er
Letter for letter b-ʾ-r. And on the map: בְּאֵר שֶׁבַע is بِئْر السَّبْع — the same name from both directions.
- مِئَةמאהmiʾa
hundred
מֵאָה مِئَاme'a
Same word, same meaning, same three letters — the hamza on its yāʾ chair is Hebrew's א, and the ة is Hebrew's ה.
- سَأَلَסאלsaʾala
he asked
שָׁאַל شَاءَالsha'al
Root ש-א-ל exactly: the א in the middle of שָׁאַל is the hamza in the middle of سَأَلَ.
Two kinds of hamza
Arabic distinguishes hamzat al-qaṭʿ (the 'cutting' hamza — always pronounced, written with the seat marks: أَب, إِنْسَان) from hamzat al-waṣl (the 'joining' hamza — pronounced only when you start speaking there, and skipped entirely mid-stream). Waṣl words are written with a plain unmarked alif, and there are only a few of them — but they are heavy hitters: اِسْم 'name', اِبْن 'son', and the definite article ال itself.
The vanishing act
- اِسْمאסםism
name
שֵׁם شِمshem
The same word as שֵׁם, wearing a prosthetic alif whose only job is to prop up the s at the start of an utterance.
- بِسْمِ اللّٰهבסמיללהbismi llāh
in the name of God
Say it: bis-mil-lāh. The alifs of both اسم and الله evaporate mid-stream — that is waṣl. Nobody says bi-ismi al-lāh.
- اِبْنאבןibn
son
בֵּן بِنben
בֵּן with a prop-alif. You know it from names — ابن سينا, Ibn Sina — where it plays exactly the role of Hebrew בֶּן־ in בן־גוריון.
- فِي الْبَيْتפי ל-ביתfī l-bayt
in the house
Pronounced fil-bayt, never fī al-bayt — the article's alif is a waṣl alif, and it yields to the vowel before it.