Elementary Arabic Morphology 1

Vowels, Nunation and the Absence of Vowels

  1. How many vowels are there?

  2. Where are the vowels written?

  3. What is the absence of vowels?

  4. What is nunation?

  5. There are three vowels: the dummah ُ, the fathah َ and the kasrah ِ.

  6. The dummah and the fathah are written on top of the letter and the kasrah is written under it.

  7. The absence of vowels is when there is no vowel. The sign of it is a small circle written above the letter.

  8. Nunation (tanwīn) is a nūn that does not have a vowel sign, added to the end of a noun verbally; not written. There are three forms of nunation:

• The nominative nunation: کِتابٌ (a book)

• The accusative nunation: کِتاباً (a book)

• The genitive nunation: کِتابٍ (a book)