Hi all
In an earlier message (May 25) I had already stated that <hamzeh> is a
fully-fledged consonant, with its own distinctive sound and character
representation in the alphabet. There is nothing new about that. What I
don�t accept is that it assumes different shapes. It doesn�t. What are those
shapes it assumes?
<Hamzeh>, because it is represented differently in the Arabic character set,
it also behaves differently in the script. Unlike other characters in the
alphabet, it is not joined to anything that comes before or after it, so it
has to �sit� on something. When it occurs at the end of a word, it can sit
by itself. When it occurs in the middle of a word, it sits above (or below)
the vowel it qualifies, or it can sit on its own seat as a <dandaneh>. As a
consonant, it can be either preceded or followed by a vowel. In Arabic,
short vowels are not written. They are represented by diacritical marks
placed above or below consonants, so <hamzeh> has few vowels it can sit on.
When it sits above a <vav>, it qualifies the sound represented by <vav>,
which is <o> or <oo>. It can precede the vowel, an in <mas�ul>, or follow
it, as in <mo�men>. The <vav + hamzeh> represents two sounds: a glottal stop
(or plosive), preceded (or followed) by a vowel (<o> or <oo>); and they are
represented by two characters in the alphabet: a <vav> plus a <hamzeh>, not
one character. When it sits above or below an <alef>, it does exactly the
same thing: it qualifies the vowel that is represented by <alef>. The <alef
+ hamzeh> is not simply a different representation of <hamzeh>, any more
than <vav + hamzeh> is. They consist of two different sounds, and are
represented by two different symbols.
<Alef> is a strange beast in the Arabic character set. When it occurs at the
beginning of a word, it represents a glottal plosive (which is a <hamzeh>),
plus a vowel; but the <hamzeh> is not written! If you wanted to be strict,
you would have to always write <alef> with a <hamzeh> when it comes at the
beginning of a word! But in Farsi and Arabic (as in English) words which
begin with a vowel always begin with a glottal plosive, therefore it is
taken for granted, and not written. In some languages, such as Chinese, it
is possible to begin a word with a vowel, but without a glottal plosive.
That is why Chinese speech sounds so strange to Western ears.
<Alef>, when it occurs at the beginning of a word, is not exactly a vowel
either, and that is what is strange about it. It assumes a vowel sound
depending on what diacritical mark you place above or below it. It can
assume the sounds of {a, e, o, or aa} depending on whether it is qualified
with a <fatheh>, <kasreh>, <zammeh>, or <madd>. It behaves like an empty box
into which you can put all kinds of different things. When it occurs in the
middle of a word, however, it assumes one of the Arabic long vowels <aa>,
unless it is qualified by a <hamzeh>. Arabic has three log vowels which form
part of the character set, and they are written. They are {aa, ee, and oo},
and are represented by <alef>, <vav>, and <yeh>, all three of which take the
<hamzeh>.
The best way to study the behaviour of <hamzeh> in Farsi is to compare it
with <ein>. In Arabic, these are pronounced differently, but in Farsi, they
are pronounced the same. Anything that is written in Farsi with a <hamzeh>
as a glottal stop, can also be written (logically, not lexically) with an
<ein>. The only difference between them is that <ein> behaves like a normal
letter of the alphabet, and is joined to what follows or precedes it, but
<hamzeh> isn�t, so we can understand their behaviours by comparing them.
<Mas�ul> could be written with <ein> in Farsi, and the sound would be
identical. If you wrote <mas�ul> with <ein> instead of <hamzeh>, it would be
comprised of TWO sounds and TWO letters of the alphabet, not one. Exactly
the same situation would still prevail if you now replaced <ein> with a
<hamzeh>. The only thing that has now changed is that you have replaced
<ein> with a character which cannot be joined to anything, so you have to
pull up a chair and make him sit down on top of <vav>, and not move! You are
still dealing with TWO sounds and TWO characters, not one; and the shape of
the <hamzeh> has NOT changed. It remains the same.
This is a deep and dangerous subject to discuss. If you wanted to become too
deeply involved in this subject, you would have to enter into the mysterious
realms of the supernatural, the metaphysical, and the magical! You could
even go completely mad! If we wanted to really enter into a deep discussion
of this subject, we would have to write a book online, and the danger of
that is that FarsiWeb development team would be bored to tears, or be driven
round the bend, and would give up their jobs and become �pa^sda^re enqla^b�,
or �talabehye Qom�, or �mofsede felarz�, or something worse. All of this,
however, is completely irrelevant to the subject of implementing the glyph
<heh + hamzeh> in the Persian IT standard, which is why I started this
discussion in the first place.
Come to think of it, Roozbeh is a very handsome young man. I am sure he
would look very distinguished in a dark <amma^meh> and a beard.
Abi
>From: Ali Khanban <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
>Date: Tue, 28 May 2002 17:13:29 +0100
>
>Hi,
>
>We had a discussion on <heh+hamza>, and it somehow changed to one on
><hamza>. I wonder if someone is still interested in this subject, but I am
>sure it is not out of interest.
>
><hamza> is a consonant, both in Arabic and Farsi alphabet. The main
>difference between <hamza> and <alef> in Arabic alphabet is that <hamza>
>accepts vowels (so, it is a consonant), but <alef> doesn't (so, it is a
>vowel). <hamza> is a consonant with different shapes in Arabic.
>
>In Farsi, we even don't differ <hamza> and <ein> in pronounciation. The
>pair of words "mo'allem" and "mo'akkad", "fA'el" and "qA'el", "maf'ul" and
>"mas'ul" are treated the same in Farsi. In Farsi it is preffered to write
><hamza> on a base <dandaneh>, when it is possible. It is widely, although
>not totally, accepted in literature and even in school books they write
>"mas'ul" with <dandaneh>.
>
>However, I don't say how to write <hamza>, but don't forget that it is a
>consonant, and in Farsi we have a shape for it: <dandaneh>. This is why we
>write foreign words like "pangu'an" with <dandaneh>. The only exceptions
>are some Arabic words which we accept with their own shape, but it doesn't
>mean anything more than a multi-shape consonant letter.
>
>Best
>-khanban-
>
>________________________________________________________________
>
>|| |||| Ali Asghar Khanban
>|| || Research Associate in Department of Computing
>||||||| Imperial College of Sci, Tech & Med, London SW7 2BZ, UK
>|| Tel +44 (20) 7594 8241 Fax: +1 (509) 694 0599
>||||||| [EMAIL PROTECTED] http://www.doc.ic.ac.uk/~khanban
>________________________________________________________________
>
>
>
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