This article concerns the vowel marks of written Arabic.

For political and social movements in Arabic-speaking countries, see Arab politics .

In Arabic orthography, harakat are the diacritic marks used to represent vowel sounds. (The most concrete meaning of harakat is "movements", e.g. in the context of the motion of machinery.) Written Arabic uses an abjad rather than a (true, , and the vowels are often left out; and the vowel sounds associated by default with each letter (each of which can function as a consonant, or as a consonant plus that default vowel) are the principal means of representing the vowels when letters are combined to represent words. For vowel sounds, the first letter "aleph" is used for the strong "A" sound as in "car".

• A / called a fatha, when abovea letter, represents a harder "A" sound, such as in "cat."
• The same / below a letter is called a kasra and makes an "ih" sound as in "big."
  • The same kasra, but with two dots to its left, makes an "ee" sound as in "beet."
• A damma (a loop like a small letter "waw" ) is placed above a letter to represent an "uh" sound as in "sugar."
  • A damma above a letter "waw" is used to represent an "oo" sound, as in "noon" -- though the damma may not be directly over the "waw."
• A sukuun is a circle above a letter to make an "ah" sound as in "far."
• A sukuun with two dots below the letter represents an "ai" sound, as in "pyro."
• A letter "ya" at the end of the word, with a dotted-kasra beneath it makes an "ee" ending.
• A tiny hamza must accompany a vowel at the beginning of a word -- often "alef" and makes an "a" sound.
• A madda signals a long vowel sound.

See also

• Arabic alphabet
• Niqqud