- Shadda
Shadda (Arabic _ar. شَدَّةٌ "ArabDIN|šaddatun" " [sign of] emphasis", also called by the verbal noun to the same root, Tashdid _ar. تشديد "ArabDIN|tašdīdun" "emphasis"), is one of the diacritics (Harakat ) used with theArabic alphabet , marking a long consonant (geminate). It is functionally equivalent to writing a consonant twice in the orthographies of languages likeLatin , Italian, Swedish andAncient Greek , and is thus rendered in Latin script in most schemes ofArabic transliteration , e.g. _ar. رُمَّان = "ArabDIN|rummān" "pomegranate".Consonant length in Arabic is contrastive: _ar. دَرَسَ "ArabDIN|darasa" means "he studied" while _ar. دَرَّسَ "ArabDIN|darrasa" means "he taught"; _ar. بَكَى صَبِيّ "ArabDIN|baka ṣabiyy" means "a youth cried" while _ar. بَكَى الصَّبِيّ "ArabDIN|baka ṣṣabiyy" means "the youth cried". A consonant may be long because of the form of the noun or verb, e.g. the causative form of the verb requires the 2nd consonant of the root to be long, as in "ArabDIN|darrasa" above, or by assimilation of consonants, for example the "ArabDIN|l-" of the Arabic definite article assimilates to all dental consonants, e.g. "ArabDIN|(a)ṣṣabiyy" instead of "ArabDIN|(a)lṣabiyy", or through haplology, that is, the elision of two identical consonants, for example _ar. أَقَلّ "ArabDIN|ʾaqall" "less, fewer" instead of _ar. أَقْلَل "ArabDIN|ʾaqlal", as compared to _ar. أَكْبَر "ArabDIN|ʾakbar" "greater".
The syllable closing with the long consonant is made a long syllable. This affects both stress and prosody. Stress falls on the first long syllable from the end of the word, hence _ar. أَقَلّ "ArabDIN|ʾaqáll" (or, with
i`rab , "ArabDIN|ʾaqállu") as opposed to _ar. أَكْبَر "ArabDIN|ʾákbaru", _ar. مَحَبَّة Unicode|"maḥábba" "love,agape " as opposed to _ar. مَعْرِفَة "ArabDIN|máʿrifa" " [experiential] knowledge". In Arabic verse, when scanning the meter, the syllable closing with the long consonant is counted as long, just like any other syllable closing with a consonant or a syllable ending in a long vowel: _ar. أَلا تَمْدَحَنَّ "ArabDIN|ʾalā tamdaḥanna" "Will you not indeed praise...?" is scanned as "ArabDIN|ʾa-lā tam-da-ḥan-na": short, long, long, short, long, short.ee also
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Harakat
*Arabic alphabet
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