Arabic diacritics

The hamza ( '') () is an Arabic script character that, in the Arabic alphabet, denotes a glottal stop and, in non-Arabic languages, indicates a diphthong, vowel, or other features, depending on the language. Derived from the letter ʿayn'' (), the hamza is written in initial, medial, and final positions as an unlinked letter or placed above or under a carrier character. Despite its common usage as a letter in Modern Standard Arabic, it is generally not considered to be one of its letters, although some argue that it should be considered so.

diacritic used in the Arabic script

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REDIRECT Arabic diacritics#Kasrah

The waṣla () or '''''' (, 'hamza of connection') is a variant of the letter hamza () resembling part of the letter tsade| () that is sometimes placed over the letter aleph| at the beginning of the word (). The ʾalif with waṣla over it is called the (, 'aleph of connection'). It indicates that the alif is not pronounced as a glottal stop (written as the hamza), but that the word is connected to the previous word (like liaison in French). Outside of vocalised liturgical texts, the is usually not written.

form of the Arabic letter alif, written as a short vertical stroke on top of another letter; indicates a long /aː/ sound; e.g. هٰذَا hādhā, رَحْمٰن raḥmān