[Book I.]
ا
The first letter of the alphabet [according to the order in which the letters are now commonly disposed; and also according to the original order, which see in art. ابجد]: called أَلِفٌ. [This name, like most of the other names of Arnhic letters, is traceable to the Phoenician language, in which it signifies "an ox;" the ancient Phoenician form of the letter thus called being a rude representation of an ox's head.] It is, of all the letters, that which is most frequent in speech : and some say that, in jj, in the Kur [ch. ii. &c], it is a name of God. (TA.) Its name is properly fern., as is also that of every other letter ; [and hence its pi. is Olill;] but it may be made masc. : so says Ks : Sb says that all the letters of the alphabet arc masc. and fern., like as ^jl_ X3I is masc. and fein. (M.) As a letter of the alphabet, it is abbreviated, [or short, and is written I, as it also is generally when occurring in a word, except at the end, when, in certain cases, it is written ^g,] and is pronounced with a pause after it: and it is also prolonged: (S, K,* TA:) [in the latter case, it is written l; and] this is the case when it is made a subst. : and when it is not called a letter, [i.e. when one docs not prefix to it the word s^j—,] it is [properly] fern. (S.) Its dim. is i-jt, meaning an .1 written small, or obscure, (S, IB,) according to those who make it fern, and who say, L>lj Owj and ^IJ CJbi ; but ♦ 3.1 „ , , «- * »S- ijjl according to those who say, blj wojj. (ITl ) ill [properly so called] is oneqftlie letters of prolongation and of softness and of augmenta- tion; the letters of augmentation being ten, which are comprised in the saying, oL-3 j>^ [" to-day thou wilt forget it"]. (S.) There are two species of »JUI; namely, iijJ [or soft], and i»js* it [or movent]; the former of which is [properly] called oUI; and the latter, »>»*; (S, TA;) which is a fkucial letter, pronounced in the furthest part of the fauces [by a sudden emission of the voice after a total suppression, so that it resembles in sound a feebly-uttered e, whence the form of the cha- racter (.) whereby it is represented]: but this latter is sometimes tropically called oUI ; and both [as shown above] arc of the letters of augmenta- tion. (S in art. }, and TA.) There arc also two other species of oOl; namely, ^-o^ »JUI [the alif of conjunction or connexion, or the conjunctive or connexive alif]; and *I»5 «JUI [the alif of disjunc- tion, or the disjunctive alif]; every one that is permanent in the connexion of words being of the latter species ; and that which is not permanent, [i. c. which is not pronounced, unless it is an alif of prolongation,] of the former species ; and this is without exception augmentative ; [but it is some- times a substitute for a suppressed radical letter, as in £n, originally ^yi oryj;] whereas the alif of Bk I. disjunction is sometimes augmentative, as in the case of the interrogative alif [to be mentioned Ih;1ow, and in other cases] ; and sometimes radical, as in SL and '£&: (S, TA:) or, according to Ahmad Ibn-Yahya and Mohammad Ibn-Yezeed, (T, TA,) the primary OUJI arc three; the rest being subordinate to these: namely, i~Let t_AM [radical alif], (J, K, TA,) as in Jut and J£s> (T) and jyA.1; (K;) and ilaOai UM [disjunctive alif], as in J^jU (T, K) and j^-l (T) and v >l^.l; (T,K;) and £x!o') oUI [conjunctive or connexive alif], (T, K,) as in »-1p»~.1 (T) and
jL ill! (T, K.) Tho uUI which is one of the
letters of prolongation and of softness is called ,. , ,t 1.3*1 £>i) *-^' ['*• quiescent alif, andi£»LJI oU^I, which signifies the same]: (MP, TA:) it is an aerial letter, (Mughnec, MF, TA,) merely a sound of prolongation after a fet-hah; (T, TA;) and cannot have a vowel, (I B r Mughnec, MP,) wherefore it cannot commence a word: (Mugh- nec:) when they desire to make it movent, if it is converted from _j or ^j, they restore it to its original, as in (jl^aft and O^J? nnd 'f ' l IS not converted from y or ^, tlicy substitute for it hem- zch, as in ^p'-y, in which the hemzch is a suli- stitute for the I in [the sing.] SiCj. (IB.) IJ holds that the name of this letter is *^, [pro- nounced Id or le, without, or with, imalch, like the similar names of other letters, as and 13 and b ice.,] and that it is the letter which is mentioned [next] before ^ in reckoning the letters ; the J being prefixed to it because it cannot be pro- nounced at the beginning of its name, as other letters can, as, for instance, ^jo and »-; and he adds that the teachers [in schools] err in pro- nouncing its name «JJI >»*j}. (Mughnec.)— The grammarians have other particular appellations for alifs, which will be here mentioned. (T, TA.) n+tm n" «JU*9I [The unknown alif] is such as that in J*U [or J*l»] and Jyl» ; i. c., every , (T, K.,) of tliosc having no original [from which they are converted, not being originally I nor_j nor (^, but being merely a formative letter, and hence, app., termed " unknown"], (T,) inserted for the purpose of giving fulness of sound to the fet-hah in a verb and in a noun ; (T, K ;) and this, when it becomes movent, becomes j, as in the' case of ^5U- and ^y*-, becoming ^ in this case because it is movent, and followed by a quiescent I, which I is the I of the pi., and is also 3J j t » » « . (T.) OUJI oWI [The alifs of prolongations] arc such as those [which arc inserted for the same purpose of giving fulness of sound to the fet-hah] in Jl£ii>, for jii£>, and J&&, for JiU., and ju'lj, for Jj*. (T, K.) In like manner, « is inserted after a dammeh, as in j^Ou 1 ; and i_£ after a kesrch, as in JU-i. (TA.) An alif of this species is also called *W-*^' »-*H [The alif added to give fulness of sound to a fet-hah preceding it]: and so is the alif in Uo used in imitation [of a noun in the accus. case ; as when one says, ^t-j <^j (l"'°" nounced ^U-j) " I saw a man," and the person to whom these words arc addressed says, L« Whom?]. (Mughnec.) 1UJI Jj [The alif of annexation, or the annexed alif,] is that which is an annex to the fet-hah of a rhyme, (T, K,)and to that of the fern, pronoun U: in the former case as in
- UImuI IvJL- { _ r ~* ) il«- CJU *
in which I is made an annex to the fet-hah of tho c [of the rhyme]; and in the saying in the Kur [xxxiii. 10], UyJaJl Jft* £>y&3j, in which the I after the last ,j is an annex to the fct-hnh of that ,j; and in other instances in the final words of verses of the Kur-:'m, as UiiW and •^■ J ...A..> [in Ixxvi. 15 and 18]: in the other case as in V^j-=> and i C>)y*. (T.) The difference between it and J^yi >Jui is, that the latter is in the beginnings of nouns and verbs, and the former is in the end- ings of nouns [and verbs]. (T, K.) It is also culled J^NI <JM [Tlie alif of unbinding, because the vowel ending a rhyme prevents its being J«&*>, i. e. "bound" by the preceding consonant]: (Mughnec;) and iJUUJI will [tlie alif of the final word of a verse of poetry or of a verse of the Kur-an or of a clause of rhyming prose], (TA.) [This last appellation must not be confounded with that which here next follows.] 3>.r»UUI iju^l [The separating alif] is the I which is written after the j of the pi. to make a separation lictwccn that J * * « and what follows it, as in <ySi> (T, K) and }ji£>, and in the like of IjjAj and I^*jj [and Syb^i]; but when a pronoun is affixed to the verb, this I, being needless, docs not remain: (T:) also the I which makes a separation between the ,J which is a sign of the fern, gender and the heavy [or doubled] j [in the corroborated form of the aor. and imjHsrativc], (T, K,) localise a triple combination of & is disliked, (T,) as in [^LUA^ and oUaUi * nd ] 0&* ( T > K ) and O 1 ^ 3 ^- (T.)__aUuL>» oyJI Jul [The alif of the light, or single, noon in the contracted corroborated form of the aor. and imperative], as in the phrase in the Kur [xcvi. 15], <UoUW Ui-J [explained in art. *i-], (T, Ki) and t,,c phrase [in xii. 32], J^jcLaM '^y» lij£jj [And he shall assuredly be of those in a state of vileness, or ignominy], in both of which instances the pause is made with I [only, without tenween, so that one says U i ; ) and Uy4>, and this seems to be indicated in Expo- sitions of the Kur-a n as the proper pronunciation of these two words in the phrases hero cited, the former of which, and the first word of the latter,
