# Quran - diacritics



## Ander

Why are some sukuuns missing in some words in the Arabic Quran ?

For example with the word منذر in the verse 13:7 there is no sukuun on the nun.


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## WadiH

The diacriticals used in printing Qurans are not meant to guide you to Standard Arabic rendering; they are there to help you read according to the rules of "tajweed", which is a special way of reading used only with the Quran.

When the "nun" or "tanween" is succeeded by certain phonemes (such as ذ in this case), the "nun" is - almost, but not quite - merged with the following letter.  This technique is called إخفاء ("concealing").  Full merger is called إدغام, where the "nun" completely disappears.  In both these cases, no "sukoon" is placed on the "nun" since it's not supposed to be pronounced.

Of course these rules are meant for "Quranic Readers", and not required of laypeople.


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## Ander

Thanks Wadi Hanifa for the answer.


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## Nikola

Ander,
Take a look here http://www.abouttajweed.com/100304.htm


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## Haroon

Thank you so much for this link


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## Ander

I know the site as I consulted it for the punctuation letters in the Coran. I shall re-read it for the tajwiid rules.


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## Ander

Why is there not a sukûn on the nûn in a few words in the Quran when there should be one?

Examples: Baqarah 2:4 "unzila", "min".


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## Abu Bishr

Hi all

There are different conventions that are sometimes followed in the diacritics of the Qur'an. One such convention has to do with what is called the Nuun Saakinah (unvowelled Nuun) which has four different pronunciations (or allophones in phonological terms) depending on which letter(s) follows it:

(1) ith-haar (clear unassimilated Nuun pronunciation) with the following letters: أ هـ ع ح غ خ

(2) idghaam (assimilated Nuun pronunciation) with the following letters: ي ر م ل و ن

(3) qalb (or iqlaab) (transforming the Nuun into a Miim) with the following letter: ب

(4) ikhfaa' (semi-assimilation) with the remaining letters of the Arabic alphabet.

According to this convention the sukuun sign is only used on the Nuun in (1) and not in the rest. "unzila" or أنزل belongs to (4), and the particular diacritic is, therefore, not used. These conventions are often stated at the back of the Qur'anic copy. You might want to check your own copy.


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## Haroon

there is a sukun but it is drawn ( exclusively in Quran ) as a head of a small 7a'a ; رأس حاء صغيرة ) حـ) .

Sometimes , as Tagweed rules say , the nun with no علامة over it is considered to be nun ساكنة .
I wish that my words are not complicated


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## Ander

Thanks for answering.


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## Tensor78

Hi,

I've downloaded a copy of the Qu'raan to practice vocalization of Arabic script. I can't understand a word of what I'm trying to pronounce as I have no knowledge of Arabic grammar yet, and there isn't a stitch of English in the text. However, that is beside the point. 

In my Qu'raan, I'm encountering very strange voweling/diacritics. The most ubiquitous is a small Haa' in its initial position form above consonants where a sukuun would be expected. I'm also seeing alif with no hamza and sukuun over it which is leaving me, quite literally, speechless. Further, I find alif madda on dagger alif. Lastly, there seem to be random consonants, diacritics, and general Arabic characters of one sort or another written in between lines of script. 

I'm assuming that the madda over dagger alif should just be pronounced as a regular madda, and that the arbitrary characters in between lines of script are simply for decoration. But I would like some help with the other peculiarities. 

Thanks.


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## Serafín33

They aren't decoration, they are marks used as guidelines for reciting the Qur'an, telling you about different vowel lengths, pauses, whether a vowel can be omitted...


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## cherine

Correct. They're neither random, arbitrary nor for decoration. To understand how they should be translated into pronunciation, check the last page(s) of the Qur'an where you'll find the equivalence or value of each marker. It can also help you if you listen to a recitation while looking at the text, to make sure you're reading correctly.
There's also some recordings under the title المصحف المعلِّم where a reciter/reader/sheikh reads the text verse by verse, and a child or group of children repeat after him. This can be useful to you if you want to learn proper pronunciation.


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## إسكندراني

We could probably deal with each of your problems separately.
Some of what you mention shouldn't be confusing; alifs don't necessarily have a hamza, and hamzas don't necessarily occur on alifs (it is beyond me why some teachers pretend this is the case). An alif without a hamza is a long a̅. Anything with a hamza is a glottal stop.


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## Serafín33

Tensor78 isn't surprised at 2alifaat without a hamza, he's surprised that there's 2alifaat where at the same time: 1. have a sukuun and 2. have no hamza. Basically what many Qur'ans show for the 2alifaat of perfect verbs/verbs in الماضي when conjugating for هم, or for أنتم imperatives. Like this:

وَإِذۡ قُلۡنَا لِلۡمَلَـٰۤــِٕكَةِ ٱسۡجُدُواْ لِأَدَمَ فَسَجَدُواْ إِلَّآ إِبۡلِيسَ

(Part of Surat al-Baqara: 33)

Notice how the final 2alif of both اسجدوا and سجدوا has a sukuun, instead of being each an 2alif waSla. (Not to mention the practice using "dotless khaa2aat" for marking consonants not followed by a vowel, in typical Qur'anic fashion...)


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## إسكندراني

In this particular Qur'an's typography, اْ means this ألف is _silent_
I think this kind of ألف is known as ألف الوقاية.


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## Tensor78

OK. So, the small Haa' over consonants is just an old convention for sukuun which I suspected. Further, the decorative characters in between lines of script actually serve a real purpose, and the alif with a sukuun and without a hamza is just a spelling convention for certain conjugations. That is, these alifs aren't actually pronounced. Finally, the madda over dagger alif wasn't mentioned by anyone, so I'll assume that my original assumption was correct and that these are just pronounced like regular madda. 

Thanks, gang.


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## uas60

Madd (wavy line) over the dagger means it is a long madd (4 or 5 counts, technically speaking, in comparison to 'normal madd' as 2). You get these long madd when you have a madd followed by a hamza. E.g.


وَإِذۡ قُلۡنَا لِلۡمَلَـٰۤــِٕكَةِ ٱسۡجُدُواْ لِأَدَمَ فَسَجَدُواْ إِلَّآ إِبۡلِيسَ

Wa idh qulnaa lil-malaaaaa'ikatis-judoo li aadama fasajadooooo [should be wavy madd here too!] illaaaaaa iblees...

I'd recommend a website like Qur'an Explorer where you can listen to individual verses and pause, repeat etc. This is how a lot of people (myself included) learn to read Arabic fluently. I'd recommend the recitation of Husary, but each to his own


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