# أ.هـ [end of quote]



## Petter

ًWhat does the abbreviation .اه stand for?


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## WadiH

It means انتهى and it's an old-fashioned way of signifiying the end of a quotation.


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## Petter

Thanks for the quick reply!

Starting to love this forum


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## WadiH

You're welcome.  I should add that it usually appears as أ.هـ rather than أ.ه.


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## ayed

I just want to clarify it a bit more..

* آه  that carries a tiny diacritic , it means "Alas!or if one moans of a severe wound or a bruise
*ا.هـ  an end of quotaton as mentioned by Wadi Hanifa


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## Petter

thanks again, both of you!


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## martina.v

Hello everybody,

I would like to ask you what does اهوهو mean? I found it in the following sentence: ...قال في الصحاح شعب الرأس شأنه الذي يضم قبائله اهوهو كيانة عن اصل الشيء و مجتمعه ...
The sentence is from "Shidyāq, A. F. _al-Wāsitah fī ma'rifat ahwāl Māltah_".

Thank you in advance!


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## barkoosh

This is not اهوهو. It's ا.هـ. وهو
ا.هـ is short of انتهى or انتهى هنا meaning "end of quote". So the quote from الصحاح ends after قبائله.
A new sentence starts with وهو كناية...


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## martina.v

Thank you very much! I didn't know it and it looked like a single word to me because I couldn't see any full stop. Thank you again!


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## barkoosh

That's expected. Some old references don't have full stops and other punctuation marks.


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## yields

Heh, good info, i never came across  انتهى هنا yet. thanks


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## barkoosh

You may come across اه for انتهى but this is old Arabic. Now we have quotes.


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## Timesieve

Awesome. I've often wondered how older texts dealt with this since most of the old Arabic I've read has been in recent printings with punctuation and such added.


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## khalidghouse99

Hi Friends,

In Arabic when you quote a reference, instead of saying
انتهى الكلام (The reference or quotation has ended)
we mention
ا. ھ
to show the reference is over and now Its my words.
Is there any symbol in English too or we just use quotation marks?


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## bennymix

Quotation marks come in pairs, in this matter.  So the second signals the end.   I know of no alternative in print, except, for example, using (for the whole quoted matter) fonts, italicization,  color, etc.   Sometimes one can improvise with //  xxxx   //.  or something similar.


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## khalidghouse99

Thanks for the tip but I have just attached the image.
And what I'm trying to ask is this way 👇🏻
I came across a few valuable lines from the book of our teacher where he mentions, "Had someone taken the responsibility for this task". <<Here if its arabic they type that symbol ا. ه - meaning end of quotation>>

The author then continues

This phrase had an impact on my heart that I took up the task.


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## natkretep

As benny said, the convention is to use the close quotation marks ('inverted commas') at the end of a quotation. You can also set out the quotation on its own line and do an indentation. At the end of the quotation, start a new line. Occasionally, in some books, this might be put in a text box.


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## TheMahiMahi

khalidghouse99 said:


> Thanks for the tip but I have just attached the image.
> And what I'm trying to ask is this way 👇🏻
> I came across a few valuable lines from the book of our teacher where he mentions, "Had someone taken the responsibility for this task". <<Here if its arabic they type that symbol ا. ه - meaning end of quotation>>
> The author then continues
> This phrase had an impact on my heart that I took up the task.


I don't think I understand your question very well. Is there a sentence with a quotation in English that you think should be punctuated differently? What is confusing to you about quotation marks?


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## cherine

I just want to say that the mentioned Arabic usage is a very old one, before the modern usage of quotation marks and most other punctuation marks. So instead of using quotation marks, Classical authors would start a quote by the word "said", followed by the quote, then end with the letters ا.هـ which means انتهى (end/done) to mark the end of the quote. This is not used in modern Arabic.

So, maybe rephrasing the OP's question: Did Classical English writers have an equivalent of that Classical Arabic usage to mark the end of a quote?


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## lukebeadgcf

natkretep said:


> You can also set out the quotation on its own line and do an indentation



Yes, this is the alternative that seems common and which I would use, especially for text longer than three or four lines or for something like a verse of poetry. In this case, no quotes are needed.


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## natkretep

cherine said:


> So, maybe rephrasing the OP's question: Did Classical English writers have an equivalent of that Classical Arabic usage to mark the end of a quote?


I think not. I'm familiar with the 1611 Bible (Authorised Version or King James Bible), and no quotation marks were employed. You had to rely on context. (Of course there are also red-letter editions where the words of Jesus are rendered in red, but this is the result of the editor's decision of when a quotation ends.) Here's Matthew 27:11, for instance.

And Iesus stood before the gouernour, and the gouernour asked him, saying; Art thou the King of the Iewes? And Iesus sayd vnto him, Thou sayest. 
Matthew chapter 27 1611 KJV (King James Version)


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