Wasla Explained

Arabic: ٱ

The waṣla (Arabic: {{wikt-lang|ar|وَصْلَة) or (Arabic: هَمْزَةُ ٱلْوَصْلِ, 'hamza of connection') is a variant of the letter hamza (Arabic: ء) resembling part of the letter (Arabic: ص) that is sometimes placed over the letter at the beginning of the word (Arabic: <big>[[wikt:ٱ|ٱ]]</big>). The ʾalif with waṣla over it is called the (Arabic: أَلِفُ ٱلْوَصْلِ, '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.^{[1] [2]}

Examples

1. Arabic: وَٱسْمُ ٱبْنَتِهِ هِنْدُ — And his daughter's name is Hind.
2. Arabic: يُرِيدُ أَنْ يَقْرَأَ لِإِحْدَى ٱبْنَتَيْهِ — He wants to read to one of his two daughters.
3. Arabic: مَا ٱسْمُكَ — What is your name?

Notes and References

1. Web site: Alhonen. Miikka-Markus. Proposal for encoding the combining diacritic Arabic wasla. unicode.org. 25 March 2014.
2. Web site: Price. James M. Helping Vowels and the Elidable Hamza. Arabic Language Lessons: All The Arabic You Never Learned The First Time Around. 25 March 2014.