Ḏāl

← Ḫāʾ Ḏāl Ḍād →
Arabic	ذ
Phonemic representation	ð,d
Position in alphabet	25
Numerical value	700
Alphabetic derivatives of the Phoenician

Ḏāl
ذ
Usage
Writing system	Arabic script
Type	Abjad
Language of origin	Arabic language
Sound values	ð,d
Alphabetical position	9
History
Development	ذ
Other
Writing direction	Right-to-left

The main pronunciations of written⟨ذ⟩in Arabic dialects.

Ḏāl(ذ,also be transcribed asdhāl) is one of the six letters theArabic alphabetadded to the twenty-two inherited from thePhoenician alphabet(the others beingṯāʾ,ḫāʾ,ḍād,ẓāʾ,ġayn). InModern Standard Arabicit represents/ð/.In name and shape, it is a variant ofdāl(د). Its numerical value is 700 (seeabjad numerals). The Arabic letterذis namedذَالْḏāl.It is written in several ways depending in its position in the word:

Position in word	Isolated	Final	Medial	Initial
Glyph form: (Help)	ذ‎	ـذ‎	ـذ‎	ذ‎

TheSouth Arabian alphabetretained a symbol forḏ,.

When representing this sound in transliteration of Arabic into Hebrew, it is written asד׳‎.

This sound is found in English, as in the words "those "or"then ". In English the sound is sometimes rendered"dh"when transliterated from foreign languages, but when it occurs in English words it is one of the pronunciations occurring for the letters"th".Azerbaijanis the only country name in Arabic that uses this letter.

Pronunciations

Between and within contemporaryvarieties of Arabic,pronunciation of cognates with the letterḏāldiffers:

• TheGulf,Iraqi,Tunisiandialects use theClassicalandModern Standardsound of[ð].
• InMaghrebi Arabic,it is consistently pronounced as thevoiced dental plosive[d̪].
• InHejazi Arabic,it merges with/d/or/z/depending on the word. Furthermore it keeps its classical value/ð/in some Classical Arabic words.
• In theMashriq(in the broad sense, includingEgyptian,SudaneseandLevantinedialects), it becomes asibilantvoiced alveolar fricative[z].Furthermore, in words fully assimilated into a Mashriq dialect, the sound has merged with/d/(د).

Regardless of these regional differences, the pattern of the speaker's variety of Arabic frequently intrudes into otherwise Modern Standard speech; this is widely accepted, and is the norm when speaking themesolectknown alternately aslugha wusṭā( "middling/compromise language" ) orʿAmmiyyat/Dārijat al-Muṯaqqafīn( "Educated/Cultured Colloquial" ) used in the informal speech of educated Arabs of different countries. (cf.Arabic dialect#Formal and vernacular differences)

See also

• Arabic phonology