the Bound taa# تاء

Some Arabic words end with the sound ah ة (or aah اة) and change it into at ت or aat ات before any other word. As for instance, "the city" by itself is #almadiynah ألمدينة, but adding any word after it (such as qadiymah قديمة "she's ancient"), the ah ة sound becomes an atu ت sound plus a union vowel, and we get #almadiynatu qadiymah ألمدينت قديمة ("the city is ancient").

The ancient Arabs used to write this sound with just a normal h ه, but, apparently, later, some smart guys discussed if this letter should be written with h ه or with t ت, they weren't able to make up their minds and split the difference: this letter is now written like an h ه ه, but with two dots above like a t ت ت.

This letter is called #attaa#u lmarbuwTah أتاء لمربوطة, "the bound T". It is nominally a ت, though it looks like an h ه if the writer forgets the dots (some people sometimes do that).

Forgetting these dots can be bad karma. A final ه without dots is most probably the pronoun huw هو "his"; sometimes it's part of the word. A final h ه sound may be:

the feminine suffix ah ة:

billah بلة, "moisture". From the verb balla yabullu- بل يبل "to moisten". This word is written blh بله with two dots above the h ه.

the suffix huw هو "his":

billuhuw بلهو, "his convalescence". Written blh بله withouth any dots above the h ه. The word billu بل means "recovering from an illness", from the verb balla yabillu- بل يبل "to get well".

part of the word:

The preposition balha بله "let alone", and the noun balah بلة "stupidity", are written blh بله, exactly like billuhuw بلهو above.

The bound T is always part of one of the feminine suffixes ah ة and aah اة. The former is very very common.

When these suffixes are followed by any other suffix, the bound T is pronounced and written as a normal T. Let's add suffixes to raa#iHah رائحة ("a scent"), which ends in bound T:

with suffix	we get
-haa ها "her"	raa#iHatuhaa رائحتها "her scent"
-iy ي "my"	raa#iHatiy رائحتي "my scent".
-aan ان	raa#iHataan رائحتان "two scents"

The suffix an ن is never written after a bound T. Unlike regular an ن, it is not pronounced at all before a pause. We say ra#aytu kalbah رأيت كلبة "I saw a bitch", never *kalbataa كلبتا*. When there's any word after this an ن, the an ن is pronounced normally: ra#aytu kalbatan wakalbaa رأيت كلبتن وكلبا "I saw a bitch and a dog". The word is always written klbh كلبه with two dots above the h ه regardless of the pronunciation being kalbah كلبة or kalbatan- كلبتن.

Pronunciation of the Bound T

That's why most Arabs, when writing with Western letters, won't bother to write the final h ه of words like "alqaeda" (curouisly enough, they never forget the final h ه of the word ALLAH, even though westerners don't hear it).

Copyright (c) 2001-2009 Jordi Mas Trullenque.
email: jordimastrullenque at gmail dot com
http://purl.oclc.org/net/arabe/taaimarbuta.en.html
Last revised: 2008-03-18

the Broken #alif ألف

Alphabet Table

writing_arabic -> alphabet -> the Bound taa#