{"id":3768,"date":"2026-11-07T09:35:00","date_gmt":"2026-11-07T06:35:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/denkarabisch.de\/en\/blog\/\/"},"modified":"2026-10-14T00:12:41","modified_gmt":"2026-10-13T21:12:41","slug":"the-letter-dhaal","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/denkarabisch.de\/en\/blog\/the-letter-dhaal\/","title":{"rendered":"The Letter Dhaal (\u0630) – Hear It, Write It, Never Mix It Up Again"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

The letter Dhaal (\u0630)<\/strong>, in Arabic \u0630\u064e\u0627\u0644, is the 9th letter of the Arabic alphabet. You make it with the tip of your tongue touching the edges of your upper front teeth while your voice keeps buzzing. Linguists call it a voiced dental fricative, written [\u00f0] in IPA.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Here is the honest part: German has no Dhaal. But you almost certainly know it already from English. The “th” in this, that and mother is exactly the Arabic \u0630. If you can say “this” without turning it into “dis” or “sis”, you can say Dhaal.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Short exercises at the end let you check what you have learned.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Fact<\/strong><\/td>Dhaal (\u0630)<\/strong><\/td><\/tr>
Name<\/strong><\/td>\u0630\u064e\u0627\u0644 (Dh\u0101l)<\/td><\/tr>
Sound<\/strong><\/td>[\u00f0], voiced dental fricative; English “this”, Modern Greek \u03b4 in \u03b4\u03ad\u03ba\u03b1<\/td><\/tr>
Position in the alphabet<\/strong><\/td>9th letter (hij\u0101\u02be\u012b order)<\/td><\/tr>
Abjad value<\/strong><\/td>25th position, value 700<\/td><\/tr>
Transliteration<\/strong><\/td>Common: dh \u00b7 DIN 31635: \u1e0f \u00b7 Variant: \u00f0, informally th \u00b7 Arabizi: no fixed digit (usually dh, th or z)<\/td><\/tr>
Point of articulation<\/strong><\/td>Tip of the tongue with the edges of the upper front teeth<\/td><\/tr>
Sun or Moon letter<\/strong><\/td>Sun letter<\/td><\/tr>
Heavy or light<\/strong><\/td>Always light (muraqqaq)<\/td><\/tr>
Dots<\/strong><\/td>One dot above<\/td><\/tr>
Connection<\/strong><\/td>Non-connecting: joins only from the right<\/td><\/tr><\/tbody><\/table><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

A note on transliteration: single words are shown in their pausal form, the way they sound when you stop on them. Full sentences show every case ending.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Table of Contents<\/p>\n<\/div>