Arabic diacritics

Arabic diacritics are marks placed above or below letters to indicate short vowels, consonant doubling, absence of a vowel, and other pronunciation distinctions.

Arabic alphabet: The set of letters used to write Arabic, primarily representing consonants and long vowels. Diacritics attach to these letters rather than replacing their basic shapes.
Fatḥah: A short diagonal stroke above an Arabic letter, conventionally marking a short /a/ vowel. It is the basic mark for the short vowel most often represented in teaching texts.
Tashkīl: The addition of pronunciation marks to Arabic text, especially short vowels and consonant signs. It names the practice of adding diacritics to otherwise unvocalized writing.
Unvocalized Arabic: Arabic text written without most short-vowel marks, relying on readers’ vocabulary and context. It is the common counterpart to fully marked Arabic text.
Arabic script: The writing system used for Arabic and several other languages, written from right to left. Diacritics are part of this script’s system for representing pronunciation.
Kasrah: A short diagonal stroke below an Arabic letter, conventionally marking a short /i/ vowel. Its placement below the letter distinguishes the short /i/ vowel from other vowel marks.
Quranic orthography: The conventions used to write the Quran, including specialized signs for recitation and textual guidance. Quranic copies use an extensive marking system to guide precise recitation.
Hebrew niqqud: A system of dots and strokes added to Hebrew letters to represent vowels and other reading details. It provides a close comparison with vowel marks used alongside a consonant-centered script.
Arabic vowels: Arabic has three short vowels and three corresponding long vowels, with distinctions in length and quality. Short-vowel marks encode vowel sounds normally left unwritten in unvocalized Arabic.
Ḍammah: A small curl above an Arabic letter, conventionally marking a short /u/ vowel. It supplies the third basic short-vowel value in the common diacritic system.

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