Hamza

The hamza ( '''') () is an Arabic script character that, in the Arabic alphabet, denotes a glottal stop and, in non-Arabic languages, indicates a diphthong, vowel, or other features, depending on the language. Derived from the letter ''ʿayn'' (), the hamza is written in initial, medial, and final positions as an unlinked letter or placed above or under a carrier character. Despite its common usage as a letter in Modern Standard Arabic, it is generally not considered to be one of its letters, although some argue that it should be considered so.

The hamza is often romanized as a typewriter apostrophe ('), a modifier letter apostrophe (ʼ), a modifier letter right half ring (ʾ), or as the International Phonetic Alphabet symbol . In Arabizi, it is either written as "2" or not written at all.

In the Phoenician, Hebrew and Aramaic alphabets, from which the Arabic alphabet is descended, the glottal stop was expressed by ''aleph'' (), continued by ''alif'' () in the Arabic alphabet. However, alif was used to express both a glottal stop and a long vowel . In order to indicate that a glottal stop is used and not a mere vowel, the hamza was added to alif diacritically. Just as Greek vowels were used as diacritical marks to indicate vowel sounds in Western Syriac, the hamza (in effect a lower-case Greek alpha) was used as a diacritical mark in Arabic to indicate the original Aleph glottal stop. In modern Arabic orthography, hamza may also appear on the line under certain circumstances as though it were a full letter, independent of an alif. Provided by Wikipedia