sun letter

English

Etymology

Calque of Arabic حَرْف شَمْسِيّ (ḥarf šamsiyy).

Noun

sun letter (plural sun letters)

1. (linguistics) One of fourteen Arabic letters that cause the "L" of a preceding definite article اَل (al-) to be assimilated in pronunciation. The sun letter suppresses the sound of the "L" and then geminates: al + ṣīn = aṣ-ṣīn. The effect of the sun letter is limited to pronunciation and does not affect the spelling, except that a shadda may be written over the sun letter and in the fully vocalised spelling lām lacks any diacritics: الصِّين (aṣ-ṣīn). The fourteen sun letters are ت (t), ث (ṯ), د (d), ذ (ḏ), ر (r), ز (z), س (s), ش (š), ص (ṣ), ض (ḍ), ط (ṭ), ظ (ẓ), ل (l), ن (n). Phonetically, they represent coronal consonants.

Usage notes

• ج (j) is not traditionally among the sun letters, as its corresponding sound was originally a palatal /ɟ/. However, its pronunciation in Modern Standard Arabic varies per region from /d͡ʒ/, /ʒ/, to /ɡ/, respectively both of which are coronal, and velar. Prescriptively, it should still avoid assimilating the definite article in observance of tradition, but in practice, speakers may apply assimilation regardless.

Synonyms

• solar letter

Antonyms

• moon letter

Translations

sun letter

• Arabic: حَرْف شَمْسِيّ m (ḥarf šamsiyy) (plural: حُرُوف شَمْسِيَّة m pl (ḥurūf šamsiyya))
• French: lettre solaire f
• German: Sonnenbuchstabe (de) m
• Kazakh: күн әрпі (kün ärpı)
• Malay: huruf syamsiah
• Maltese: konsonanti xemxin
• Russian: со́лнечная бу́ква f (sólnečnaja búkva)
• Spanish: letra solar f
• Ukrainian: сонячна літера f (sonjačna litera), сонячна буква (sonjačna bukva)