Alxamía

Write modern Spanish and Galician in Arabic letters, with a spelling built on what the Moriscos wrote from the 15th to 17th centuries.

Part I. The script

Lesson 2. Letter families

Many Arabic letters share one skeleton and differ only by dots. Learn the skeleton once, then the dots.

Skeleton Letters Dots
tooth ب, ت, ث 1 below, 2 above, 3 above
tooth (initial and medial only) نـ, يـ 1 above, 2 below
cup ج, ح, خ 1 inside, none, 1 above
bent stroke د, ذ none, 1 above
tail ر, ز none, 1 above
triple tooth س, ش none, 3 above
loop ص, ض none, 1 above
loop with stem ط, ظ none, 1 above
open head ع, غ none, 1 above
round head ف, ق 1 above, 2 above

Why it matters: in the middle of a word, بـ تـ ثـ نـ يـ look identical except for dots. Read the dots before the shape.

The letters with a shape of their own: ا, ك, ل, م, ه, و.

Exercises 2

  1. What letter is a tooth with one dot below?
  2. What letter is a tooth with three dots above?
  3. What separates ج, ح and خ?
  4. What separates س and ش?
  5. In the middle of a word, which five letters share the tooth shape?
  6. Which letter is the tail with one dot above?
  7. Which letter is the round head with one dot above?
Answers
  1. ب
  2. ث
  3. The dot: ج has one inside, ح none, خ one above.
  4. The three dots above ش.
  5. بـ, تـ, ثـ, نـ, يـ
  6. ز
  7. ف