We can pass over more rapidly the other signs of this class, which are the Maddah, the Tashdīd, and the Jazmah or Sukūn. If in consequence of any grammatical operation an Alif, as prop of a Hamzah sounded with fatḥah, comes to stand before another such Alif, we write آ pronounced ā, instead of أَأَ, and the upper horizontal sign is called Maddah or Madd, “lengthening,” “prolongation.” While thus the Maddah is the sign for the doubling of an Alif, the Tashdīd ( _ّ_ ) is the sign for the doubling of a consonant (ـبّـ = bb). If, lastly, a consonant is not to be followed by a vowel, the sign _ْ_ or
, named Jazmah (cutting off) or Sukūn (rest), is placed above it, and the consonant is called “quiescent” (sākinah), in contradistinction from a “moved” consonant (muḥarrakah), that is, one sounded with a vowel (ḥarakah, “motion”).
We have seen that the Hamzatu ʾl-Qat̤ʿ (
) is an abbreviated form of the letter ʿAin (ع). In similar manner, the sign for the Hamzatu ʾl-Waṣl or Hamzatu ʾṣ-Ṣilah (
) is an abbreviated form of the initial صـ (ṣ) of the word Ṣilah. The sign for the Maddah (
), as written in old manuscripts, seems to be a stretched out form for the word Madd (مد) itself, and the sign for the Tashdīd ( _ّ_ ) represents the initial شـ of the word Shiddah, which is the technical term for it. The original sign for the Jazmah (