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50-751: 14°10′N 16°27′W  /  14.16°N 16.45°W  / 14.16; -16.45 The River Sine or Sine River ( Siin in Serer language ; La Rivière Sine in French language ) is a river in Senegal . It flows into the Atlantic Ocean with the River Saloum in the delta of Sine-Saloum . This article related to a river in Senegal is a stub . You can help Misplaced Pages by expanding it . Serer language Serer

100-441: A digraph (combination of two consonants). While historically, there were single letter alternatives, these letters are no longer used. Prenasalized consonants are constructed using meem (م) or noon (ن) in combination with other consonants. The letter meem (م) appears in pairs with beh (ب), whereas the letter noon (ن) appears in pairs with dal (د), jeem (ج), qaf (ق), and geh (گ). Prenasalized consonants cannot take

150-410: A maddah is placed on any other letter to denote the name of the letter, though some letters may take on a dagger alif . For example: ⟨ لٓمٓصٓ ⟩ ( lām - mīm - ṣād ) or ⟨ يـٰسٓ ⟩ ( yāʼ-sīn) The waṣlah ⟨ وَصْلَة ⟩ , alif waṣlah ⟨ أَلِف وَصْلَة ⟩ or hamzat waṣl ⟨ هَمْزَة وَصْل ⟩ looks like the head of

200-422: A diacritic over or under an alif , wāw , or yā . Which letter is to be used to support the hamzah depends on the quality of the adjacent vowels and its location in the word; Consider the following words: ⟨ أَخ ⟩ /ʔax/ ("brother"), ⟨ إسْماعِيل ⟩ /ʔismaːʕiːl/ ("Ismael"), ⟨ أُمّ ⟩ /ʔumm/ ("mother"). All three of above words "begin" with

250-784: A fully vocalised ( vowelised or vowelled ) Arabic from the Bismillah : بِسْمِ ٱللَّٰهِ ٱلرَّحْمَٰنِ ٱلرَّحِيمِ bismi l-lāhi r-raḥmāni r-raḥīm In the name of God, the All-Merciful, the Especially-Merciful. Some Arabic textbooks for foreigners now use ḥarakāt as a phonetic guide to make learning reading Arabic easier. The other method used in textbooks is phonetic romanisation of unvocalised texts. Fully vocalised Arabic texts (i.e. Arabic texts with ḥarakāt /diacritics) are sought after by learners of Arabic. Some online bilingual dictionaries also provide ḥarakāt as

300-538: A letter, and represents a short /a/ (like the /a/ sound in the English word "cat"). The word fatḥah itself ( فَتْحَة ) means opening and refers to the opening of the mouth when producing an /a/ . For example, with dāl (henceforth, the base consonant in the following examples): ⟨ دَ ⟩ /da/ . When a fatḥah is placed before a plain letter ⟨ ا ⟩ ( alif ) (i.e. one having no hamza or vowel of its own), it represents

350-435: A long /aː/ (close to the sound of "a" in the English word "dad", with an open front vowel /æː/, not back /ɑː/ as in "father"). For example: ⟨ دَا ⟩ /daː/ . The fatḥah is not usually written in such cases. When a fathah is placed before the letter ⟨ ﻱ ⟩ (yā’), it creates an /aj/ (as in "l ie "); and when placed before the letter ⟨ و ⟩ (wāw), it creates an /aw/ (as in "c ow "). Although paired with

400-479: A long fatħah , was used for a contracted (assimilated) sin . Thus ⟨ ڛ سۣ سۡ سٚ ⟩ were all used to indicate that the letter in question was truly ⟨ س ⟩ and not ⟨ ش ⟩ . These signs, collectively known as ‘alāmātu-l-ihmāl , are still occasionally used in modern Arabic calligraphy , either for their original purpose (i.e. marking letters without i‘jām ), or often as purely decorative space-fillers. The small ک above

450-412: A phonetic guide similarly to English dictionaries providing transcription. The ḥarakāt حَرَكَات , which literally means 'motions', are the short vowel marks. There is some ambiguity as to which tashkīl are also ḥarakāt ; the tanwīn , for example, are markers for both vowels and consonants. The fatḥah ⟨ فَتْحَة ⟩ is a small diagonal line placed above

500-421: A plain letter creates an open front vowel (/a/), often realized as near-open (/ æ /), the standard also allows for variations, especially under certain surrounding conditions. Usually, in order to have the more central (/ ä /) or back (/ ɑ /) pronunciation, the word features a nearby back consonant, such as the emphatics, as well as qāf , or rā’ . A similar "back" quality is undergone by other vowels as well in

550-462: A red dot placed above, below, or beside the rasm , and later consonant pointing was introduced, as thin, short black single or multiple dashes placed above or below the rasm . These i‘jām became black dots about the same time as the ḥarakāt became small black letters or strokes. Typically, Egyptians do not use dots under final yā’ ( ي ), which looks exactly like alif maqṣūrah ( ى ) in handwriting and in print. This practice

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600-411: A short /i/ (as in "me", "be") and its allophones [i, ɪ, e, e̞, ɛ] (as in "Tim", "sit"). For example: ⟨ دِ ⟩ /di/ . When a kasrah is placed before a plain letter ⟨ ﻱ ⟩ ( yā’ ), it represents a long /iː/ (as in the English word "steed"). For example: ⟨ دِي ⟩ /diː/ . The kasrah is usually not written in such cases, but if yā’

650-453: A small ṣād on top of an alif ⟨ ٱ ⟩ (also indicated by an alif ⟨ ا ⟩ without a hamzah ). It means that the alif is not pronounced when its word does not begin a sentence. For example: ⟨ بِٱسْمِ ⟩ ( bismi ), but ⟨ ٱمْشُوا۟ ⟩ ( imshū not mshū ). This is because in Arabic, the first consonant in

700-414: A superscript kaf or a small superscript hamza ( nabrah ), and lam with a superscript l-a-m ( lam-alif-mim ). Although normally it is sometimes not considered a letter of the alphabet, the hamza هَمْزة ( hamzah , glottal stop ), often stands as a separate letter in writing, is written in unpointed texts and is not considered a tashkīl . It may appear as a letter by itself or as

750-431: A trend towards simplifying Arabic grammar. The sign ⟨ ـً ⟩ is most commonly written in combination with ⟨ ـًا ⟩ ( alif ), ⟨ ةً ⟩ ( tā’ marbūṭah ), ⟨ أً ⟩ (alif hamzah) or stand-alone ⟨ ءً ⟩ ( hamzah ). Alif should always be written (except for words ending in tā’ marbūṭah, hamzah or diptotes) even if an

800-399: A vocalised text, they may be written even if they are not pronounced (see pausa ). See i‘rāb for more details. In many spoken Arabic dialects, the endings are absent. Many Arabic textbooks introduce standard Arabic without these endings. The grammatical endings may not be written in some vocalized Arabic texts, as knowledge of i‘rāb varies from country to country, and there is

850-470: A vowel opening the syllable, and in each case, alif is used to designate the initial glottal stop (the actual beginning). But if we consider middle syllables "beginning" with a vowel: ⟨ نَشْأة ⟩ /naʃʔa/ ("origin"), ⟨ أَفْئِدة ⟩ /ʔafʔida/ ("hearts"—notice the /ʔi/ syllable; singular ⟨ فُؤاد ⟩ /fuʔaːd/ ), ⟨ رُؤُوس ⟩ /ruʔuːs/ ("heads", singular ⟨ رَأْس ⟩ /raʔs/ ),

900-469: A word must always be followed by a vowel sound: If the second letter from the waṣlah has a kasrah, the alif-waslah makes the sound /i/. However, when the second letter from it has a dammah, it makes the sound /u/. It occurs only in the beginning of words, but it can occur after prepositions and the definite article. It is commonly found in imperative verbs, the perfective aspect of verb stems VII to X and their verbal nouns ( maṣdar ). The alif of

950-450: Is a small curl-like diacritic placed above a letter to represent a short /u/ (as in "duke", shorter "you") and its allophones [u, ʊ, o, o̞, ɔ] (as in "put", or "bull"). For example: ⟨ دُ ⟩ /du/ . When a ḍammah is placed before a plain letter ⟨ و ⟩ ( wāw ), it represents a long /uː/ (like the 'oo' sound in the English word "swoop"). For example: ⟨ دُو ⟩ /duː/ . The ḍammah

1000-507: Is also used in copies of the muṣḥaf ( Qurʾān ) scribed by ‘Uthman Ṭāhā . The same unification of yā and alif maqṣūrā has happened in Persian , resulting in what the Unicode Standard calls " Arabic Letter Farsi Yeh ", that looks exactly the same as yā in initial and medial forms, but exactly the same as alif maqṣūrah in final and isolated forms. At

1050-454: Is in children's literature. Moreover, ḥarakāt are used in ordinary texts in individual words when an ambiguity of pronunciation cannot easily be resolved from context alone. Arabic dictionaries with vowel marks provide information about the correct pronunciation to both native and foreign Arabic speakers. In art and calligraphy , ḥarakāt might be used simply because their writing is considered aesthetically pleasing. An example of

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1100-417: Is not. Grammatical cases and tanwīn endings in indefinite triptote forms: The shadda or shaddah ⟨ شَدَّة ⟩ ( shaddah ), or tashdid ⟨ تَشْدِيد ⟩ ( tashdīd ), is a diacritic shaped like a small written Latin " w ". It is used to indicate gemination (consonant doubling or extra length), which is phonemic in Arabic. It is written above the consonant which

1150-538: Is one of the Senegambian languages , which are characterized by consonant mutation . The traditional classification of Atlantic languages is that of Sapir (1971), which found that Serer was closest to Fulani . However, a widely cited misreading of the data by Wilson (1989) inadvertently exchanged Serer for Wolof . Dialects of Serer are Serer Sine (the prestige dialect ), Segum, Fadyut-Palmerin, Dyegueme (Gyegem), and Niominka . They are mutually intelligible except for

1200-544: Is primarily written in Latin alphabet . The Latin alphabet has been standardized in various government decrees, the latest of which was issued in 2005. However, historically, similar to Wolof language , its first writing system was the adaption of the Arabic Script. The Arabic script is used today as well, albeit in a smaller scale, and only mostly limited to Islamic school teachers and students. The Arabic -based script of Serer

1250-446: Is pronounced as a diphthong /aj/ , fatḥah should be written on the preceding letter to avoid mispronunciation. The word kasrah means 'breaking'. Kasrah s are encoded U+061A ؚ ARABIC SMALL KASRA , U+0650 ِ ARABIC KASRA , U+FE7A ﹺ ARABIC KASRA ISOLATED FORM , or U+FE7B ﹻ ARABIC KASRA MEDIAL FORM . The ḍammah ⟨ ضَمَّة ⟩

1300-745: Is to be doubled. It is the only ḥarakah that is commonly used in ordinary spelling to avoid ambiguity . For example: ⟨ دّ ⟩ /dd/ ; madrasah ⟨ مَدْرَسَة ⟩ ('school') vs. mudarrisah ⟨ مُدَرِّسَة ⟩ ('teacher', female). Note that when the doubled letter bears a vowel, it is the shaddah that the vowel is attached to, not the letter itself: ⟨ دَّ ⟩ /dda/ , ⟨ دِّ ⟩ /ddi/ . Shaddah s are encoded U+0651 ّ ARABIC SHADDA , U+FE7C ﹼ ARABIC SHADDA ISOLATED FORM , or U+FE7D ﹽ ARABIC SHADDA MEDIAL FORM . The i‘jām ( إِعْجَام ; sometimes also called nuqaṭ ) are

1350-663: Is usually not written in such cases, but if wāw is pronounced as a diphthong /aw/ , fatḥah should be written on the preceding consonant to avoid mispronunciation. The word ḍammah (ضَمَّة) in this context means rounding , since it is the only rounded vowel in the vowel inventory of Arabic. Ḍammah s are encoded U+0619 ؙ ARABIC SMALL DAMMA , U+064F ُ ARABIC DAMMA , U+FE78 ﹸ ARABIC DAMMA ISOLATED FORM , or U+FE79 ﹹ ARABIC DAMMA MEDIAL FORM . The superscript (or dagger) alif ⟨ أَلِف خَنْجَرِيَّة ⟩ ( alif khanjarīyah ),

1400-422: Is usually produced automatically by entering alif lām lām hāʾ . The word consists of alif + ligature of doubled lām with a shaddah and a dagger alif above lām , followed by ha' . The maddah ⟨ مَدَّة ⟩ is a tilde -shaped diacritic, which can only appear on top of an alif (آ) and indicates a glottal stop /ʔ/ followed by a long /aː/ . In theory,

1450-457: Is very important in Sereer. For example, this exchange is only for when the household in question is not nearby. Certain grammatical changes would occur if the greetings were exchanged in a home that the greeter has just entered: In Senegalese Sereer culture like many cultures in that region, greetings are very important. Sometimes, people will spend several minutes greeting each other. Article 1 of

1500-498: Is written as short vertical stroke on top of a letter. It indicates a long /aː/ sound for which alif is normally not written. For example: ⟨ هَٰذَا ⟩ ( hādhā ) or ⟨ رَحْمَٰن ⟩ ( raḥmān ). The dagger alif occurs in only a few words, but they include some common ones; it is seldom written, however, even in fully vocalised texts. Most keyboards do not have dagger alif . The word Allah ⟨ الله ⟩ ( Allāh )

1550-507: Is written without ḥarakāt (or short vowels). However, they are commonly used in texts that demand strict adherence to exact pronunciation. This is true, primarily, of the Qur'an ⟨ ٱلْقُرْآن ⟩ ( al-Qurʾān ) and poetry . It is also quite common to add ḥarakāt to hadiths ⟨ ٱلْحَدِيث ⟩ ( al-ḥadīth ; plural: al-ḥādīth ) and the Bible . Another use

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1600-409: The kāf in its final and isolated forms ⟨ ك  ـك ⟩ was originally an ‘alāmatu-l-ihmāl that became a permanent part of the letter. Previously this sign could also appear above the medial form of kāf , when that letter was written without the stroke on its ascender . When kaf was written without that stroke, it could be mistaken for lam , thus kaf was distinguished with

1650-552: The Arabic script , and like other Ajami scripts , is an abjad . This means that only consonants are represented with letters. Vowels are shown with diacritics . As a matter of fact, writing of diacritics, including zero-vowel (sukun) diacritic as per the orthographic are mandatory. Arabic has 3 vowels, and thus 3 vowel diacritics. But in Serer, there are 5 vowels, and as all vowels are shown with diacritics in Serer. This means that on top of

1700-522: The Universal Declaration of Human Rights Arabic diacritics The Arabic script has numerous diacritics , which include consonant pointing known as iʻjām ( إِعْجَام ), and supplementary diacritics known as tashkīl ( تَشْكِيل ). The latter include the vowel marks termed ḥarakāt ( حَرَكَات ; sg. حَرَكَة , ḥarakah ). The Arabic script is a modified abjad , where all letters are consonants, leading it up to

1750-462: The 3 original diacritics, 2 additional ones have been created. Vowels in Wolof are also distinguished by length, short and long. Short vowels are only shown with a diacritic. Similar to Arabic, long vowels are indicated by writing alif (ا), waw (و), or yeh (ي). But unlike Arabic, this does not mean that the vowel diacritic can be dropped. It cannot, as there 5 vowels and not 3. When vowels appear at

1800-455: The Sereer spoken in some of the areas surrounding the city of Thiès . Not all Serer people speak Serer. About 200,000 speak Cangin languages . Because the speakers are ethnically Serer, they are commonly thought to be Serer dialects. However, they are not closely related, and Serer is significantly closer to Fulani (also called Pulbe, Pulaar, or Fulbe) than it is to Cangin. The voiceless implosives are highly unusual sounds. Serer today

1850-503: The beginning of the word, an alif (ا) is used as the carrier of the vowel. If a long vowel is at the beginning of the word, an alif , an alif (ا) is used as the carrier of the vowel, followed by either waw (و) or yeh (ي) as appropriate. The exception is when a word starts with the long vowel "Aa". Instead of two alif s (اا) being used, an alif-maddah (آ) is used. The following greetings and responses are spoken in most regions of Senegal that have Serer speakers. Spatial awareness

1900-407: The centuries. The literal meaning of تَشْكِيل tashkīl is 'variation'. As the normal Arabic text does not provide enough information about the correct pronunciation, the main purpose of tashkīl (and ḥarakāt ) is to provide a phonetic guide or a phonetic aid; i.e. show the correct pronunciation for children who are learning to read or foreign learners. The bulk of Arabic script

1950-459: The definite article is considered a waṣlah . It occurs in phrases and sentences (connected speech, not isolated/dictionary forms): Like the superscript alif, it is not written in fully vocalized scripts, except for sacred texts, like the Quran and Arabized Bible. The sukūn ⟨ سُكُونْ ⟩ is a circle-shaped diacritic placed above a letter (  ْ ). It indicates that

2000-461: The diacritic points that distinguish various consonants that have the same form ( rasm ), such as ⟨ ص ⟩ /sˤ/ , ⟨ ض ⟩ /dˤ/ . Typically i‘jām are not considered diacritics but part of the letter. Early manuscripts of the Quran did not use diacritics either for vowels or to distinguish the different values of the rasm . Vowel pointing was introduced first, as

2050-412: The diphthong ay ( IPA /aj/ ). A fatḥah , followed by the letter ⟨ ﻭ ⟩ ( wāw ) with a sukūn , ( ـَوْ ) indicates /aw/ . Sukūn s are encoded U+0652 ْ ARABIC SUKUN , U+FE7E ﹾ ARABIC SUKUN ISOLATED FORM , or U+FE7F ﹿ ARABIC SUKUN MEDIAL FORM . The sukūn may have also an alternative form of

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2100-410: The full tashkīl —vowel guides and consonant length. It is however not uncommon for authors to add diacritics to a word or letter when the grammatical case or the meaning is deemed otherwise ambiguous. In addition, classical works and historic documents rendered to the general public are often rendered with the full tashkīl , to compensate for the gap in understanding resulting from stylistic changes over

2150-434: The letter to which it is attached is not followed by a vowel, i.e., zero -vowel. It is a necessary symbol for writing consonant-vowel-consonant syllables, which are very common in Arabic. For example: ⟨ دَدْ ⟩ ( dad ). The sukūn may also be used to help represent a diphthong. A fatḥah followed by the letter ⟨ ﻱ ⟩ ( yā’ ) with a sukūn over it ( ـَيْ ) indicates

2200-451: The presence of such consonants, however not as drastically realized as in the case of fatḥah . Fatḥah s are encoded U+0618 ؘ ARABIC SMALL FATHA , U+064E َ ARABIC FATHA , U+FE76 ﹶ ARABIC FATHA ISOLATED FORM , or U+FE77 ﹷ ARABIC FATHA MEDIAL FORM . A similar diagonal line below a letter is called a kasrah ⟨ كَسْرَة ⟩ and designates

2250-408: The reader to fill in for vowel sounds. Short consonants and long vowels are represented by letters but short vowels and consonant length are not generally indicated in writing. Tashkīl is optional to represent missing vowels and consonant length. Modern Arabic is always written with the i‘jām —consonant pointing, but only religious texts, children's books and works for learners are written with

2300-524: The same sequence /ʔaː/ could also be represented by two alif s, as in * ⟨ أَا ⟩ , where a hamza above the first alif represents the /ʔ/ while the second alif represents the /aː/ . However, consecutive alif s are never used in the Arabic orthography. Instead, this sequence must always be written as a single alif with a maddah above it, the combination known as an alif maddah . For example: ⟨ قُرْآن ⟩ /qurˈʔaːn/ . In Quranic writings,

2350-772: The small high head of ḥāʾ ( U+06E1 ۡ ARABIC SMALL HIGH DOTLESS HEAD OF KHAH ), particularly in some Qurans. Other shapes may exist as well (for example, like a small comma above ⟨ʼ⟩ or like a circumflex ⟨ˆ⟩ in nastaʿlīq ). The three vowel diacritics may be doubled at the end of a word to indicate that the vowel is followed by the consonant n . They may or may not be considered ḥarakāt and are known as tanwīn ⟨ تَنْوِين ⟩ , or nunation. The signs indicate, from left to right, -an, -in, -un . These endings are used as non-pausal grammatical indefinite case endings in Literary Arabic or classical Arabic ( triptotes only). In

2400-468: The time when the i‘jām was optional, unpointed letters were ambiguous. To clarify that a letter would lack i‘jām in pointed text, the letter could be marked with a small v- or seagull -shaped diacritic above, also a superscript semicircle (crescent), a subscript dot (except in the case of ⟨ ح ⟩ ; three dots were used with ⟨ س ⟩ ), or a subscript miniature of the letter itself. A superscript stroke known as jarrah , resembling

2450-475: The zero-vowel diacritic sukun (◌ْ). If they are at the end of the word and have no vowels, they will take the gemination diacritic shadda (◌ّ). In prenasalized consonants, the first letter of the digraph, namely either meem (م) or noon (ن), is written with no diacritic. This is what distinguishes them from consonant sequences. Some Serer-speaking authors treat these digraphs as their own independent letters. Serer Ajami script, like its parent system,

2500-699: Was set by the government as well, between 1985 and 1990, although never adopted by a decree, as the effort by the Senegalese ministry of education was to be part of a multi-national standardization effort. The script is referred to as "Serer Ajami script " (In Serer: ajami seereer , اَجَمِ سࣹيرࣹيرْ ‎). There are 29 letters in Serer Ajami script. The list does not include consonants that are used exclusively in Arabic loanwords and do not occur in Serer words, nor does it include digraphs used for showing prenasalized consonants. Prenasalized consonants are written as

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