Long vowels

Long vowels
A long a following a consonant other than a hamza is written with a short a sign on the consonant plus an ʾalif after it; long i is written as a sign for short i plus a yāʾ; and long u as a sign for short u plus a wāw. Briefly, aʾ = ā, iy = ī and uw = ū. Long a following a hamza may be represented by an ʾalif madda or by a free hamza followed by an ʾalif.
In the table below, vowels will be placed above or below a dotted circle replacing a primary consonant letter or a šadda sign. For clarity in the table below, the primary letter on the left used to mark these long vowels are shown only in their isolated form. Please note that most consonants do connect to the left with ʾalif, wāw and yāʾ written then with their medial or final form. Additionally, the letter yāʾ in the last row may connect to the letter on its left, and then will use a medial or initial form. Use the table of primary letters to look at their actual glyph and joining types.
Long vowels (fully vocalised text) Name Trans. Value
اٌَ ◌
fatḥa ʾalif (َا )
Ā
/aː/
ىٌَ ◌
fatḥa ʾalif maqṣūra (َى )
ā / aỳ
/a/
وٌُ ◌
ḍamma wāw
ū / uw (ُو )
/uː/
يٌِ ◌
kasra yāʾ
ī / iy (ِي )
/iː/
In unvocalized text (one in which the short vowels are not marked), the long vowels are represented by the vowel in question: ʾalif, ʾalif maqṣūra (or yeh), wāw, or yāʾ. Long vowels written in the middle of a word of unvocalised text are treated like consonants with a sukūn(see below) in a text that has full diacritics. Here also, the table shows long vowel letters only in isolated form for clarity.
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Combinations وا and يا are always pronounced wā and yā respectively, the exception is when وا is the verb ending, where ʾalif is silent, resulting in ū.