Short vowels

Short vowels
Vowels are indicated by diacritical marks placed above or below the letters. In the Arabic handwriting of everyday use, in general publications, and on street signs, short vowels are typically not written. On the other hand, copies of the Qurʼan cannot be endorsed by the religious institutes that review them unless the diacritics are included. It is also generally preferred and customary that they be included whenever the Qurʼan is cited in print. Children's books, elementary-school texts, and Arabic-language grammars in general will include diacritics to some degree. These are known as "vocalized" texts.
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Written Arabic cannot be considered truly complete without the notation of its short vowels, which are essential to it. They convey information not coded in any other way. Like dotted letters, diacritical marks were a later addition to the writing system.
Short vowels can be included in cases where word ambiguity could not easily be resolved from context alone, or simply wherever they might be considered aesthetically pleasing.
Short vowels may be written with diacritics placed above or below the consonant that precedes them in the syllable, called harakat. All Arabic vowels, long and short, follow a consonant; in Arabic, words like "Ali" or "alif", for example, start with a consonant: ʻAliyy, ʼalif.
Short vowels (fully vocalised text) Name Trans. Value
ٌَّ ◌
fatḥa
a
/a/
ٌُّ ◌
ḍamma
u
/u/
ٌِّ ◌
kkasra
i
/i/