Араб тіліндегі әріптердің екі тобының айырмашылығы

Distinction between two groups of Arabic consonants

In Arabic and Maltese, the consonants are divided into two groups, called the sun letters or solar letters (حروف شمسية , ) and moon letters or lunar letters (Arabic: حروف قمرية , ), based on whether they assimilate the letter (ﻝ ) of a preceding Arabic definite article al (الـ), which is an important general rule used in Arabic grammar. Phonetically, sun letters are ones pronounced as coronal consonants, and moon letters are ones pronounced as other consonants. These names come from the fact that the word for 'the Sun', , pronounced ash shams, assimilates the , while the word for 'the Moon', , does not. This also applies to the Maltese language where they are written as ix xemx and il qamar.

The letter [[Gimel is pronounced differently depending on the region of the speaker. In many regions it represents a coronal consonant such as or However, in Classical Arabic, it represented a palatalized voiced velar plosive or a voiced palatal plosive A contemporary pronunciation as is retained in Egypt, Oman, and coastal Yemen or in eastern hinterland Yemen, and as a variant in Sudan. As a result, it was classified as a moon letter, and it does not assimilate the article in Classical Arabic. Maltese ġ is also considered a moon consonant, whereas its voiceless counterpart ċ is a sun consonant. However, in some varieties of Moroccan, Mesopotamian, and Palestinian Arabic, (often //) assimilates, like a sun letter, e. g., 'camel'.