In the English language we make use of an article to make a noun definite or indefinite. We use the indefinite article "a" to create an indefinite noun such as "a toy" and we use the definite article "the" to create a definite noun such as "the toy". Notice that the definite and indefinite articles are seperate words from the noun itself. Within Arabic, the definite and indefinite articles are incorporated into the noun itself resulting in a single word as opposed to two seperate words as in the case of English. Arabic annexes characters to the end of the word to make a noun indefinite and annexes characters to the beginning of a word to make it definite.
Nunation, called tanwīn in Arabic, is the annexation method used to make a noun indefinite and is done to the end of a noun. Since Arabic adjectives must mirror the noun (as will be discussed in later lessons), the adjective describing an indefinite noun must also take nunation. Because many Arabic adverbs are based on adjectives, there is also nunation occuring in some adverbs.
So what exactly is nunantion. From the point of view of pronunciation, it is the adding of an "n" sound to the end of a noun, adjective or adverb. From the written point of view it is the placement of a doubled short vowel on the end of the word. Since there are three short vowels, there are three doubled short vowels. The resulting 3 sounds are "un", "an", and "in" with the corresponding names of ɖamma tanwīn, fatɧa tanwīn, and kasra tanwīn.
If we were to apply this methodology to the word "dog" we would end up with dogun, dogan, dogin.
So the question arises as to why there are 3 different types of nunation endings. Why not simply use "un" and forget the other two? Well it just so happens that Arabic has 3 cases: the nominative case, the accusative case and the genitive case. And each of these cases corresponds to one of the nunation endings; the nominative case uses "un", the accusative case uses "an" and the genitive case uses "in".
Without getting into too much detail, cases refer to the different forms a particular noun takes based on its function in a sentence. The English language uses word order to determine a noun's particular function and by doing so is able to ignore changes to its form. "A dog saw a bird." versus "A bird saw a dog.". In the first sentence the dog is the subject and the bird is the object and in the second sentence the bird is the subject and the dog is the object. Neither "bird" or "dog" changed form. In Arabic we would say something like "dogun saw birdan." and "birdun saw dogan." The forms changed. dogun became dogan and birdan became birdun. Having these case endings means that word order becomes less important. You could say "birdan dogun saw" and you would still know the meaning because of the case endings. Languages such as Russian, Greek, Hungarian and Latin that make heavy use of case endings are called "Inflected Languages". Arabic has 3 different cases which isn't very difficult when you consider that Hungarian has 18 different case endings! Just keep in mind that Arabic nouns have three different case endings based on their function in a sentence and that adjectives mirror their nouns so they will have the same case endings as the nouns they describe.
When verbs are inflected, they are referred to as conjugations and often have different endings based on person, number, gender, mood, etc.. English has very little inflection of its verbs (ie. I/you/he/we/they ran home) but makes up for it with auxillary words such as "will have run home". Arabic only uses a single word for a verb and attaches suffixes and prefixes to the verb to show person, number, mood, etc.. Lots of information can be placed in an Arabic verb to the point where one word can contain a whole sentence such as أُحِبُّكِ which means "I love you".
1. The fatɧa tanwīn prefers to sit on an 'alif'. (The 'alif' is not pronounced. It just acts as a seat.)
2. If there is a tāʾ marbūʈa on the end of the word or an alif maqʂūra then no 'alif' is required and the double fatɧa is placed over the tāʾ marbūʈa or alif maqʂūra.
3. If the final letter in the word is a hamza then there are three things to consider in determining how the fatɧa tanwīn will be displayed.
b. If the letter before the hamza is a letter that does not allow a letter to be connected after it ( ie. د ذ ر ز و ) then an 'alif' is placed after the hamza and the fatɧa tanwīn is placed above the 'alif'.
c. If the letter before the hamza is a letter that allows for a letter to be connected after it then the hamza is seated on a ي (remember the ي looses its 2 dots and looks like ئ). An 'alif' is then attached to the end of the ئ and the fatɧa tanwīn is placed above the 'alif'. The resulting word ending looks like ــئاً .
Listed below are various examples of what has been discussed above
1. Names of cities, countries and female persons DO NOT take nunation.
2. Nunation is rarely used in spoken Arabic. There are various instances of the the fatɧa tanwīn being used in common expressions like مَرْحَباً (hello), أَهْلاً وَسَهْلاً (welcome), شُكْراً (thank you). With regards to Koranic reading, nunation is always vocalized.
3. Written Arabic as seen in publications such as newspapers does not display short vowel markings and nunation markings. However, the 'alif' in the fatɧa tanwīn does not disappear and will be seen in written Arabic. With regards to Koranic texts, nunation is always used.