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Ḍād

Ḍād (ﺽ) is one of the six letters the Arabic alphabet added to the twenty-two inherited from the Phoenician alphabet (the others being ṯāʼ, ḫāʼ, ḏāl, ẓāʼ, ġayn). It represents an emphatic voiced alveolar plosive (IPA: [dˤ]). In name and shape, it is a variant of ṣād. Based on ancient descriptions of this sound, it appears to have represented /ɮˤ/ in Qur'anic Arabic a pharyngealized voiced alveolar lateral fricative (It is said that the Prophet Muhammad pronounced it with both sides of his tongue) [1]. This is an extremely unusual sound, and led the early Arabic grammarians to describe Arabic as the "language of the Ḍād", since the sound was thought to be unique to Arabic. South Semitic, however, also continues the phoneme, as South Arabian ḍ, and Ge'ez Ṣ́appa ፀ (also transliterated ḍappa).

Ḍād is written in several ways depending in its position in the word:

In some reconstructions of Proto-Semitic phonology, there is an emphatic voiceless alveolar lateral fricative, ṣ́ (IPA: [ɬˁ]), featuring as the direct ancestor of Arabic Ḍād, while merging with ṣād in most other Semitic languages.

See also

• Ll Welsh voiceless lateral fricative
• Sat
• Śawt
• Ẓāʼ
• Arabic phonology
• Ḍ

Sources

• Lateral Fricatives Worldwide and in Africa