Re: Standalone Superscript Alef (Item 8)

[Mete Kural <metekural at yahoo dot com>]

Salaam Mohammed,

I am seperating these discussions into seperate
threads for better organization. This is the
superscript alef thread.

>  Mete, I agree with Nadim that we need some time,
> but please at least comment
>  on Item 8, your suggestion regarding it (to
> recognize it by a fatha) won't
>  work at all because all of them has fatha preceding
> it.
>  Please comment on this one, then give us some more
> time.
>  If you have a suggestion other than using a fatha
> to trigger the new
>  contextual behavior, then I would like to hear it.

Regarding this topic, in your earlier email you wrote:

<<"This is won't work, simply because a small alef is
essentially an alef and _MUST_ be preceded by a fatha
in ALL cases, there is no single exception to this,
this is SO basic and fundamental rule in Arabic.
Whether in the Qur'an or in a regular text it is the
same, alef MUST be preceded by a fatha and when the
fatha is not written explicitly, it's implied. This is
because Alef is a Madd letter, and you must have a
haraka to lengthen it with the Alef (Alef is used to
lengthen fatha, Yeh is used to lengthen kasra and Waw
is used to lengthen damma). This applies to the Alef
0627 and the Alef Madd 0622. The small alef is used
instead of the Alef 0627 but when a madda is added on
top of that small alef, it becomes Small Alef Madd">> 

This is not true. In an earlier email Tom sent a list
of Qur'anic words where superscript alif stands by
itself on waw, moreover, it also stands by itself on
yaa'-without-dots. 

Kind regards,
Mete