Re: Questions about yeh, hamzah on yeh, alef maksura and dotless ba

[Mohammed Yousif <mhdyousif at gmx dot net>]

On Thursday 29 December 2005 10:37, Oibane wrote:
> Hello, there.
>
>
> There still remains ambiguity, though. First I admit it is partly
> due to my lack of classic Arabic knowledge. Now:
>
> 1. Thomas Milo proposed as a "less ambitious approach", where unique
> "yeh" is used throughout, and it should drop dots at the final
> position under Qur'anic locale. If this is to be adopted, I could not
> understand the following point: today's usage sometimes require both
> the dotted and un-dotted yeh at the final, so one yes does not
> suffice.  Is this solution limited to meet Meor's need?
>

I would suggest that one codepoint be used for all Yeh needs.
But if someone needs the dots on the final shape that would require us to see
what these dots mean:
 - If they are to identify the Yeh (like all other dots), then it's only
   a different style for writting the Yeh.
 - If they are to identify the "e" sound Yeh not like the rest of dots, then
   I really don't know how this should be handled because these two dots
   in this context can not be considered part of the final shape of the letter
   Yeh since they add more information to the already known letter Yeh and
   that's not the scope of dots in Arabic.
   Maybe in that case U+064A should be used as a Yeh specialization, but then
   I wouldn't like that solution.

> Now what about the situation of classic materials 
> (not limited to Qur'aan)? In the relevant era, is it always the case that
> hamza or small alif are acutually written with dotless yeh, while
> ini/mid yeh which represents "y" consonant has two dots?

for the Mushaf (written Qur'an text), it's always the case, maybe
because Yeh is the only letter that Hamza can sit on, so the dots
are not needed here.

> Are there no 
> occurrence of "unwritten hamza" with dotless yeh? (If I remember
> correctly, hamza is invented later by headhunting `ain.)

Only in classical manuscripts that were written before the Hamza and the dots.
Even the Qur'an is now written in Masahef using Hamza.

>
> By the way, does anyone know this? I know "alif saghiirah" means the
> small alif. Are there direct translation of "dagger alif" in Arabic?
> I once guessed that since it resembles to dagger sign which indicates
> footnote, the word "dagger alif" was coined by a european orientalist...
>

"dagger alif" or in Arabic "Alef Khengariya" is the most popular name for the
shape used by Small Alef in the Mushaf among all Qur'an scholars but it is
a rather shape-oriented name :-)
ألف خنجرية


-- 
Mohammed Yousif
Egypt

"قال قائل منهم إني كان لي قرين. يقول أءنك لمن المصدقين. أءذا متنا وكنا تراباً 
وعظاماً أءنا لمدينون. قال هل أنتم مطلعون. فاطلع فرءاه في سواء الجحيم. قال
تالله إن كدت لتردين. ولولا نعمة ربي لكنت من المحضرين"  (من القرءان الكريم)