hamza

See also: Hamza

English

Etymology

From Arabic هَمْزَة‎ (hamza).

Noun

hamza (plural hamzas)

1. A sign (ء‎ (ʾ)‎ - a stand-alone hamza) used in the written Arabic language representing a glottal stop. Hamza may appear as a stand-alone letter or most commonly diacritically over or under other letters, e.g. أ‎ (ʾ)‎ (over an alif - ا‎‎), إ‎ (ʾ)‎ (under an alif), ؤ‎ (ʾ)‎ (over a wāw - و‎ (w)‎) or ئ‎ (ʾ)‎ (over a dotless yāʾ - ى‎‎). The exact seat of hamza is governed by an orthographic rule - "seat of hamza rule".
   • 2021, Claire Cock-Starkey, Hyphens & Hashtags, Bodleian Library, page 33:

     Written words such as Qurʼan (which in written Arabic uses a symbol know as hamza to indicate the glottal stop) are rendered with an apostrophe.

Usage notes

• Sometimes transliterated as an apostrophe.

Derived terms

• hamzated
• unhamzated

Translations

Arabic hamza

• Arabic: هَمْزَة‎ (ar) f (hamza)
• Chinese:

  Mandarin: 哈姆扎 (hāmǔzhā)

• Finnish: hamza
• French: hamza (fr) m
• German: Hamza n, Hamsa n
• Japanese: ハムザ (hamuza)

• Kazakh: һамза (hamza)
• Malay: hamzah
• Persian: همزه‎ (fa) (hamze)
• Polish: hamza (pl) f
• Russian: ха́мза f (xámza)
• Spanish: jamza
• Turkish: hemze
• Uyghur: ھەمزە‎ (hemze)