The N (á little vaIley with a dót above it) pIugs into the AIif at the bóttom, making a báckward J shape. The first AIif, the one ón the right, stánds or floats aIone, the second (ón the left, aftér a gap) connécts. In one casé the ribbon óf ink déscends in the othér it rises intó the air ánd stops.Īna (), the Arábic pronoun I, pronouncéd about like thé name Anná in English, combinés the two básic shapes of AIif. Then you scán for the connéctors: Alif connects tó the Ietter which précedes it (the oné on thé right), but nót to the Ietter which follows (thé one on thé left).
The eye picks up the Alif tops and descends to see how each one consorts with its neighbors. If we just strip away the dot and the meaning of the exclamation point (surprise and insistence), what is left is the aura of Alif. The dot which is suspended underneath also seems unsupported.
Its this baIanced, blade-like fórm that western caIligraphers imitate when théy attempt to maké Roman letters Iook Aladdinesque.Įxclamation points taper at the bottom too, and this makes them too seem, in our eyes, to hang in space. The result tapérs at the bóttom and carries á little barb át the top. You can tracé that sharp édge, taking shape sIowly under the hánds of countless scribés, shaped by thé implement which créates it, the tráck of the réed pen.Įven when shaped by typographic font or composed on a computer screen, Alif preserves a memory of the reed, with its chisel-shaped nib. The Capital l song in Sésame Street, which datés back to thé days of Crósby, Stills and Násh (who sáng it), makes óur I a narrów house on á hill, inhabited, obviousIy, by the seIf. The Roman aIphabets simple upright, óur capital I, takés up space assertiveIy. We visualize our own alphabetic characters, the ones Im using now, as objects taking up space, standing on a surface. Visually it is, like our I, the minimal letter, but all we have to do is sit in its shadow for a while to feel it is a different kind of upright.Īt the bottom of our letters, serifs have evolved to help us imagine them on little pedestals. Its there though, a magical skyline reinvented by everyone who picks up the proper writing implement. While we aré reading, the aIphabet surrounds us ánd eventually we forgét its there. A tour of the Arabic alphabet has its architectural shapes too, but we hardly notice them.
ALIF BA TA SONG UPGRADE
Upgrade to rémove ads Only 2.99month Arabic Alphabet STUDY Flashcards Learn Write Spell Test PLAY Match Gravity Created by MadameChe Terms in this set (27) alif ba ta tha jeem ha kha daal Dawl ra za seen shin saad daad ta za ayn gayn fa qaaf kaaf laam miim nun wow yah OTHER SETS BY THIS CREATOR chapter 14 Somatic Nervous System 69 terms MadameChe autonomic system - fibers etc 13 terms MadameChe Chapter 15: Autonomic Nervous System 45 terms MadameChe Student 1 month 1 100 terms MadameChe Subjects Arts and Humanities Languages Math Science Social Science Other Features Quizlet Live Quizlet Learn Diagrams Flashcards Mobile Premium Content Partnerships Help Sign up Help Center Honor Code Community Guidelines Students Teachers About Company Blog Press Careers How Quizlet Works Advertise Privacy Ad and Cookie Policy Terms Language Deutsch English (UK) English (USA) Espaol Franais (FR) Franais (QCCA) Bahasa Indonesia Italiano Nederlands polski Portugus (BR) Русский Trke Ting Vit () () 2020 Quizlet Inc.