53. Hamza. (a) While a few signs still remain to be mentioned (most of them as rarely used in practice as the vowel-marks), there is one last sound to which we have so far given no attention: hamza. This is a consonant in its own right, a light glottal stop, a catch in the breath, often a division between vowels not already divided by a “bold” consonant; sometimes, especially at the beginning or end of a word, it is practically inaudible to foreign speakers, who would say that the word began or ended with a vowel. In the middle or at the end of words, it is transliterated by an apostrophe (not to be confused with the reversed apostrophe' of para. 32); at the beginning it is usually “assumed”. Thus: ‘akala (“he ate”), which we shall henceforth write merely as akala; sa'ala (“he asked”); jaru'a (“he dared”); shai' (“a thing”); and so on.

(b) There is little difficulty about recognising or pronouncing hamza. The real problem lies in the writing of it. This is partly a historical problem, for the pronunciation and marking of hamza in Standard Arabic seems to have been an innovation, added in recorded times to an already established hamza-less alphabet. Accordingly, it has never been properly absorbed into the alphabet, but stands as a small either in mid-air; or over w or y (the latter without dots usually in all positions); or over or under alif.