sun letter

Calque of Arabic حَرْف شَمْسِيّ (ḥarf šamsiyy).

sun letter (plural sun letters)

1. (linguistics) One of fourteen Arabic letters that cause the "L" of a preceding definite article اَل (al-) to be assimilated in pronunciation. The sun letter suppresses the sound of the "L" and then geminates: al + ṣīn = aṣ-ṣīn. The effect of the sun letter is limited to pronunciation and does not affect the spelling, except that a shadda may be written over the sun letter and in the fully vocalised spelling lām lacks any diacritics: الصِّين (aṣ-ṣīn). The fourteen sun letters are ت (t), ث (ṯ), د (d), ذ (ḏ), ر (r), ز (z), س (s), ش (š), ص (ṣ), ض (ḍ), ط (ṭ), ظ (ẓ), ل (l), ن (n). Phonetically, they represent coronal consonants.

• ج (j) is not traditionally among the sun letters, as its corresponding sound was originally a palatal /ɟ/. However, its pronunciation in Modern Standard Arabic varies per region from /d͡ʒ/, /ʒ/, to /ɡ/, respectively both of which are coronal, and velar. Prescriptively, it should still avoid assimilating the definite article in observance of tradition, but in practice, speakers may apply assimilation regardless.

• solar letter

• moon letter