THE HAMZAH OF INFLECTION IN QURʾĀNIC ORTHOGRAPHY: MEDIAL AND FINAL POSITIONS

Abstract

Inflectional vowels (ḥarakāt) are the original markers of grammatical inflection, while the inflectional letters (alif, wāw, and yāʾ), which are vocal extensions of the three short vowels, are the secondary markers. However, when the term “inflectional letter” is used, it is understood to mean the final letter that bears the inflectional vowel mark. In the Qur’anic script (rasm al-muṣḥaf), when the hamzah functions as the letter carrying the grammatical ending, its orthographic form sometimes changes. Its orthography then reflects its grammatical inflection by departing from the standard orthographic rules, which normally do not take into account the vowel of a word-final hamzah, since this position is where inflectional changes occur. The researcher has coined the term “Hamzat al-Iʿrāb” (the inflectional hamzah) and has chosen as the title of this study: “The Inflectional Hamzah in the Qur’anic Script in Medial and Final Positions.”. This study examines the relationship between the orthography of the hamzah and the grammatical case. The form of the medial hamzah changes when pronouns are attached, depending on its vowel, as in: abnāʾunā, abnāʾinā, and abnāʾanā (all meaning “our sons,”), indicating the nominative, genitive, or accusative cases respectively. This principle is consistently applied in the Qur’anic script except when the hamzah precedes the first-person singular possessive yāʾ (yāʾ al-mutakallim), where it omits the written form of the hamzah because, in some Qur’anic readings, it is also omitted in pronunciation. The standard orthography of the final hamzah depends on the vowel of the preceding letter so that a single word does not acquire a change when its grammatical case changes. However, certain words are written contrary to the standard rule by taking its own vowel into consideration. The researcher explains these by considering the grammatical case of the word, where the form of the hamzah itself serves as an indicator of inflection. Hence, the researcher designates it as “the inflectional hamzah.”