Fonologi dan Ortografi Bahasa Arab

The Arabic alphabet has a stable system of letters which portray phonetically the consonant phonemes which they stand for in classical Arabic. Each letter represents usually one sound.But there are two major defects or problems from which the Arabic writing and reading suffers considerably. The first is that the majority of letters have various forms, according to their position in a given word –whetherthey are initial, medial, or final– as well as other forms dependent on the position of the letter in relation to another in the construction of the word, as to whether it stands alone or is joined to others.Second, the problem of vowel signs, or what are called diacriticalmarks, which do not appearusuallyin the printing materialsor handwriting. The bare letters of the Arabic alphabet, without the vowelsigns, make it difficultto read correctly or quickly.