Alef is the first letter of the Persian alphabet.
It is also the most frequently used letter. It has the long "A" sound as in "father".
Some books use "â" to represent this sound, we prefer capital A as it evokes Persian
script.
Note that at the beginning of a word, alef wears its "hat", which looks like a tilde ( ~ ) sign.
When alef comes in the middle or end of a word, it does not wear its hat, but still has a long A sound.
If the first letter of a word is an alef without its hat on, it does not have
a long A sound. It is
not acting as an alef.
It is either:
- a placeholder
for one
of the
zirozebar
(the
short vowels in Persian that are pronounced but usually not
written
- see vowels section) in which case it has
a short
crisp "a", "e", or "o" sound; or
- if followed by a "vAv" or "ye", it indicates that those letters will have their vowel sound. (Otherwise,
if you were to see a "vAv" or a "ye" at the beginning of a word, you would assume it had it's consonant sound.)
We will elaborate on these rules and design some nice easy to remember, visual
examples. In the meantime: THIS PAGE STILL UNDER CONSTRUCTION!
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