Ḍād Information & Ḍād Links at HealthHaven.com

Arabic alphabet
	ا ب ت ث ج ح
	خ د ذ ر ز س
	ش ص ض ط ظ ع
	غ ف ق ك ل
	م ن ه‍ و ي
	History · Transliteration; Diacritics · Hamza ء; Numerals · Numeration v • d • e

Ḍād (ﺽ) is one of the six letters the Arabic alphabet added to the twenty-two inherited from the Phoenician alphabet (the others being ṯāʾ, ḫāʾ, ḏāl, ẓāʾ, ġayn). It represents an emphatic voiced alveolar plosive (IPA: [dˤ]), although many speakers of Arabic consider this to be an oversimplification. In name and shape, it is a variant of ṣād. Based on ancient descriptions of this sound, it appears to have represented /ɮˤ/ in Qur'anic Arabic a pharyngealized voiced alveolar lateral fricative (It is said that the Islamic prophet, Muhammad, pronounced it with both sides of his tongue).^[1] This is an extremely unusual sound, and led the early Arabic grammarians to describe Arabic as the "language of the Ḍād", since the sound was thought to be unique to Arabic. South Semitic maintained a related grapheme, as South Arabian ṣ́, and Ge'ez Ṣ́appa ፀ, but these represented the original proto-Semitic ṣ́ that became ḍ in Arabic (/ṣ́/ merged with /ṣ/ early in Ge'ez but the etymologically correct spellings were kept, though sometimes confused). Its numerical value is 800 (see Abjad numerals).

Ḍād is written in several ways depending in its position in the word:

Position in word:	Isolated	Initial	Medial	Final
Form of letter:	ض	ضـ	ـضـ	ـض

In some reconstructions of Proto-Semitic phonology, there is an emphatic voiceless alveolar lateral fricative, ṣ́ (IPA: [ɬˁ]), featuring as the direct ancestor of Arabic Ḍād, while merging with ṣād in most other Semitic languages.

[edit] See also

Ll Welsh voiceless lateral fricative
Sat
Śawt
Arabic phonology
Ḍ

[edit] Sources

Lateral Fricatives Worldwide and in Africa

^ The Side of the Tongue

[0] The Side of the Tongue

[1]