Notable featuresThe arabic alphabet

Notable features
The arabic alphabet contains 28 letters. Some additonal letters are used in arabic when writing places names of foreign words containing sounds which do not occur in standard arabic, such as /p/ or/g/.
Words are written in horizontal lines from right to left; numerals are from left to right. Most letters change from depending in whether they appear at the beginning, middle or end of a word, or on their own.
Letters that csn be joined are always joined in both hand-written and printed arabic. The only exceptions to the rule are crossword puzzles and signs which the script is written vertically.
The long /a/, /i/, and /u/ are representedby the letters ‘aluf, yaa and waaw respectively.
Short vowels are not usually marked, except in poetry, textbooks for foreign learners, children’s books and the qur’an (koran). When short vowels are marked, /a/ is written with the horizontal line (fat’haa) over the consonant letter, little hook (domma) is used to write /u/.
A shadda, which looks like the letter siin without its tail, is used to indicate the doubling of consonant. A small circle (sukuun) is used to indicate the absence of a vowel.