1(in Arabic script) a symbol representing a glottal stop.
‘The sign hamza also represents a glottal stop and is transliterated in the same way.’
‘Historically, qaf merged with the hamza (the glottal stop), except in some restricted domains mainly religious ones.’
‘Ibrahim Jaafari in Arabic begins with an alif for Ibrahim, the first letter of the alphabet (alif supports the glottal stop, hamza, which can serve as a chair for any of the three vowels, the equivalents of a, i or u).’
1.1A glottal stop.
‘Once again we see the the "q" becoming a glottal stop sound like "hamza."’
‘I discovered that my students pronounce Latin "La'in," with a glottal stop as intense as any Cockney's, or as any Arabic hamza.’
Origin
Arabic, literally ‘compression’.
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