Sun and Moon Letters

Sun And Moon Letters

In Arabic and Maltese, the consonants are divided into two groups, called the sun letters or solar letters (Arabic: حروف شمسية‎ ḥurūf šhamsiyyah) and moon letters or lunar letters (حروف قمرية ḥurūf qamariyyah), based on whether or not they assimilate the letter lām (ﻝ l) of a preceding definite article al- (الـ). These names come from the fact that the word for "the sun", aš-šams, assimilates the lām, while the word for "the moon", al-qamar, does not.

Read more about Sun And Moon Letters:  Rule, Orthography, See Also

Famous quotes containing the words sun and moon, sun and, sun, moon and/or letters:

    “I would that the Boar without bristles had come from the West
    And had rooted the sun and moon and stars out of the sky
    And lay in the darkness, grunting, and turning to his rest.”
    —William Butler Yeats (1865–1939)

    “Behold, O God our shield, and look upon the face of thine anointed.
    For a day in thy courts is better than a thousand. I had rather be a doorkeeper in the house of my God, than to dwell in the tents of wickedness.
    For the Lord God is a sun and shield: the Lord will give grace and glory:”
    —Bible: Hebrew Psalm LXXXIV (l. LXXXIV, 9–11)

    “The names of those who in their lives fought for life,
    Who wore at their hearts the fire’s centre.
    Born of the sun they traveled a short while towards the sun,
    And left the vivid air signed with their honour.”
    —Stephen Spender (1909–1995)

    “Ms. Dog wouldn’t give them her buttocks.
    She would moon at them.
    Just at the killers of the dream.
    The bus boys of the soul.
    Or at death
    who wants to make her a mummy.”
    —Anne Sexton (1928–1974)

    “If you are one of the hewers of wood and drawers of small weekly paychecks, your letters will have to contain some few items of news or they will be accounted dry stuff.... But if you happen to be of a literary turn of mind, or are, in any way, likely to become famous, you may settle down to an afternoon of letter-writing on nothing more sprightly in the way of news than the shifting of the wind from south to south-east.”
    —Robert Benchley (1889–1945)