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:

    “These modern ingenious sciences and arts do not affect me as those more venerable arts of hunting and fishing, and even of husbandry in its primitive and simple form; as ancient and honorable trades as the sun and moon and winds pursue, coeval with the faculties of man, and invented when these were invented. We do not know their John Gutenberg, or Richard Arkwright, though the poets would fain make them to have been gradually learned and taught.”
    —Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)

    “The angels all were singing out of tune,
    And hoarse with having little else to do,
    Excepting to wind up the sun and moon,
    Or curb a runaway young star or two,”
    —George Gordon Noel Byron (1788–1824)

    “A rose must remain with the sun and the rain or its lovely promise won’t come true.”
    —Ray Evans (b. 1915)

    “Then they seen it, the old Missouri River shinin’ in the moon and across it the lights of St. Louis.”
    —Dudley Nichols (1895–1960)

    “Bolkenstein, a Minister, was speaking on the Dutch programme from London, and he said that they ought to make a collection of diaries and letters after the war. Of course, they all made a rush at my diary immediately. Just imagine how interesting it would be if I were to publish a romance of the “Secret Annexe.” The title alone would be enough to make people think it was a detective story.”
    —Anne Frank (1929–1945)