Tāʾ marbūṭa

The unicode|tāʾ marbūṭa ( _ar. تاء مربوطة‎, "bound "unicode|tāʾ") is a variant of the letter "tāʾ" used at the end of words. It mostly exists in grammatically feminine words. It denotes the sound /IPA|h/, and when in construct state, /IPA|t/. The regular letter ta, to distinguish it from "unicode|tāʾ marbūṭa", is referred to as "unicode|tāʾ maftuha", meaning "open unicode|tāʾ" ( _ar. تاء مفتوحة‎‎)

The word "risala#" ( _ar. رسالة, "letter, message"; "unicode|tāʾ marbūṭa" is denoted here as #), when pronounced in isolation, ends in a soft /h/ sound - which is why the "unicode|tāʾ marbūṭa" (in this position) looks like a hāʾ ( _ar. ه). When the word is suffixed with a personal pronoun "-kum" (meaning "yours"), it changes to "risalat*kum" ( _ar. رسالتكم; the asterisk is used here to mean any short vowel). The pronunciation is /t/, just like the regular, or open "unicode|tāʾ" ( _ar. ت). But the identity of the "character" has not changed; it is still "unicode|tāʾ marbūṭa". Note that the isolated and final forms of this letter combine the shape of the ha and the two dots of the "unicode|tāʾ".

Ta marbuta is not traditionally considered a first-class letter in the Arabic alphabet; instead it is a clever solution to the problem that a single character (in the deep orthography ) takes two completely different pronunciations depending on context.

When words containing the symbol are borrowed into other languages written in the Arabic alphabet (such as Persian), ta marbuta usually becomes a regular ه. Such words are subject to the normal rules of the grammar of the particular language into which they have been borrowed; thus, in Persian the ta marbuta becomes a ى when the "ezāfe"—the ending indicating possession—is added.