sun letter

Etymology
.

Noun

 * 1)  One of fourteen Arabic letters that cause the "L" of a preceding definite article  to be assimilated in pronunciation. The sun letter suppresses the sound of the "L" and then geminates: al + ṣīn = aṣ-ṣīn. The effect of the sun letter is limited to pronunciation and does not affect the spelling, except that a shadda may be written over the sun letter and in the fully vocalised spelling lām lacks any diacritics: . The fourteen sun letters are, , , , , , , , , , , , , . Phonetically, they represent  consonants.

Usage notes

 * is not traditionally among the sun letters, as its corresponding sound was originally a palatal . However, its pronunciation in Modern Standard Arabic varies per region from, , to , respectively both of which are coronal, and velar. Prescriptively, it should still avoid assimilating the definite article in observance of tradition, but in practice, speakers may apply assimilation regardless.

Translations

 * Arabic: حَرْف شَمْسِيّ (plural: حُرُوف شَمْسِيَّة)
 * French: lettre solaire
 * German:
 * Kazakh: күн әрпі
 * Malay: huruf syamsiah
 * Maltese: konsonanti xemxin
 * Russian: со́лнечная бу́ква
 * Spanish: letra solar
 * Ukrainian: сонячна літера, сонячна буква