Wasla

{{Short description|Variant of the Arabic letter hamza}}

The waṣla ({{langx|ar|{{wikt-lang|ar|وَصْلَة}}|lit=an instance of connection}}) or {{Transliteration|ar|hamzatu l-waṣli}} ({{lang|ar|هَمْزَةُ ٱلْوَصْلِ}}, 'hamza of connection') is a variant of the letter hamza ({{lang|ar|ء}}) resembling part of the letter tsade ({{lang|ar|ص}}) that is sometimes placed over the letter aleph at the beginning of the word ({{lang|ar|ٱ}}). The ʾalif with waṣla over it is called the {{Transliteration|ar|ʾalifu l-waṣli}} ({{lang|ar|أَلِفُ ٱلْوَصْلِ}}, 'aleph of connection'). It indicates that the alif is not pronounced as a glottal stop (written as the hamza), but that the word is connected to the previous word (like liaison in French). Outside of vocalised liturgical texts, the {{Transliteration|ar|waṣla}} is usually not written.{{cite web

| last = Alhonen

| first = Miikka-Markus

| title = Proposal for encoding the combining diacritic Arabic wasla

| url = https://www.unicode.org/L2/L2003/03166-wasla.pdf

| publisher = unicode.org

| accessdate = 25 March 2014}}{{cite web

| last = Price

| first = James M

| title = Helping Vowels and the Elidable Hamza

| url = http://allthearabicyouneverlearnedthefirsttimearound.com/p1/p1-ch1/helping-vowels-and-the-elidable-hamza/

| publisher = Arabic Language Lessons: All The Arabic You Never Learned The First Time Around

| accessdate = 25 March 2014}}

It is written in two positions:

{{Arabic alphabet shapes|ٱ}}