For example, the Arabic letters ب (b), ت (t) and ث (th) have the same basic shape, but have one dot below, two dots above and three dots above, respectively. These dots are an integral part of a letter, since they distinguish between letters that represent different sounds. Many letters look similar but are distinguished from one another by dots ( ʾiʿjām) above or below their central part ( rasm). There are no distinct upper and lower case letter forms. Adaptations of the Arabic script for other languages added and removed some letters, as for example Persian, Ottoman Turkish, Kurdish, Urdu, Sindhi, Azerbaijani (in Iran), Malay, Pashto, Punjabi, Uyghur, Arwi and Arabi Malayalam, all of which have additional letters as shown below. The basic Arabic alphabet contains 28 letters. As with other impure abjads, such as the Hebrew alphabet, scribes later devised means of indicating vowel sounds by separate vowel diacritics. The Arabic alphabet is considered an abjad, meaning it only uses consonants, but it is now considered an ' impure abjad'. Most letters have contextual letterforms.

It is written from right to left in a cursive style and includes 28 letters. BCEĪdlam (slight influence from Arabic) 1989 CE Caucasian Albanian (origin uncertain) c.Cherokee (syllabary letter forms only) c.

Alif ba ta bangla