أَلِف مَقْصُورَة(ʾalif maqṣūra, “restricted alif”), only written in the final position, transliterated ā. Also called أَلِف لَيِّنَة(ʾalif layyina, “flexible alif”). Its occurrence is rare. Its pronunciation length is usually short:
North Africa: [æ], [ɑ]
The Levant: [a], [ɑ]
Arabia: [æ], [a], [ɑ]
Persian Gulf: [ɐ]
When pronounced longly, it is often in careful Literary Arabic pronunciation or in reciting Koran. All long pronunciations have the same vowel values, with the exception of the gulf pronunciation, the lengthened pronunciation is only [ɑː].
The yāʾي(y) in the final position, as spelled by the Egyptians and the Sudanese. This was the original form of the letter in final position for both of -ī and -ā, before the creation of ي(y).
