Which marks count as short vowels?

Fatḥa, kasra, and ḍamma (the three harakat) each count as one short vowel. Sukūn marks the absence of a vowel and is not counted. Tanwīn (the nunation marks) are counted as a short vowel plus an /n/, so each tanwīn adds one to the short count.

Which letters count as long vowels?

The matres lectionis ا (alif), و (wāw), and ي (yāʾ) count as long vowels when they extend a preceding short vowel. The tool counts each occurrence of these letters as a long vowel for a broad metrics estimate.

Why does my text show zero short vowels?

Short vowels are only counted from explicit harakat. If your text is unvowelled (no diacritics), no short vowels can be detected. Add fatḥa, kasra, and ḍamma marks for an accurate ratio.

How is the ratio expressed?

The tool gives short:long as a reduced fraction where possible, plus each as a percentage of total vowels. A higher proportion of long vowels generally signals heavier, slower-moving prosody.

Arabic Short/Long Vowel Ratio

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The Arabic short/long vowel ratio measures the balance between short vowels (written as diacritics) and long vowels (written as the letters ا و ي) in a passage. It is a useful descriptive statistic for Arabic prosody (ʿarūḍ), phonetics teaching, and comparing the rhythmic weight of texts.

How it works

The tool scans the text character by character. Short vowels are counted from the harakat code points; long vowels are counted from the mater lectionis letters:

short vowels:  َ (fatḥa)  ِ (kasra)  ُ (ḍamma)        → +1 each
tanwīn:        ً ٍ ٌ                                   → +1 short each
not counted:   ْ (sukūn)  ّ (shadda, a length marker, not a vowel)
long vowels:   ا (alif)   و (wāw)   ي (yāʾ)            → +1 each

The ratio is short ÷ long, also expressed as a reduced fraction and as percentages of the combined vowel total.

Example and notes

In كِتَابٌ (a book), the harakat give kasra + fatḥa + ḍammatan = 3 short vowels, and the single alif gives 1 long vowel, so the ratio is 3:1. Because long vowels are counted from letters and short vowels from diacritics, unvowelled text will undercount short vowels — always supply fully vowelled (mashkūl) text for a meaningful ratio. The و and ي letters are also consonants in some positions, so treat the long-vowel count as a metrics-oriented estimate rather than a strict phonemic tally.