Arabic letter dāl

It is the standalone display form of Arabic dāl. Dāl represents the voiced /d/ consonant in Arabic writing. This character fixes the letter’s isolated appearance; the base letter د is normally shaped according to its position in a word.

The fixed form is a compatibility character, not a second letter. For ordinary Arabic text, the base letter gives the writing system room to shape the glyph to its neighbors.

Dāl joins to the letter before it in Arabic’s right-to-left writing, but not to the letter after it. A gap after dāl can therefore be normal within a word.

How did Arabic dāl develop?

Arabic script developed from Nabataean writing in the Aramaic tradition. The Namarah inscription, dated 328 CE, shows an advanced stage of that transition; the Zabad inscription, dated 512 CE, is a later example of cursive Arabic script.

Dāl’s role is to write the /d/ consonant in words. Arabic script was also adapted for languages including Persian, Urdu, and Pashto, whose writing systems include additional letters for sounds they need.

How do I type Arabic dāl?

Use the base letter د for ordinary Arabic text.

On Windows, the Arabic (101) keyboard layout uses the ] key for د. The shaping system chooses the displayed form from the letter’s position and neighbors.