Walaikum assalam!
Great question! You’re absolutely right to notice this.
The word الشمس (ash-shams, “the sun”) is a perfect example of sun letters (الحروف الشمسية). When the Arabic article ال (al-) comes before a word starting with a sun letter (like ش), the “L” sound is assimilated into the following letter, and we pronounce it with a shadda (doubling).
So:
- Written: الشمس
-
- Pronounced: ash-shams (not “al-shams”)
- The app is displaying this correctly! The romanization “asshamsa” shows the assimilation of the “L” into the “sh” sound.
There are 14 sun letters in Arabic: ت، ث، د، ذ، ر، ز، س، ش، ص، ض، ط، ظ، ن، ل
In contrast, moon letters (الحروف القمرية) keep the “al-” pronunciation, like القمر (al-qamar, “the moon”).
Thanks for being attentive to these details!
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