(), also Romanized as el-, il-, and l- as pronounced in some varieties of Arabic, is the definite article in the Arabic language: a particle (ḥarf) whose function is to render the noun on which it is prefixed definite. For example, the word kitāb "book" can be made definite by prefixing it with al-, resulting in al-kitāb "the book". Consequently, al- is typically translated as "the" in English. Unlike most other Arabic particles, al- is always prefixed to another word and never stands alone. Consequently, many dictionaries do not list it, and it is almost invariably ignored in collation, as it is not an intrinsic part of the word. Al- does not inflect for gender, number or grammatical case. The sound of the final -l consonant, however, can vary; when followed by a sun letter such as t, d, r, s, n and a few others, it assimilates to that sound, thus doubling it. For example: for "the Nile", one does not say al-Nīl, but an-Nīl. When followed by a moon letter, like m-, there is no assimilation: al-masjid ("the mosque"). This affects only the pronunciation and not the spelling of the article. Overview To put al- into perspective, there are many ways in which Arabic words can be made definite. These include the use of personal pronouns like "me", the use of proper nouns like "Saudi Arabia", demonstrative pronouns like "this man", relative pronouns like "the man who ...", vocation like "O man", possession like "my man", and of course the definite article like "the man". Apart from possession, prefixing a noun with al- is the weakest form of definiteness. That is, saying "the man" does not define the man being referred to as clearly as saying "this man", for example. Arabic has an indefinite article indicated by nunation () which is declined for three cases. Etymology The etymology of al- is the study of how it developed and how it changed over time. There are several major opinions in regards to the origins of the Arabic definite article. The earliest evidence of the article, besides a 1st-century BC inscription in Qaryat al-Faw (formerly Qaryat Dhat Kahil, near Sulayyil, Saudi Arabia), occurs in the 5th century BC, in the epithet of a goddess which Herodotus (Histories I: 131, III: 8) quotes in its preclassical Arabic form as Alilat (Ἀλιλάτ, i. e.,ʼal-ʼilat), which means "the goddess". Proto-Semitic particle hypothesis While