maddah

Arabic diacritic similar in appearance to a tilde. Over an alif (آ (ʾā) "alif maddah"), it indicates glottal stop, /ʔ/, followed by a long /aː/. The diacritic is not used separately, only over alif. Alif maddah can appear in the beginning: آسِف (ʾāsif) or in the middle of a word: قُرْآن (qurʾān).