hamza

Borrowed from Arabic هَمْزَة (hamza).

hamza (plural hamzas)

1. A sign (ء (ʔ)‎ - a stand-alone hamza) used in the written Arabic language representing a glottal stop. Hamza may appear as a stand-alone letter or most commonly diacritically over or under other letters, e.g. أ (ʔ)‎ (over an alif - ا‎), إ (ʔ)‎ (under an alif), ؤ (ʔ)‎ (over a wāw - و (w)‎) or ئ (ʔ)‎ (over a dotless yāʾ - ى‎). The exact seat of hamza is governed by an orthographic rule - "seat of hamza rule".
   • 2021, Claire Cock-Starkey, Hyphens & Hashtags, Bodleian Library, page 33:

     Written words such as Qurʼan (which in written Arabic uses a symbol know as hamza to indicate the glottal stop) are rendered with an apostrophe.

• Sometimes transliterated as an apostrophe.