1)Whether "A" or "E" or any other stand alone vowel, in Arabic you use the same letter for all those, Alif :
ا
That's merely a "seat" which carries the hamza, which itself carries the vowel. The vowel is a fatha, which is traditionally pronounced like the a in cat, but (thanks to the miracle of imaala) is often colloquially pronounced like the e in bet.
The Arabic article consists of three parts: an alif with hamza, which carries a vowel, and the letter l, which frequently assimilates to the following letter (as in 3). Note too that the alif-hamza disappears after another vowel (as in 2 or 4), so the "base form" of the article, al- (seen in 1), is actually quite rare.
1.
al-maktab "the office"
2.
fi-l-maktab "in the office"
3.
ash-sharq "the East"
4.
fi-sh-sharq "in the East"
Note that alif-lam (al-) would be written in all of these words, but neither the alif nor the lam are pronounced in 4.
2)It can be read as Kuwabaik, Kwibiik, or Kuwabiik.
Or Kuubiik, for that matter.
)
