Arabic Chat Alphabet
Encyclopedia
The Arabic chat alphabet, Arabizi(Arabic: عربيزي ‘Arabizi ), Arabish or Araby, (Arabic: عربي ‘Araby ), is an alphabet used to communicate in the Arabic language
over the Internet
or for sending messages
via cellular phones when the actual Arabic alphabet
is unavailable for technical reasons. It is a character encoding
of Arabic to the Roman alphabet and the Arabic numerals
. Users of this alphabet have developed some special notations to transliterate
some of the letters that do not exist in the Roman alphabet (ASCII
).
, such as personal computers, the World Wide Web
, email
, bulletin board system
s, IRC
, instant messaging
and mobile phone text messaging. Most of these technologies originally had the ability to communicate using the Latin alphabet
only, and some of them still do not have the Arabic alphabet
as an optional feature. As a result, Arabic speaking users communicated in these technologies by transliterating the Arabic text in to English using the Roman script. To handle those Arabic letters that do not have an approximate phonetic equivalent in the Latin script, numerals and other characters were appropriated. For example, the Latin numeral "3" is used to represent the Arabic letter "ع" ("ayn"). Many people use Arabish even when their system supports the Arabic script because they do not always have Arabic keyboards, or because they are more familiar with the QWERTY
keyboard layout
for typing.
Some people refer to Arabish as Arabic Chat Alphabet because it was most often used to communicate on online chat
services; the main name is "Aralish" or "Arabish" (as "Ara"/"Arab" stands for the first letters of "Arabic" and "Lish"/"ish" stands for the last letters of "English"). The most frequently used term for such transliteration in Modern Standard Arabic is عربية الدردشة , literally "Chat Arabic." Some call it Franco-Arab. The first or one of the first places to use it was Egypt
.
communication
, such as IRC
, bulletin board system
s, and blog
s, are often run on systems or over protocols which don't support codepages or alternate charactersets. This system has gained common use and can be seen even in domain name
s such as Qal3ah
.
It is most commonly used by youths in the Arab world
in very informal settings, for example communicating with friends or other youths. The Arabic Chat Alphabet is never used in formal settings and is rarely, if ever, used for long communications. The length of any single communication in ACA rarely ever exceeds more than a few sentences at a time.
Even though the Arabic language
is well integrated with Windows XP
and Mac OS X
, people still use it in Arabic forums
and instant Messaging programs such as Windows Live Messenger
and Yahoo! Messenger
because they don't always have Arabic keyboards. Also, some people are not capable of using an Arabic keyboard as it is much more complicated than the English one.
Arabish is used on many public advertisements by large multinationals. Because of its widespread use, large players in the online industry like Google
and Microsoft
introduced tools that convert text written in Arabish to Arabic.
Most of the characters in the system make use of the roman character (as used in English and French) that best approximates phonetically the Arabic letter that one wants to express (for example, corresponds to b). This may sometimes vary due to regional variations
in the pronunciation of the Arabic letter (e.g. might be transliterated as j in the Levantine dialect
, or as g in the Egyptian dialect
).
Those letters that do not have a close phonetic approximate in the Latin alphabet are often expressed using numerals or other characters, so that the numeral graphically approximate the Arabic letter that one wants to express (e.g. is represented using the numeral 3 because the latter looks like a horizontal reflection
of the former).
Since many letters are distinguished from others solely by a dot above or below the main character, the conversions frequently used the same letter or number an apostrophe
added after or before (e.g. 3 is used to represent ).
In Iraq
and sometimes Persian Gulf
, it may be used to transcribe t͡ʃ, but most often transcribed as , while in Egypt it's used for transcribing ʒ (which can be a reduction
of d͡ʒ).
Depending on the region, different letters may be used for the same phoneme.
, as well as Pan-Arabists
and some Arab-nationalists
, view Arabish as a detrimental form of Westernization
. Arabish emerged amid a growing trend among Arab
youth, especially in Lebanon
and Jordan
, to incorporate English into Arabic as a form of slang. Arabish is used to replace Arabic script, and this raises concerns regarding the preservation of the quality of the language.
Arabic language
Arabic is a name applied to the descendants of the Classical Arabic language of the 6th century AD, used most prominently in the Quran, the Islamic Holy Book...
over the Internet
Internet
The Internet is a global system of interconnected computer networks that use the standard Internet protocol suite to serve billions of users worldwide...
or for sending messages
Short message service
Short Message Service is a text messaging service component of phone, web, or mobile communication systems, using standardized communications protocols that allow the exchange of short text messages between fixed line or mobile phone devices...
via cellular phones when the actual Arabic alphabet
Arabic alphabet
The Arabic alphabet or Arabic abjad is the Arabic script as it is codified for writing the Arabic language. It is written from right to left, in a cursive style, and includes 28 letters. Because letters usually stand for consonants, it is classified as an abjad.-Consonants:The Arabic alphabet has...
is unavailable for technical reasons. It is a character encoding
Character encoding
A character encoding system consists of a code that pairs each character from a given repertoire with something else, such as a sequence of natural numbers, octets or electrical pulses, in order to facilitate the transmission of data through telecommunication networks or storage of text in...
of Arabic to the Roman alphabet and the Arabic numerals
Arabic numerals
Arabic numerals or Hindu numerals or Hindu-Arabic numerals or Indo-Arabic numerals are the ten digits . They are descended from the Hindu-Arabic numeral system developed by Indian mathematicians, in which a sequence of digits such as "975" is read as a numeral...
. Users of this alphabet have developed some special notations to transliterate
Arabic transliteration
Different approaches and methods for the romanization of Arabic exist. They vary in the way that they address the inherent problems of rendering written and spoken Arabic in the Latin alphabet; they also use different symbols for Arabic phonemes that do not exist in English or other European...
some of the letters that do not exist in the Roman alphabet (ASCII
ASCII
The American Standard Code for Information Interchange is a character-encoding scheme based on the ordering of the English alphabet. ASCII codes represent text in computers, communications equipment, and other devices that use text...
).
History
During the last decades of the 20th century and especially since the 1990s, Western text communication technologies became increasingly prevalent in the Arab worldArab world
The Arab world refers to Arabic-speaking states, territories and populations in North Africa, Western Asia and elsewhere.The standard definition of the Arab world comprises the 22 states and territories of the Arab League stretching from the Atlantic Ocean in the west to the Arabian Sea in the...
, such as personal computers, the World Wide Web
World Wide Web
The World Wide Web is a system of interlinked hypertext documents accessed via the Internet...
Email
Electronic mail, commonly known as email or e-mail, is a method of exchanging digital messages from an author to one or more recipients. Modern email operates across the Internet or other computer networks. Some early email systems required that the author and the recipient both be online at the...
, bulletin board system
Bulletin board system
A Bulletin Board System, or BBS, is a computer system running software that allows users to connect and log in to the system using a terminal program. Once logged in, a user can perform functions such as uploading and downloading software and data, reading news and bulletins, and exchanging...
s, IRC
Internet Relay Chat
Internet Relay Chat is a protocol for real-time Internet text messaging or synchronous conferencing. It is mainly designed for group communication in discussion forums, called channels, but also allows one-to-one communication via private message as well as chat and data transfer, including file...
, instant messaging
Instant messaging
Instant Messaging is a form of real-time direct text-based chatting communication in push mode between two or more people using personal computers or other devices, along with shared clients. The user's text is conveyed over a network, such as the Internet...
and mobile phone text messaging. Most of these technologies originally had the ability to communicate using the Latin alphabet
Latin alphabet
The Latin alphabet, also called the Roman alphabet, is the most recognized alphabet used in the world today. It evolved from a western variety of the Greek alphabet called the Cumaean alphabet, which was adopted and modified by the Etruscans who ruled early Rome...
only, and some of them still do not have the Arabic alphabet
Arabic alphabet
The Arabic alphabet or Arabic abjad is the Arabic script as it is codified for writing the Arabic language. It is written from right to left, in a cursive style, and includes 28 letters. Because letters usually stand for consonants, it is classified as an abjad.-Consonants:The Arabic alphabet has...
as an optional feature. As a result, Arabic speaking users communicated in these technologies by transliterating the Arabic text in to English using the Roman script. To handle those Arabic letters that do not have an approximate phonetic equivalent in the Latin script, numerals and other characters were appropriated. For example, the Latin numeral "3" is used to represent the Arabic letter "ع" ("ayn"). Many people use Arabish even when their system supports the Arabic script because they do not always have Arabic keyboards, or because they are more familiar with the QWERTY
QWERTY
QWERTY is the most common modern-day keyboard layout. The name comes from the first six letters appearing in the topleft letter row of the keyboard, read left to right: Q-W-E-R-T-Y. The QWERTY design is based on a layout created for the Sholes and Glidden typewriter and sold to Remington in the...
keyboard layout
Keyboard layout
A keyboard layout is any specific mechanical, visual, or functional arrangement of the keys, legends, or key–meaning associations of a computer, typewriter, or other typographic keyboard....
for typing.
Some people refer to Arabish as Arabic Chat Alphabet because it was most often used to communicate on online chat
Online chat
Online chat may refer to any kind of communication over the Internet, that offers an instantaneous transmission of text-based messages from sender to receiver, hence the delay for visual access to the sent message shall not hamper the flow of communications in any of the directions...
services; the main name is "Aralish" or "Arabish" (as "Ara"/"Arab" stands for the first letters of "Arabic" and "Lish"/"ish" stands for the last letters of "English"). The most frequently used term for such transliteration in Modern Standard Arabic is عربية الدردشة , literally "Chat Arabic." Some call it Franco-Arab. The first or one of the first places to use it was Egypt
Egypt
Egypt , officially the Arab Republic of Egypt, Arabic: , is a country mainly in North Africa, with the Sinai Peninsula forming a land bridge in Southwest Asia. Egypt is thus a transcontinental country, and a major power in Africa, the Mediterranean Basin, the Middle East and the Muslim world...
.
Usage
OnlineONLINE
ONLINE is a magazine for information systems first published in 1977. The publisher Online, Inc. was founded the year before. In May 2002, Information Today, Inc. acquired the assets of Online Inc....
communication
Communication
Communication is the activity of conveying meaningful information. Communication requires a sender, a message, and an intended recipient, although the receiver need not be present or aware of the sender's intent to communicate at the time of communication; thus communication can occur across vast...
, such as IRC
Internet Relay Chat
Internet Relay Chat is a protocol for real-time Internet text messaging or synchronous conferencing. It is mainly designed for group communication in discussion forums, called channels, but also allows one-to-one communication via private message as well as chat and data transfer, including file...
, bulletin board system
Bulletin board system
A Bulletin Board System, or BBS, is a computer system running software that allows users to connect and log in to the system using a terminal program. Once logged in, a user can perform functions such as uploading and downloading software and data, reading news and bulletins, and exchanging...
s, and blog
Blog
A blog is a type of website or part of a website supposed to be updated with new content from time to time. Blogs are usually maintained by an individual with regular entries of commentary, descriptions of events, or other material such as graphics or video. Entries are commonly displayed in...
s, are often run on systems or over protocols which don't support codepages or alternate charactersets. This system has gained common use and can be seen even in domain name
Domain name
A domain name is an identification string that defines a realm of administrative autonomy, authority, or control in the Internet. Domain names are formed by the rules and procedures of the Domain Name System ....
s such as Qal3ah
Qal3ah
Al-Qal3ah, Qal3ah, or Qal3ati was an Internet forum infamous for being the site of announcements and discussions by Islamic extremists. Postings included several videos of the decapitation of hostages by Abu Musab Al-Zarqawi's group in Iraq. The website had upwards of ten mirrors, but all are down...
.
It is most commonly used by youths in the Arab world
Arab world
The Arab world refers to Arabic-speaking states, territories and populations in North Africa, Western Asia and elsewhere.The standard definition of the Arab world comprises the 22 states and territories of the Arab League stretching from the Atlantic Ocean in the west to the Arabian Sea in the...
in very informal settings, for example communicating with friends or other youths. The Arabic Chat Alphabet is never used in formal settings and is rarely, if ever, used for long communications. The length of any single communication in ACA rarely ever exceeds more than a few sentences at a time.
Even though the Arabic language
Arabic language
Arabic is a name applied to the descendants of the Classical Arabic language of the 6th century AD, used most prominently in the Quran, the Islamic Holy Book...
is well integrated with Windows XP
Windows XP
Windows XP is an operating system produced by Microsoft for use on personal computers, including home and business desktops, laptops and media centers. First released to computer manufacturers on August 24, 2001, it is the second most popular version of Windows, based on installed user base...
and Mac OS X
Mac OS X
Mac OS X is a series of Unix-based operating systems and graphical user interfaces developed, marketed, and sold by Apple Inc. Since 2002, has been included with all new Macintosh computer systems...
, people still use it in Arabic forums
Internet forum
An Internet forum, or message board, is an online discussion site where people can hold conversations in the form of posted messages. They differ from chat rooms in that messages are at least temporarily archived...
and instant Messaging programs such as Windows Live Messenger
Windows Live Messenger
Windows Live Messenger is an instant messaging client created by Microsoft that is currently designed to work with Windows XP , Windows Vista, Windows 7, Windows Mobile, Windows CE, Xbox 360, Blackberry OS, iOS, Java ME, S60 on Symbian OS 9.x and Zune HD...
and Yahoo! Messenger
Yahoo! Messenger
Yahoo! Messenger is an advertisement-supported instant messaging client and associated protocol provided by Yahoo!...
because they don't always have Arabic keyboards. Also, some people are not capable of using an Arabic keyboard as it is much more complicated than the English one.
Arabish is used on many public advertisements by large multinationals. Because of its widespread use, large players in the online industry like Google
Google
Google Inc. is an American multinational public corporation invested in Internet search, cloud computing, and advertising technologies. Google hosts and develops a number of Internet-based services and products, and generates profit primarily from advertising through its AdWords program...
and Microsoft
Microsoft
Microsoft Corporation is an American public multinational corporation headquartered in Redmond, Washington, USA that develops, manufactures, licenses, and supports a wide range of products and services predominantly related to computing through its various product divisions...
introduced tools that convert text written in Arabish to Arabic.
Comparison table
Because of the informal nature of this system, there is no single "correct" way, so some character usage overlaps.Most of the characters in the system make use of the roman character (as used in English and French) that best approximates phonetically the Arabic letter that one wants to express (for example, corresponds to b). This may sometimes vary due to regional variations
Varieties of Arabic
The Arabic language is a Semitic language characterized by a wide number of linguistic varieties within its five regional forms. The largest divisions occur between the spoken languages of different regions. The Arabic of North Africa, for example, is often incomprehensible to an Arabic speaker...
in the pronunciation of the Arabic letter (e.g. might be transliterated as j in the Levantine dialect
Levantine Arabic
Levantine Arabic is a broad variety of Arabic spoken in the 100 to 200 km-wide Eastern Mediterranean coastal strip...
, or as g in the Egyptian dialect
Egyptian Arabic
Egyptian Arabic is the language spoken by contemporary Egyptians.It is more commonly known locally as the Egyptian colloquial language or Egyptian dialect ....
).
Those letters that do not have a close phonetic approximate in the Latin alphabet are often expressed using numerals or other characters, so that the numeral graphically approximate the Arabic letter that one wants to express (e.g. is represented using the numeral 3 because the latter looks like a horizontal reflection
Reflection (mathematics)
In mathematics, a reflection is a mapping from a Euclidean space to itself that is an isometry with a hyperplane as set of fixed points; this set is called the axis or plane of reflection. The image of a figure by a reflection is its mirror image in the axis or plane of reflection...
of the former).
Since many letters are distinguished from others solely by a dot above or below the main character, the conversions frequently used the same letter or number an apostrophe
Apostrophe
The apostrophe is a punctuation mark, and sometimes a diacritic mark, in languages that use the Latin alphabet or certain other alphabets...
added after or before (e.g. 3 is used to represent ).
| Letters | Arabic Chat Alphabet | Phonetic Value (IPA) |
|---|---|---|
| style="line-height:115%"> , etc. | 2 | ʔ |
| style="line-height:115%"> | a / e / é | æ~a~ä~ɑ~e~ɛ |
| style="line-height:115%"> | b / p | b, p |
| style="line-height:115%"> | t | t~t̪~t͡s |
| style="line-height:115%"> | s / th | s~θ |
| style="line-height:115%"> | g / j /dj | ɡ~ɟ~ʒ~d͡ʒ |
| style="line-height:115%"> | 7 | ħ~ʜ |
| style="line-height:115%"> | kh / 7' / 5 | x~χ |
| style="line-height:115%"> | d | d~d̪ |
| style="line-height:115%"> | z / dh / th | z~ð |
| style="line-height:115%"> | r | r~ɾ, ˤ~ɾˤ |
| style="line-height:115%"> | z | z |
| style="line-height:115%"> | s | s |
| style="line-height:115%"> | sh / ch | ʃ |
| style="line-height:115%"> | s / 9 | sˤ~s |
| style="line-height:115%"> | d / 9' | d~dˤ~d̪ˤ |
| style="line-height:115%"> | t / 6 | tˤ~t~t̪ˤ |
| style="line-height:115%"> | z / t' / 6' | zˤ~ðˤ |
| style="line-height:125%"> | 3 | ʕ~ʢ |
| style="line-height:150%"> | gh / 3' | ɣ~ʁ |
| style="line-height:115%"> | f / v | f, v |
| style="line-height:115%"> | 2 / g / q | ʔ~ɡ~ɢ~q |
| style="line-height:115%"> | k / g | k, ɡ |
| style="line-height:115%"> | l | l, ɫ |
| style="line-height:115%"> | m | m |
| style="line-height:115%"> | n | n |
| style="line-height:115%"> | h / a / e / ah / eh | h, æ~a~ä~ɑ~e~ɐ |
| style="line-height:115%"> | a / e / ah / eh | æ~a~ä~ɑ~e~ɐ |
| style="line-height:115%"> | w / o / u / ou / oo | w, o, u~y |
| style="line-height:115%"> or | y / i / ee / ei / ai / a | j, /i(ː)/, e, /a(ː)/ |
| Additional letters | Arabic Chat Alphabet | Phonetic Value (IPA) |
|---|---|---|
| style="line-height:115%"> | p | p |
| style="line-height:115%"> | j / tsh / ch / tch | ʒ~t͡ʃ |
| style="line-height:115%"> / | v | v |
| style="line-height:115%"> / / | g | ɡ |
In Iraq
Iraq
Iraq ; officially the Republic of Iraq is a country in Western Asia spanning most of the northwestern end of the Zagros mountain range, the eastern part of the Syrian Desert and the northern part of the Arabian Desert....
and sometimes Persian Gulf
Persian Gulf
The Persian Gulf, in Southwest Asia, is an extension of the Indian Ocean located between Iran and the Arabian Peninsula.The Persian Gulf was the focus of the 1980–1988 Iran-Iraq War, in which each side attacked the other's oil tankers...
, it may be used to transcribe t͡ʃ, but most often transcribed as , while in Egypt it's used for transcribing ʒ (which can be a reduction
Cluster reduction
In phonology and historical linguistics, cluster reduction is the simplification of consonant clusters in certain environments or over time.In some dialects of English such as AAVE certain historical consonant clusters reduce to single consonants at the ends of words: friend rhymes with Ben, and...
of d͡ʒ).
Depending on the region, different letters may be used for the same phoneme.
Egyptian Arabic
| Egyptian Arabic Egyptian Arabic Egyptian Arabic is the language spoken by contemporary Egyptians.It is more commonly known locally as the Egyptian colloquial language or Egyptian dialect .... |
||
|---|---|---|
| Araby transcription | ana raye7 el gam3a el sa3a 3 el 3asr. | el gaw 3amel eh ennaharda fe eskendereya? |
| IPA International Phonetic Alphabet The International Phonetic Alphabet "The acronym 'IPA' strictly refers [...] to the 'International Phonetic Association'. But it is now such a common practice to use the acronym also to refer to the alphabet itself that resistance seems pedantic... |
ʔænæˈrɑˑjeħ elˈɡæmʕæ (ʔe)sˈsæˑʕæ tæˈlæˑtæ lˈʕɑsˤɾ | elˈɡæwwe ˈʕæˑmel ˈe(ˑhe)nːɑˈhɑɾˤdɑ feskendeˈɾejjæ |
| English English language English is a West Germanic language that arose in the Anglo-Saxon kingdoms of England and spread into what was to become south-east Scotland under the influence of the Anglian medieval kingdom of Northumbria... |
I'm going to college at 3pm. | "How is the weather in Alexandria today?" |
Lebanese Arabic
- Also Syrian ArabicSyrian ArabicSyrian Arabic is a variety of Arabic spoken in Syria.-History:Syrian Arabic proper is a form of Levantine Arabic, and may be divided into South Syrian Arabic, spoken in the cities of Damascus, Homs and Hama, and North Syrian Arabic, spoken in the region of Aleppo. Allied dialects are spoken in...
may look similarLebanese Arabic Lebanese ArabicLebanese or Lebanese Arabic is a variety of Levantine Arabic, indigenous to and spoken primarily in Lebanon, with significant linguistic influences borrowed from other Middle Eastern and European languages, and is in some ways unique from other varieties of Arabic...Araby transcription kif/keef sa7tak, chou/shu 3am ta3mil? ALA-LC ALA-LC RomanizationALA-LC is a set of standards for romanization, or the representation of text in other writing systems using the Latin alphabet. The initials stand for American Library Association - Library of Congress....IPA International Phonetic AlphabetThe International Phonetic Alphabet "The acronym 'IPA' strictly refers [...] to the 'International Phonetic Association'. But it is now such a common practice to use the acronym also to refer to the alphabet itself that resistance seems pedantic...kiːf ˈsˤɑħtak ʃʊː ʕam ˈtaʕmɪl English English languageEnglish is a West Germanic language that arose in the Anglo-Saxon kingdoms of England and spread into what was to become south-east Scotland under the influence of the Anglian medieval kingdom of Northumbria...How is your health, what are you doing?
Moroccan Arabic
- Also Algerian ArabicAlgerian ArabicAlgerian Arabic is the variety or varieties of Arabic spoken in Algeria. In Algeria, as elsewhere, spoken Arabic differs from written Arabic; Algerian Arabic has a vocabulary mostly Arabic, with significant Berber substrates, and many new words and loanwords borrowed from French, Turkish and...
may look similarMoroccan Arabic Moroccan ArabicMoroccan Arabic is the variety of Arabic spoken in the Arabic-speaking areas of Morocco. For official communications, the government and other public bodies use Modern Standard Arabic, as is the case in most Arabic-speaking countries. A mixture of French and Moroccan Arabic is used in business...Araby transcription kif dayr m3a lqraya? English English languageEnglish is a West Germanic language that arose in the Anglo-Saxon kingdoms of England and spread into what was to become south-east Scotland under the influence of the Anglian medieval kingdom of Northumbria..."How are you doing with your studies?"
Criticism
IslamistsIslamism
Islamism also , lit., "Political Islam" is set of ideologies holding that Islam is not only a religion but also a political system. Islamism is a controversial term, and definitions of it sometimes vary...
, as well as Pan-Arabists
Pan-Arabism
Pan-Arabism is an ideology espousing the unification--or, sometimes, close cooperation and solidarity against perceived enemies of the Arabs--of the countries of the Arab world, from the Atlantic Ocean to the Arabian Sea. It is closely connected to Arab nationalism, which asserts that the Arabs...
and some Arab-nationalists
Arab nationalism
Arab nationalism is a nationalist ideology celebrating the glories of Arab civilization, the language and literature of the Arabs, calling for rejuvenation and political union in the Arab world...
, view Arabish as a detrimental form of Westernization
Westernization
Westernization or Westernisation , also occidentalization or occidentalisation , is a process whereby societies come under or adopt Western culture in such matters as industry, technology, law, politics, economics, lifestyle, diet, language, alphabet,...
. Arabish emerged amid a growing trend among Arab
Arab world
The Arab world refers to Arabic-speaking states, territories and populations in North Africa, Western Asia and elsewhere.The standard definition of the Arab world comprises the 22 states and territories of the Arab League stretching from the Atlantic Ocean in the west to the Arabian Sea in the...
youth, especially in Lebanon
Lebanon
Lebanon , officially the Republic of LebanonRepublic of Lebanon is the most common term used by Lebanese government agencies. The term Lebanese Republic, a literal translation of the official Arabic and French names that is not used in today's world. Arabic is the most common language spoken among...
and Jordan
Jordan
Jordan , officially the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan , Al-Mamlaka al-Urduniyya al-Hashemiyya) is a kingdom on the East Bank of the River Jordan. The country borders Saudi Arabia to the east and south-east, Iraq to the north-east, Syria to the north and the West Bank and Israel to the west, sharing...
, to incorporate English into Arabic as a form of slang. Arabish is used to replace Arabic script, and this raises concerns regarding the preservation of the quality of the language.
See also
- Arabic alphabetArabic alphabetThe Arabic alphabet or Arabic abjad is the Arabic script as it is codified for writing the Arabic language. It is written from right to left, in a cursive style, and includes 28 letters. Because letters usually stand for consonants, it is classified as an abjad.-Consonants:The Arabic alphabet has...
- Varieties of ArabicVarieties of ArabicThe Arabic language is a Semitic language characterized by a wide number of linguistic varieties within its five regional forms. The largest divisions occur between the spoken languages of different regions. The Arabic of North Africa, for example, is often incomprehensible to an Arabic speaker...
- Arabic literatureArabic literatureArabic literature is the writing produced, both prose and poetry, by writers in the Arabic language. The Arabic word used for literature is adab which is derived from a meaning of etiquette, and implies politeness, culture and enrichment....
- Arabic phonologyArabic phonologyWhile many languages have numerous dialects that differ in pronunciation, the Arabic language is more properly described as a continuum of varieties. This article deals primarily with Modern Standard Arabic, which is the standard variety shared by educated speakers throughout Arabic-speaking regions...
- Arabic transliterationArabic transliterationDifferent approaches and methods for the romanization of Arabic exist. They vary in the way that they address the inherent problems of rendering written and spoken Arabic in the Latin alphabet; they also use different symbols for Arabic phonemes that do not exist in English or other European...
- ArabistArabistThis is an article about the western scholars known as Arabists, not the political movement Pan-Arabism.An Arabist is someone normally from outside the Arab World who specialises in the study of the Arabic language and Arab culture, and often Arabic literature.-Origins:Arabists began in medieval...
- FingilishFingilishPenglish, Pinglish, Fingilish or Fargelisi is a term used to describe the way Persian words are written using the Latin alphabet , or generally the casual romanization of Persian words popularized after computers, emailing and online chat became...
the same idea with Persian - l33t
- Volapuk encodingVolapuk encodingVolapuk encoding or latinitsa is a slang term for rendering the letters of the Cyrillic script with Latin ones...
— the same idea with Cyrillic - YamliYamliYamli.com is an Internet start-up focused on addressing the problems specific to the Arabic web. Yamli currently offers two main products: the Smart Arabic Keyboard, and Yamli Arabic Search. The Smart Arabic Keyboard allows users to type Arabic without an Arabic keyboard from within their web...
, a tool for real time Arabic transliteration
General references
- Edward William Lane, Arabic English Lexicon, 1893, 2003 reprint: ISBN 81-206-0107-6, 3064 pages (online edition).
- Allows Arabic Speakers to Write Arabic Using English Alphabet project
- Microsoft Maren: type Arabic in Roman characters and have it converted to Arabic script
- Arabish in Urban Dictionary
- Arabish to Arabic transforming tool article
- Article about Arabish
- Comparison between Chinglish and Arabish
- Zain Corporation Press Release on Sami3ny Service
- Official Zain Sami3ny page
External links
- Microsoft Maren: allowing you to type Arabic in Roman characters and have it converted on the fly to Arabic script
- Google Transliteration IME
- Yamli - Type Arabic using English Characters Real Time transliteration system.
- NearConn - Mobile social network The first software that officially support the Arabic chat language - awal brnamj mktoob 3rbi
- Typing Arabic in English without an Arabic Keyboard- Chart showing how to type Arabic letters in English characters
- eiktub - Type fully vowelized Arabic using Latin characters Arabic transliteration text editor and search engine.
- clavier arabe: ecrivez librement en arabe
- Yoolki: Arabic transliteration Online Arabic transliteration, web based editor and Arabic search engine.
- English-Arabic Transliteration Tool
- "A Funky Language for Teenzz to Use": Representing Gulf Arabic in Instant Messaging (on the use of the Arabic Chat Alphabet between youths in the United Arabic Emirates)
- Arabic keyboard to type Arabic characters online.
- Lane's Arabic-English Lexicon, an 8-volume, 3000-page dictionary available for download in PDF format.
- Learn Classical Arabic Online
- The New Arabic keyboard Layout for fast and easy typing.
- Arab is my language article
- Arabic Chat to English translator