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Due to the fact that the Arabic language has a number of phonemes that have no equivalent in English or other European languages, a number of different transliteration methods have been invented to represent certain Arabic characters, due to various conflicting goals:
- A desire to stay consistent with traditional usage (as demonstrated in the standard spelling of various words and names), which is often ambiguous. Furthermore, transliterations often differ depending on the target language (compare English Omar Khayyám with German Omar Chayyam and Polish Omar Chajjam).
- A desire to represent the language as accurately and directly as possible, which may result in the introduction of various diacritics and unfamiliar symbols.
- A desire to avoid unfamiliar symbols, which results in the usage of digraphs; sometimes tricks are necessary to avoid ambiguity (e.g., inserting a dash to separate two sounds that would be incorrectly perceived as a single digraph).
- A desire to maintain one-to-one, round-trip conversion of symbols (usually only relevant to computer-only transliterations).
Arabic speakers and teachers often assert that any transliteration system is inherently "flawed" or "inaccurate," but from a linguistic standpoint there is no justification for this. The main reasons most transliteration systems are considered flawed:
- One phoneme is transliterated using exactly the same symbol as another phoneme.
- The use of a similar symbol for both `ayn and hamza.
- Some transliteration systems use capital letters to represent different letters than their lowercase counterparts. This goes against the normal use of latin letters.
- Digraph confusion. example. is it fus-ha or fu-sha or fuS-Ha, the last example ties up with the previous flaw.
- Accurately representing pronounciation, but sacraficing phonemic recognizability.
- Example: al-shams becomes ash-shams.
- transliteration not distinguishing "un" case ending from "un" (ن). This applies for all case endings with nunation.
- Case endings appearing in the next word. example: al-waladu al-aHmar BECOMES al-walad ul-aHmar
- transliteration of "tied taa" (ة) is usually imperfect.
- Sometimes it is transliterated as either "t" or "h" depending on pronounciation.
- Some authors transliterate it as an "a"
- Broken alif (ى) is translated as a long vowel version of "a", making it ambiguous with alif.
- Most transliterations of words end up looking incredibly long.
Transliteration Standards
A table comparing romanizations using DIN 31635, ISO 233, ISO/R 233, UN, ALA-LC, and Encyclopaedia of Islam systems is available here: 9.
Comparison table
| Letter |
Name |
SATTS |
UNGEGN |
ALA-LC |
DIN-31635 |
ISO 233 |
ISO/R 233 |
Qalam |
SAS |
IPA |
| ﺀ |
hamza |
E |
ʼ, — |
—, ’ |
ʾ |
ˈ, ˌ |
—, ’ |
' |
ʾ
(zero word-initially) |
ʔ |
| ﺍ |
ʼalif |
A |
|
|
ā |
ʾ |
ā |
aa |
a, i, u
(syllable-initial)
ā
(lengthening) |
various, including aː |
| ﺏ |
bāʼ |
B |
b |
b |
b |
b |
b |
b |
b |
b |
| ﺕ |
tāʼ |
T |
t |
t |
t |
t |
t |
t |
t |
t |
| ﺙ |
ṯāʼ |
C |
th |
th |
ṯ |
ṯ |
ṯ |
th |
ṯ |
θ |
| ﺝ |
ǧīm, jīm, gīm |
J |
j |
j |
ǧ |
ǧ |
ǧ |
j |
ŷ |
ʤ / ɡ |
| ﺡ |
ḥāʼ |
H |
ḩ |
ḥ |
ḥ |
ḥ |
ḥ |
H |
ḥ |
ħ |
| ﺥ |
ḫāʼ |
O |
kh |
kh |
ḫ |
ẖ |
ẖ |
kh |
j |
x |
| ﺩ |
dāl |
D |
d |
d |
d |
d |
d |
d |
d |
d |
| ﺫ |
ḏāl |
Z |
dh |
dh |
ḏ |
ḏ |
ḏ |
dh |
ḏ |
ð |
| ﺭ |
rāʼ |
R |
r |
r |
r |
r |
r |
r |
r |
r |
| ﺯ |
zāy |
; |
z |
z |
z |
z |
z |
z |
z |
z |
| ﺱ |
sīn |
S |
s |
s |
s |
s |
s |
s |
s |
s |
| ﺵ |
šīn |
: |
sh |
sh |
š |
š |
š |
sh |
š |
ʃ |
| ﺹ |
ṣād |
X |
ş |
ṣ |
ṣ |
ṣ |
ṣ |
S |
ṣ |
sˁ |
| ﺽ |
ḍād |
V |
ḑ |
ḍ |
ḍ |
ḍ |
ḍ |
D |
ḍ |
dˁ |
| ﻁ |
ṭāʼ |
U |
ţ |
ṭ |
ṭ |
ṭ |
ṭ |
T |
ṭ |
tˁ |
| ﻅ |
ẓāʼ |
Y |
z̧ |
ẓ |
ẓ |
ẓ |
ẓ |
Z |
ẓ |
ðˁ / zˁ |
| ﻉ |
ʻayn |
` |
ʻ |
ʻ |
ʿ |
ʿ |
ʿ |
` |
ʿ |
ʕ / ʔˁ |
| ﻍ |
ġayn |
G |
gh |
gh |
ġ |
ġ |
ḡ |
gh |
g |
ɣ / ʁ |
| ﻑ |
fāʼ |
F |
f |
f |
f |
f |
f |
f |
f |
f |
| ﻕ |
qāf |
Q |
q |
q |
q |
q |
q |
q |
q |
q |
| ﻙ |
kāf |
K |
k |
k |
k |
k |
k |
k |
k |
k |
| ﻝ |
lām |
L |
l |
l |
l |
l |
l |
l |
l |
l, lˁ (in Allah only) |
| ﻡ |
mīm |
M |
m |
m |
m |
m |
m |
m |
m |
m |
| ﻥ |
nūn |
N |
n |
n |
n |
n |
n |
n |
n |
n |
| ﻩ |
hāʼ |
~ |
h |
h |
h |
h |
h |
h |
h |
h |
| ﻭ |
wāw |
W |
w |
w |
w |
w |
w |
w |
w
(consonantal)
ū
(lengthening) |
w , uː |
| ﻱ |
yāʼ |
I |
y |
y |
y |
y |
y |
y |
y
(consonantal)
ī
(lengthening) |
j , iː
|
| ﺁ |
ʼalif madda |
AEA |
ā |
ā, ʼā |
ʾā |
ʾâ |
ā, ʼā |
|
ā |
ʔaː |
| ﺔ |
tāʼ marbūṭa |
@ |
h, t |
h, t |
h, t |
ẗ |
h, t |
h, t |
t
(zero when in absolute state) |
a, at |
| ﻯ |
ʼalif maqṣūra |
/ |
y |
y |
ā |
ỳ |
|
ae |
à |
aː |
| ﻻ |
lām ʼalif |
LA |
lā |
lā |
lā |
laʾ |
lā |
la |
lʾ
(with hamza)
lā
(with lengthening alif) |
laː |
| ال |
ʼalif lām |
AL |
al- |
al- |
al- |
ʾˈal |
al- |
al |
al- |
|
Online
- Main article: Arabic Chat Alphabet
Online communication is often restricted to an ASCII environment in which not only the Arabic letters themselves but also Roman characters when diacritics are unavailable. This problem is faced by most speakers of languages that use non-Roman alphabets, or heavily modifed ones. An ad hoc solution constists of using Arabic numerals which mirror or resemble the relevant Arabic.
See also
External links
What does Arabic transliteration mean ? Search with Google !
Article on Arabic transliteration, category, different spelling or sense