Arabic

Arabic alphabet ('alifbā 'al˂rbīya)

Arabic

The Arabic script evolved from the Nabataean
Aramaic script. It has been used since the 4th century AD, but
the earliest document, an inscription in Arabic, Syriac
and Greek, dates from 512
AD. The Aramaic language has fewer consonants than Arabic, so during
the 7th century new Arabic letters were created by adding dots to existing
letters in order to avoid ambiguities. Further diacritics indicating
short vowels were introduced, but are only generally used to ensure
the Qur’an was read aloud without mistakes.

There are two main types of written Arabic:

  1. Classical Arabic – the language of the Qur’an and classical
    literature. It differs from Modern Standard Arabic mainly in style
    and vocabulary, some of which is archaic. All Muslims are expected
    to recite the Qur’an in the original language, however many rely on
    translations in order to understand the text.
  2. Modern Standard Arabic – the universal language of the
    Arabic-speaking world which is understood by all Arabic speakers. It is the
    language of the vast majority of written material and of formal TV shows,
    lectures, etc.

Each Arabic speaking country or region also has its own variety of
colloquial spoken Arabic. These colloquial varieties of Arabic appear
in written form in some poetry, cartoons and comics, plays and personal
letters. There are also translations of the Bible into most varieties
of colloquial Arabic.

Arabic has also been written with the Hebrew,
Syriac and Latin scripts.

Notable Features

  • Type of writing system: abjad
  • Direction of writing: words are written in horizontal lines from
    right to left, numerals are written from left to right
  • Number of letters: 28 (in Arabic) – some additional letters
    are used in Arabic when writing placenames or foreign words containing
    sounds which do not occur in Standard Arabic, such as /p/ or /g/.
    Additional letters are used when writing other languages.
  • Used to write:Arabic,
    Azeri,
    Baluchi,
    Bosnian,
    Dari,
    Hausa,
    Kabyle,
    Konkani,
    Kashmiri,
    Kazakh,
    Kurdish,
    Kyrghyz,
    Malay,
    Mandekan,
    Morisco,
    Pashto,
    Persian/Farsi,
    Punjabi,
    Rajasthani,
    Shabaki,
    Sindhi,
    Siraiki,
    Tatar,
    Tausūg,
    Turkish,
    Urdu,
    Uyghur
  • Most letters change form depending on whether they appear at the
    beginning, middle or end of a word, or on their own. (see
    below)
  • Letters that can be joined are always joined in both hand-written
    and printed Arabic. The only exceptions to this rule are crossword
    puzzles and signs in which the script is written vertically.
  • The long vowels /a:/, /i:/ and /u:/ are represented by the letters
    ‘alif, yā’ and wāw respectively.
  • Vowel diacritics, which are used to mark short vowels, and other special
    symbols appear only in the Qur’an. They are also used, though
    with less consistency, in other religious texts, in classical poetry,
    in books for children and foreign learners, and occasionally in complex texts to
    avoid ambiguity. Sometimes the diacritics are used for decorative purposes
    in book titles, letterheads, nameplates, etc.

Arabic script

Arabic consonants

Arabic consonants

The transliteration of consonants used above is the ISO version of 1984. There
are various other ways of transliterating Arabic.

This chart shows how the letters change in different positions

Different forms of Arabic consonants

Arabic vowel diacritics and other symbols

Arabic vowel diacritics and other symbols

Arabic numerals and numbers

These numerals are those used when writing Arabic and are written from left
to right. In Arabic they are known as “Indian numbers” (أرقام
هندية arqa-m hindiyyah). The term ‘Arabic numerals’ is
also used to refer to 1, 2, 3, etc.

Arabic numerals and numbers

The first set of numbers are Modern Standard Arabic. The second set are Egyptian Arabic
and the third set are Moroccan Arabic.

The Arabic language

Arabic is a Semitic language with about 221 million speakers in Afghanistan, Algeria, Bahrain,
Chad, Cyprus, Djibouti, Egypt, Eritrea, Iran, Iraq, Israel, Jordan, Kenya, Kuwait, Lebanon,
Libya, Mali, Mauritania, Morocco, Niger, Oman, Palestinian West Bank & Gaza, Qatar, Saudi Arabia,
Somalia, Sudan, Syria, Tajikistan, Tanzania, Tunisia, Turkey, UAE, Uzbekistan and Yemen.

There are over 30 different varieties of colloquial Arabic which
include:

  • Egyptian – spoken by about 50 million
    people in Egypt and perhaps the most widely understood variety, thanks to the popularity
    of Egyptian-made films and TV shows
  • Algerian – spoken by about 22 million people in Algeria
  • Moroccan – spoken in Morocco by about 20 million people
  • Sudanese – spoken in Sudan by about 19 million people
  • Saidi – spoken by about 19 million people in Egypt
  • North Levantine – spoken in Lebanon and
    Syria by about 15 million people
  • Mesopotamian – spoken by about 14 million people in Iraq, Iran and Syria
  • Najdi – spoken in Saudi Arabia, Iraq, Jordan and Syria by about 10 million people

 

Sample Arabic text

يولد جميع الناس أحراراً متساوين في الكرامة والحقوق. وقد وهبوا عقلاً وضميراً وعليهم ان يعامل بعضهم بعضاً بروح اﻹخاء.

Sample Arabic text (with diacritics)

يُولَدُ جَمِيعُ النَّاس أحْرَاراً مُتَسَاوِينَ فِي الْكَرَامَةِ وِالحُقُوقِ. وِقَدْ وُهِبُوا عَقْلاً وَ ضَمِيراً وَ عَلَيهِمْ أنْ يُعَامِلَ بَعْضُهُمْ بَعْضاً بِرُوحِ اَلإخَاء.

Transliteration

Yūladu jamī’u n-nāsi aḥrāran
mutasāwīna fī l-karāmati wa-l-ḥuqūq. Wa-qad wuhibū
‘aqlan wa-ḍamīran wa-‘alayhim an yu’āmila ba’ḍuhum ba’ḍan
bi-rūḥi l-ikhā’.

Listen to a recording of this text by
زين العابدين شبيب (Zein Al-A’bideen Shabeeb)

Translation

All human beings are born free and equal in dignity and rights. They
are endowed with reason and conscience and should act towards one another
in a spirit of brotherhood.
(Article 1 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights)

Tower of Babel in Arabic |
Useful phrases in Arabic

Transparent Language

books
Arabic language learning materials

Links


Arabic Translation
Arabic Translation
Our Price:$10.00

Online Arabic lessons
http://www.arabic2000.com/school/
http://i-cias.com/babel/arabic/
http://areg.amaksoud.com
http://mylanguages.org/learn_arabic.php
http://www.madinaharabic.com

http://arabicspeaker.blogspot.com
http://www.arabiccomplete.com
http://www.arabic-alphabet.org
http://www.naturalarabic.com
http://www.dalilusa.com/arabic_course/intro.asp
http://www.languageshome.com/English-Arabic.htm
http://www.arabicsp.com
http://www.arabicpod.net
http://www.arabic-studio.com
http://www.ArabicOnline.eu
https://www.glovico.org/en/arabic

Arabic Genie – a quick and easy way to learn the Arabic alphabet
http://www.arabicgenie.com

Rocket Arabic – learn Arabic quickly and easily |
Learn Arabic abroad

More Arabic-related links

Semitic languages

Akkadian,
Amharic,
Arabic,
Aramaic,
Argobba,
Canaanite,
Chaha,
Dizin,
Ge’ez,
Hadhramautic,
Hebrew,
Himyaritic,
Maltese,
Mandaic,
Nabataean,
Phoenician,
Qatabanic,
Redjang,
Sabaean,
Sabaic,
Silt’e,
Syriac,
Tigre,
Tigrinya,
Ugaritic,

Other languages written with the Arabic script

Consonant alphabets (Abjads)

Ancient Berber,
Arabic,
Hebrew,
Mandaic,
Manichaean,
Middle Persian,
Nabataean,
Parthian,
Phoenician,
Paleo-Hebrew,
Proto-Sinaitic / Proto-Canaanite,
Psalter,
Punic,
Sabaean,
Samaritan,
Sogdian,
South Arabian,
Syriac,
Tifinagh,
Ugaritic

  • Post category:Languages
  • Reading time:11 mins read