Arabic transliteration

From Open Encyclopedia

The Arabic alphabet
ﺍ	ﺏ	ﺕ	ﺙ	ﺝ	ﺡ	ﺥ
ﺩ	ﺫ	ﺭ	ﺯ	ﺱ	ﺵ	ﺹ
ﺽ	ﻁ	ﻅ	ﻉ	ﻍ	ﻑ	ﻕ
ﻙ	ﻝ	ﻡ	ﻥ	هـ	ﻭ	ﻱ
History · Transliteration Diacritics · hamza ء Numerals · Numeration

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.

1 Problems
2 Transliteration Standards
- 2.1 Comparison table
3 Online
4 See also
5 External links

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Problems

Any transliteration system of Arabic has to make a number of decisions, dependent on its intended field of application. The root of the problem is that the information contained in unvocalized Arabic writing is not sufficient to give a reader unfamiliar with the language sufficient information for accurate pronunciation. For use in newspapers, for example, it is insufficient to give an exact equivalent of صدام حسين: ṣdʼm ḥsyn is not acceptable for an untrained reader. The full transliteration adds information not in the text, which has to be supplied by a speaker of Arabic, ṣaddām ḥussayn. Usually, transliterations used in newspapers try to avoid diacritics, thus removing information that was present in the original text, Saddam Hussein. Such "loose" transliterations will be dependent on the phonology of the "target language", compare Omar Khayyam with German Omar Chajjam, both for عمر خيام (unvocalized ʻmr ḫyʼm, vocalized ʻumar ḫayyām). A full "scientific" transliteration, on the other hand, will make use of diacritics that may be unfamiliar to untrained readers. These issues are not so much connected with the transliteration itself but with historical inconsistencies of Arabic orthography itself, and the fact that users of a transliteration of Arabic expect more out of it than was present in the original text on one hand, and do not want to be bothered with details of Arabic phonology on the other.

In particular, questions that have to be addressed include:

Should the transliteration add phonological (such as vowels) or morphological (such as word boundaries) information, or should it bijectively reflect the Arabic as written in the original spelling?
should the assimilation (sandhi) of the article be expressed in the transliteration (al-shams vs. ash-shams)
should "tied tā" (ta marbouta ة) be transliterated with a special symbol?
- ISO 233 has a unique symbol, ẗ, ISO/R 233 uses superscript ^h, ^t.
- Sometimes it is transliterated as either t or h depending on pronunciation (DIN 31635).
- Some authors omit it, transliterating only the word-final -a
should "broken alif" (ى) be transliterated with a special symbol, or simply as ā, making it ambiguous with alif.
should nunation be expressed with a special symbol, or with the same symbol used for n

Either way, the transliteration may be criticized as "flawed"

A "loose" transliteration is ambiguous, rendering several Arabic phonemes with an identical transliteration, or digraphs for a single phoneme (such as sh) may be confused with two adjacent phonemes
symbols transliterating of phonemes may be considered "too similar" (e.g., ` and ' or ʿ and ʾ for ayin and hamza)
ASCII transliterations using capital letters to disambiguate phonemes are easy to type but may be considered unaesthetic

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Transliteration Standards

Deutsche Morgenländische Gesellschaft (1936): Adopted by the International Convention of Orientalist Scholars in Rome. It is the basis for the very influential Hans Wehr dictionary (ISBN 0879500034). [1]
ISO/R 233 (1961). Replaced by ISO 233 in 1984 but still encountered.
BS 4280 (1968): Developed by the British Standards Institute. [2]
SATTS (1970s): Developed by US military.
UNGEGN (1972): [3]
DIN-31635 (1982): Developed by the Deutsches Institut für Normung (German Institute for Standardization).
ISO 233 (1984).
Qalam (1985): A system that focuses upon preserving the spelling, rather than the pronunciation, and uses mixed case. [4]
ISO 233-2(1993). Simplified transliteration.
Buckwalter Transliteration (1990s): Developed at Xerox by Tim Buckwalter [5]; doesn't require unusual diacritics. [6]
ALA-LC (1997). [7]
SAS: Spanish Arabists School (José Antonio Conde and others, early 19th century onwards). [8]

A table comparing romanizations using DIN 31635, ISO 233, ISO/R 233, UN, ALA-LC, and Encyclopaedia of Islam systems is available here: [9].

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Comparison table

Letter	Name	SATTS	UNGEGN	ALA-LC	DIN-31635	ISO 233	ISO/R 233	Qalam	SAS	SM	IPA
ﺀ	hamza	E	ʼ, —	—, ’	ʾ	ˈ, ˌ	—, ’	'	ʾ (zero word-initially)	' (disappears after 'al-' and where alif waṣl is.	[ʔ]
ﺍ	ʼalif	A			ā	ʾ	ā	aa	a, i, u (syllable-initial) ā (lengthening)	aa	various, including [aː]
ﺏ	bāʼ	B	b	b	b	b	b	b	b	b	[b]
ﺕ	tāʼ	T	t	t	t	t	t	t	t	t	[t]
ﺙ	ṯāʼ	C	th	th	ṯ	ṯ	ṯ	th	ṯ	ç	[θ]
ﺝ	ǧīm, jīm, gīm	J	j	j	ǧ	ǧ	ǧ	j	ŷ	j	[ʤ] / [ɡ]
ﺡ	ḥāʼ	H	ḩ	ḥ	ḥ	ḥ	ḥ	H	ḥ	ḥ	[ħ]
ﺥ	ḫāʼ	O	kh	kh	ḫ	ẖ	ẖ	kh	j	x	[x]
ﺩ	dāl	D	d	d	d	d	d	d	d	d	[d]
ﺫ	ḏāl	Z	dh	dh	ḏ	ḏ	ḏ	dh	ḏ	đ	[ð]
ﺭ	rāʼ	R	r	r	r	r	r	r	r	r	[r]
ﺯ	zāy	;	z	z	z	z	z	z	z	z	[z]
ﺱ	sīn	S	s	s	s	s	s	s	s	s	[s]
ﺵ	šīn	:	sh	sh	š	š	š	sh	š	š	[ʃ]
ﺹ	ṣād	X	ş	ṣ	ṣ	ṣ	ṣ	S	ṣ	ṣ	[sˁ]
ﺽ	ḍād	V	ḑ	ḍ	ḍ	ḍ	ḍ	D	ḍ	ḍ	[dˁ]
ﻁ	ṭāʼ	U	ţ	ṭ	ṭ	ṭ	ṭ	T	ṭ	ṭ	[tˁ]
ﻅ	ẓāʼ	Y	z̧	ẓ	ẓ	ẓ	ẓ	Z	ẓ	đ̣	[ðˁ] / [zˁ]
ﻉ	ʻayn	`	ʻ	ʻ	ʿ	ʿ	ʿ	`	ʿ	ř	[ʕ] / [ʔˁ]
ﻍ	ġayn	G	gh	gh	ġ	ġ	ḡ	gh	g	ğ	[ɣ] / [ʁ]
ﻑ	fāʼ	F	f	f	f	f	f	f	f	f	[f]
ﻕ	qāf	Q	q	q	q	q	q	q	q	q	[q]
ﻙ	kāf	K	k	k	k	k	k	k	k	k	[k]
ﻝ	lām	L	l	l	l	l	l	l	l	l	[l], [lˁ] (in Allah only)
ﻡ	mīm	M	m	m	m	m	m	m	m	m	[m]
ﻥ	nūn	N	n	n	n	n	n	n	n	n	[n]
ﻩ	hāʼ	~	h	h	h	h	h	h	h	h	[h]
ﻭ	wāw	W	w	w	w	w	w	w	w (consonantal) ū (lengthening)	w (consonantal) o (lengthening)	[w] , [uː]
ﻱ	yāʼ	I	y	y	y	y	y	y	y (consonantal) ī (lengthening)	y (consonantal) e (lengthening)	[j] , [iː]
ﺁ	ʼalif madda	AEA	ā	ā, ʼā	ʾā	ʾâ	ā, ʼā		ā	'aa	[ʔaː]
ﺓ	tāʼ marbūṭa	@	h, t	h, t	h, t	ẗ	^h, ^t	h, t	t (zero when in absolute state)	ŧ	[a], [at]
ﻯ	ʼalif makṣūra	/	y	y	ā	ỳ		ae	à	à	[aː]
ﻻ	lām ʼalif	LA	lā	lā	lā	laʾ	lā	la	lʾ (with hamza) lā (with lengthening alif)	treated as laam then alif usually: laa	[laː]
ال	ʼalif lām	AL	al-	al-	al-	ʾˈal	al-	al	al-	al- When assimilation occurs: ál-

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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 with 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.

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