The romanization of Arabic refers to the standard norms for rendering
written
Writing is a medium of human communication
Communication (from Latin ''communicare'', meaning "to share") is the act of developing Semantics, meaning among Subject (philosophy), entities or Organization, groups through the use of sufficien ...
and
spoken
Spoken is the past participle form of "to speak".
Spoken may also refer to:
*Spoken (band), a Christian rock group from Arkansas
*''Spoken (album)'', an album by Spoken
See also
*Speak (disambiguation)
{{disambiguation ...
Arabic
Arabic (, ' or , ' or ) is a Semitic language
The Semitic languages are a branch of the Afroasiatic language family originating in the Middle East
The Middle East is a list of transcontinental countries, transcontinental region ...

in the
Latin script
Latin script, also known as Roman script, is an alphabetic
An alphabet is a standardized set of basic written symbols
A symbol is a mark, sign, or word
In linguistics, a word of a spoken language can be defined as the smallest sequ ...

in one of various systematic ways. Romanized Arabic is used for a number of different purposes, among them transcription of names and titles,
cataloging
In library and information science
Library and information science (LIS) (sometimes given as the plural library and information sciences) is a branch of academic disciplines that deal generally with organization, access, and collection of informati ...
Arabic language works,
language education
Language education – the process and practice of teaching a second language, second or foreign language – is primarily a branch of applied linguistics, but can be an interdisciplinarity, interdisciplinary field. There are four main learni ...
when used instead of or alongside the Arabic script, and representation of the language in scientific publications by
linguists
Linguistics is the science, scientific study of language. It encompasses the analysis of every aspect of language, as well as the methods for studying and modeling them.
The traditional areas of linguistic analysis include phonetics, phonet ...

. These formal systems, which often make use of
diacritics
A diacritic (also diacritical mark, diacritical point, diacritical sign, or accent) is a glyph
The term glyph is used in typography
File:metal movable type.jpg, 225px, Movable type being assembled on a composing stick using pieces that ...
and non-standard Latin characters and are used in academic settings or for the benefit of non-speakers, contrast with informal means of written communication used by speakers such as the Latin-based
Arabic chat alphabetThe Arabic chat alphabet, ''Arabizi'' (, ), Franco-Arabic (, , or ), Arabish, Araby ( ar, عربي, ), and Mu'arrab (), refer to the Romanized alphabets for informal Arabic dialects in which Arabic script is transcribed or encoded into a combina ...
.
Different systems and strategies have been developed to address the inherent problems of rendering various Arabic varieties in the Latin script. Examples of such problems are the symbols for Arabic
phoneme
In phonology and linguistics, a phoneme is a unit of sound that distinguishes one word from another in a particular language.
For example, in most List of dialects of English, dialects of English, with the notable exception of the West Midlan ...
s that do not exist in
English
English usually refers to:
* English language
English is a West Germanic languages, West Germanic language first spoken in History of Anglo-Saxon England, early medieval England, which has eventually become the World language, leading lan ...

or other
Europe
Europe is a continent
A continent is any of several large landmass
A landmass, or land mass, is a large region
In geography
Geography (from Greek: , ''geographia'', literally "earth description") is a field of scienc ...

an languages; the means of representing the
Arabic definite article
( ar, ٱلْـ), also Romanized
Romanization or romanisation, in linguistics
Linguistics is the science, scientific study of language. It encompasses the analysis of every aspect of language, as well as the methods for studying and mod ...
, which is always spelled the same way in written Arabic but has numerous pronunciations in the spoken language depending on context; and the representation of short vowels (usually ''i u'' or ''e o'', accounting for variations such as ''
Muslim
Muslims () are people who follow or practice Islam
Islam (; ar, اَلْإِسْلَامُ, al-’Islām, "submission o God
Oh God may refer to:
* An exclamation; similar to "oh no", "oh yes", "oh my", "aw goodness", "ah gosh", ...

/Moslem'' or ''
Mohammed
)
, birth_date =
, birth_place =
, death_date =
, death_place =
, resting_place =
, resting_place_coordinates =
, nationality =
, other_names =
, years_active =
, notable ...

/Muhammad/Mohamed'').
Method
Romanization is often termed "transliteration", but this is not technically correct. ''
Transliteration
Transliteration is a type of conversion of a text from one script
Script may refer to:
Writing systems
* Script, a distinctive writing system, based on a repertoire of specific elements or symbols, or that repertoire
* Script (styles of ha ...

'' is the direct representation of foreign ''letters'' using Latin symbols, while most systems for romanizing Arabic are actually ''
transcription'' systems, which represent the ''sound'' of the language, since short vowels and geminate consonants, for example, does not usually appear in Arabic writing. As an example, the above rendering ' of the ar, مناظرة الحروف العربية is a transcription, indicating the pronunciation; an example transliteration would be '.
Romanization standards and systems
Principal standards and systems are:
Early Romanization
Early Romanization of the Arabic language was standardized in the various
bilingual Arabic-European dictionaries of the 17-19th centuries.
Mixed digraphic and diacritical
*
BGN/PCGN romanization (1956).
*
UNGEGN
The United Nations Group of Experts on Geographical Names (UNGEGN) is one of the nine expert groups of the United Nations Economic and Social Council
The United Nations Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC; french: Conseil économique et social ...
(1972). United Nations Group of Experts on Geographical Names, or "Variant A of the Amended Beirut System". Adopted from BGN/PCGN.
**
IGN
''IGN'' (an abbreviation of its former name ''Imagine Games Network'') is an American video game#REDIRECT Video game
A video game is an electronic game that involves interaction with a user interface or input device such as a joystick, ...
System 1973 or "Variant B of the Amended Beirut System", that conforms to the French orthography and is preferred to the Variant A in French-speaking countries as in Maghreb and Lebanon.
** romanization (2007) is different from UNGEGN in two ways: (1) ظ is d͟h instead of z̧; (2) the cedilla is replaced by a sub-macron (_) in all the characters with the cedilla.
[
* ]ALA-LC
ALA-LC (American Library Association - Library of Congress) is a set of standards for romanization, the representation of text in other writing systems using the Latin script.
Applications
The system is used to represent bibliographic information ...
(first published 1991), from the American Library Association
The American Library Association (ALA) is a nonprofit organization
A nonprofit organization (NPO), also known as a non-business entity, not-for-profit organization, or nonprofit institution, is a legal entity organized and operated for a ...
and the Library of Congress
The Library of Congress (LC) is the research library
A library is a collection of materials, books or media that are easily accessible for use and not just for display purposes. It is responsible for housing updated information in order ...

. This romanization is close to the romanization of the and Hans Wehr
Hans Bodo Gerhardt Wehr (; 5 July 1909, Leipzig24 May 1981, Münster) was a German Arabist. A professor at the University of Münster from 1957–1974, he published the ''Arabisches Wörterbuch'' (1952), which was later published in an Englis ...
, which is used internationally in scientific publications by Arabist
An Arabist is someone normally from outside the Arab world who specialises in the study of the Arabic language and culture
Culture () is an umbrella term which encompasses the social behavior and Norm (social), norms found in human Society, s ...
s.
** IJMES, used by ''International Journal of Middle East Studies'', very similar to ALA-LC.
** EI, ''Encyclopaedia of Islam
The ''Encyclopaedia of Islam'' (''EI'') is an encyclopaedia
An encyclopedia or encyclopaedia (British English) is a reference work or compendium providing summaries of knowledge either from all branches or from a particular field or dis ...
'' (1st ed., 1913–1938; 2nd ed., 1960–2005).
Fully diacritical
* DMG (', 1935), adopted by the International Convention of Orientalist Scholars in Rome.
** DIN 31635 DIN 31635 is a Deutsches Institut für Normung
' (DIN; in English
English usually refers to:
* English language
English is a West Germanic languages, West Germanic language first spoken in History of Anglo-Saxon England, early medieva ...
(1982), developed by the German Institute for Standardization (').
** Hans Wehr transliteration
The Hans Wehr transliteration system is a system for transliteration
Transliteration is a type of conversion of a text from one script
Script may refer to:
Writing systems
* Script, a distinctive writing system, based on a repertoire of ...
(1961, 1994), a modification to DIN 31635.
** EALL, ''Encyclopedia of Arabic Language and Linguistics'' (edited by Kees Versteegh, Brill, 2006–2009).
** Spanish romanization, identical to DMG/DIN with the exception of three letters: ǧ > ŷ, ḫ > j, ġ > g.
* ISO 233
The international standard
An international standard is a technical standard
A technical standard is an established norm (social), norm or requirement for a repeatable technical task which is applied to a common and repeated use of rules, conditions ...
(1984), letter-to-letter; vowels are transliterated only if they are shown with diacritics, otherwise they are omitted.
** ISO 233-2
The international standard
An international standard is a technical standard
A technical standard is an established norm
Norm, the Norm or NORM may refer to:
In academic disciplines
* Norm (geology), an estimate of the idealised mineral conten ...
(1993), simplified transliteration; vowels are always shown.
* BS 4280 (1968), developed by the British Standards Institution
The British Standards Institution (BSI) is the national standards body of the United Kingdom. BSI produces technical standard
A technical standard is an established norm
Norm, the Norm or NORM may refer to:
In academic disciplines
* Norm (g ...
.
ASCII-based
* ArabTeX
ArabTeX is a free software package providing support for the Arabic
Arabic (, ' or , ' or ) is a Semitic language
The Semitic languages are a branch of the Afroasiatic language family originating in the Middle East
The Middl ...
(since 1992) has been modelled closely after the transliteration standards ISO/R 233 and DIN 31635.
* Buckwalter Transliteration
The Buckwalter Arabic transliteration
Arabic (, ' or , ' or ) is a Semitic language that first emerged in the 1st to 4th centuries CE.Semitic languages: an international handbook / edited by Stefan Weninger; in collaboration with Geoffrey K ...
(1990s), developed at ALPNET by Tim Buckwalter; does not require diacritic
A diacritic (also diacritical mark, diacritical point, diacritical sign, or accent) is a glyph
The term glyph is used in typography
File:metal movable type.jpg, 225px, Movable type being assembled on a composing stick using pieces that ...
s.
* Arabic chat alphabet: an ad hoc solution for conveniently entering Arabic using a Latin keyboard.
Comparison table
* Hans Wehr transliteration does not capitalize the first letter at the beginning of sentences nor in proper names.
* The ''chat'' table is only a demonstration and is based on the spoken varieties which vary considerably from Literary Arabic on which the IPA table and the rest of the transliterations are based.
* Review ''hamzah
Hamza ( ar, همزة ') () is a letter in the Arabic alphabet, representing the glottal stop . Hamza is one of the 28 "full" letters and owes its existence to historical inconsistencies in the orthography, standard writing system. It is derive ...
'' for its various forms.
* Neither standard defines which code point
In character encoding
Character encoding is the process of assigning numbers to Graphics, graphical character (computing), characters, especially the written characters of Language, human language, allowing them to be Data storage, stored, D ...
to use for ' and ''''. Appropriate Unicode points would be modifier letter apostrophe 〈ʼ〉 and modifier letter turned comma 〈ʻ〉 (for the UNGEGN and BGN/PCGN) or modifier letter reversed comma 〈ʽ〉 (for the Wehr and Survey of Egypt System (SES)), all of which Unicode defines as letters. Often right and left single quotation mark
Quotation marks, also known as quotes, quote marks, speech marks, inverted commas, or talking marks, are punctuation
Punctuation (or sometimes interpunction) is the use of spacing, conventional signs (called punctuation marks), and cer ...
s 〈’〉, 〈‘〉 are used instead, but Unicode defines those as punctuation marks, and they can cause compatibility issues. The glottal stop (') in these romanizations isn't written word-initially.
* In ''Encyclopaedia of Islam'' digraphs are underlined, that is t͟h, d͟j, k͟h, d͟h, s͟h, g͟h. In BGN/PCGN on the contrary the sequences may be romanized with middle dot
An interpunct, , also known as an interpoint, middle dot, middot and centered dot or centred dot, is a punctuation mark consisting of a vertically centered dot used for interword separation
In punctuation, a word divider is a glyph that separ ...
as ''t·h'', ''k·h'', ''d·h'', ''s·h'' respectively; the letter ''g'' is not used by itself in BGN/PCGN, so no confusion between ''gh'' and ''g''+''h'' is possible.
* In the original German edition of his dictionary (1952) Wehr used ǧ, ḫ, ġ for j, ḵ, ḡ respectively (that is all the letters used are equal to DMG/DIN 31635 DIN 31635 is a Deutsches Institut für Normung
' (DIN; in English
English usually refers to:
* English language
English is a West Germanic languages, West Germanic language first spoken in History of Anglo-Saxon England, early medieva ...
). The variant presented in the table is from the English translation of the dictionary (1961).
* BGN/PCGN allows use of underdot
When used as a diacritic mark, the term dot is usually reserved for the ''interpunct'' ( · ), or to the glyphs 'combining dot above' ( ◌̇ ) and 'combining dot below' ( ◌̣ )
which may be combined with some Letter (alphabe ...
s instead of cedilla
A cedilla ( ; from Spanish
Spanish may refer to:
* Items from or related to Spain:
**Spaniards, a nation and ethnic group indigenous to Spain
**Spanish language
**Spanish cuisine
Other places
* Spanish, Ontario, Canada
* Spanish River (di ...

.
* ' and ' are traditionally written in as and , respectively, while the latter's dot is only added initially or medially.
* In Egypt, Sudan, and sometimes in other regions, the standard form for final-'' '' is only (without dots) in handwriting and print, for both final and final . for the latter pronunciation, is called ' , 'flexible alif'.
* The sun and moon letters
In Arabic
Arabic (, ' or , ' or ) is a Semitic language that first emerged in the 1st to 4th centuries CE.Semitic languages: an international handbook / edited by Stefan Weninger; in collaboration with Geoffrey Khan, Michael P. Streck, J ...
and hamzat waṣl pronunciation rules apply, although it is acceptable to ignore them. The UN system and ALA-LC prefer lowercase ''a'' and hyphens: ''al-Baṣrah, ar-Riyāḍ''; BGN/PCGN prefers uppercase ''A'' and no hyphens: ''Al Baṣrah, Ar Riyāḍ''.
* The EALL suggests ẓ "in proper names" (volume 4, page 517).
Romanization issues
Any romanization
Romanization or romanisation, in linguistics
Linguistics is the scientific study of language, meaning that it is a comprehensive, systematic, objective, and precise study of language. Linguistics encompasses the analysis of every aspec ...
system has to make a number of decisions which are dependent on its intended field of application.
Vowels
One basic problem is that written Arabic is normally unvocalized; i.e., many of the vowel
A vowel is a syllabicSyllabic may refer to:
*Syllable, a unit of speech sound, considered the building block of words
**Syllabic consonant, a consonant that forms the nucleus of a syllable
*Syllabary, writing system using symbols for syllables
...

s are not written out, and must be supplied by a reader familiar with the language. Hence unvocalized does not give a reader unfamiliar with the language sufficient information for accurate pronunciation. As a result, a pure transliteration
Transliteration is a type of conversion of a text from one script
Script may refer to:
Writing systems
* Script, a distinctive writing system, based on a repertoire of specific elements or symbols, or that repertoire
* Script (styles of h ...

, e.g., rendering as , is meaningless to an untrained reader. For this reason, transcriptions are generally used that add vowels, e.g. . However, unvocalized systems match exactly to written Arabic, unlike vocalized systems such as Arabic chat, which some claim detracts from one's ability to spell.
Transliteration vs. transcription
Most uses of romanization call for transcription rather than transliteration
Transliteration is a type of conversion of a text from one script
Script may refer to:
Writing systems
* Script, a distinctive writing system, based on a repertoire of specific elements or symbols, or that repertoire
* Script (styles of h ...

: Instead of transliterating each written letter, they try to reproduce the sound of the words according to the orthography rules of the target language: ''Qaṭar''. This applies equally to scientific and popular applications. A pure transliteration would need to omit vowels (e.g. ''qṭr''), making the result difficult to interpret except for a subset of trained readers fluent in Arabic. Even if vowels are added, a transliteration system would still need to distinguish between multiple ways of spelling the same sound in the Arabic script, e.g. ' vs. ' for the sound ', and the six different ways () of writing the (hamza
Hamza ( ar, همزة ') () is a letter in the Arabic alphabet
The Arabic alphabet ( ar, الْأَبْجَدِيَّة الْعَرَبِيَّة, ' or , ', ), or Arabic abjad, is the as it is codified for writing . It is written from ...
, usually transcribed '). This sort of detail is needlessly confusing, except in a very few situations (e.g., typesetting text in the Arabic script).
Most issues related to the romanization of Arabic are about transliterating vs. transcribing; others, about what should be romanized:
* Some transliterations ignore assimilation of the definite article
An article is any member of a class of dedicated words that are used with noun phrases
A noun phrase, or nominal (phrase), is a that has a or as its or performs the same grammatical function as a noun. Noun phrases are very common , and the ...
''al-
( ar, ٱلْـ), also Romanized
Romanization or romanisation, in linguistics
Linguistics is the scientific study of language
A language is a structured system of communication used by humans, including speech (spoken language) ...
'' before the "sun letters
In Arabic language, Arabic and Maltese language, Maltese, the consonants are divided into two groups, called the sun letters or solar letters ( ar, حروف شمسية ') and moon letters or lunar letters ( '), based on whether they assimilation ...
", and may be easily misread by non-Arabic speakers. For instance, "the light" ''an-nūr'' would be more literally transliterated along the lines of ''alnūr''. In the transcription ''an-nūr'', a hyphen is added and the unpronounced removed for the convenience of the uninformed non-Arabic speaker, who would otherwise pronounce an , perhaps not understanding that in ''nūr'' is geminated
In phonetics and phonology, gemination (), or consonant lengthening (from Latin ''geminatio'' "doubling", itself from ''Gemini (constellation), gemini'' "twins"), is an articulation of a consonant for a longer period of time than that of a singlet ...

. Alternatively, if the shaddah is not transliterated (since it is strictly not a letter), a strictly literal transliteration would be ''alnūr'', which presents similar problems for the uninformed non-Arabic speaker.
* A transliteration should render the "closed tāʼ" ('' tāʼ marbūṭah'', ) faithfully. Many transcriptions render the sound as ''a'' or ''ah'' and ''t'' when it denotes .
**ISO 233
The international standard
An international standard is a technical standard
A technical standard is an established norm (social), norm or requirement for a repeatable technical task which is applied to a common and repeated use of rules, conditions ...
has a unique symbol, ẗ.
* "Restricted alif" (', ) should be transliterated with an acute accent
The acute accent, , is a diacritic
A diacritic (also diacritical mark, diacritical point, diacritical sign, or accent) is a glyph
The term glyph is used in typography
File:metal movable type.jpg, 225px, Movable type being assembl ...

, ''á'', differentiating it from regular alif , but it is transcribed in many schemes like alif, ''ā'', because it stands for .
* Nunation
Nunation ( ar, تَنوِين, ' ), in some Semitic languages
The Semitic languages are a branch of the Afroasiatic language family originating in the Middle East
The Middle East is a list of transcontinental countries, transcontinenta ...
: what is true elsewhere is also true for nunation: transliteration renders what is seen, transcription what is heard, when in the Arabic script, it is written with diacritics, not by letters, or omitted.
A transcription may reflect the language as spoken, typically rendering names, for example, by the people of Baghdad (Baghdad Arabic
Baghdadi Arabic is the Arabic
Arabic (, ' or , ' or ) is a Semitic language that first emerged in the 1st to 4th centuries CE.Semitic languages: an international handbook / edited by Stefan Weninger; in collaboration with Geoffrey Khan, Mic ...
), or the official standard ( Literary Arabic) as spoken by a preacher
A preacher is a person who delivers sermon
A sermon is an or by a (who is usually a member of ). Sermons address a , , or moral topic, usually expounding on a type of belief, law, or behavior within both past and present contexts. Element ...
in the mosque or a TV newsreader. A transcription is free to add phonological (such as vowels) or morphological (such as word boundaries) information. Transcriptions will also vary depending on the writing conventions of the target language; compare English ''Omar Khayyam
Omar Khayyam (; fa, عمر خیّام ; 18 May 1048 – 4 December 1131) was a Persian
Persian may refer to:
* People and things from Iran, historically called ''Persia'' in the English language
** Persians, Persian people, the majority ethni ...
'' with German ''Omar Chajjam'', both for , (unvocalized ', vocalized ').
A transliteration is ideally fully reversible: a machine should be able to transliterate it back into Arabic. A transliteration can be considered as flawed for any one of the following reasons:
*A "loose" transliteration is ambiguous, rendering several Arabic phonemes with an identical transliteration, or such that digraphs for a single phoneme (such as ''dh gh kh sh th'' rather than ''ḏ ġ ḫ š ṯ'') may be confused with two adjacent consonants—but this problem is resolved in the ALA-LC
ALA-LC (American Library Association - Library of Congress) is a set of standards for romanization, the representation of text in other writing systems using the Latin script.
Applications
The system is used to represent bibliographic information ...
romanization system, where the prime symbol
The prime symbol , double prime symbol , triple prime symbol , and quadruple prime symbol are used to designate units and for other purposes in mathematics
Mathematics (from Ancient Greek, Greek: ) includes the study of such topics as quan ...

ʹ is used to separate two consonants when they do not form a digraph; for example: ' ('she honored her'), in which the ''t'' and ''h'' are two distinct consonantal sounds.
*Symbols representing phonemes may be considered too similar (e.g., ʻ and ' or ʿ and ʾ for and hamzah
Hamza ( ar, همزة ') () is a letter in the Arabic alphabet, representing the glottal stop . Hamza is one of the 28 "full" letters and owes its existence to historical inconsistencies in the orthography, standard writing system. It is derive ...
);
*ASCII transliterations using capital letters to disambiguate phonemes are easy to type, but may be considered unaesthetic.
A fully accurate transcription may not be necessary for native Arabic speakers, as they would be able to pronounce names and sentences correctly anyway, but it can be very useful for those not fully familiar with spoken Arabic and who are familiar with the Roman alphabet. An accurate transliteration serves as a valuable stepping stone for learning, pronouncing correctly, and distinguishing phonemes. It is a useful tool for anyone who is familiar with the sounds of Arabic but not fully conversant in the language.
One criticism is that a fully accurate system would require special learning that most do not have to actually pronounce names correctly, and that with a lack of a universal romanization system they will not be pronounced correctly by non-native speakers anyway. The precision will be lost if special characters are not replicated and if a reader is not familiar with Arabic pronunciation.
Examples
Examples in Literary Arabic:
Arabic alphabet and nationalism
There have been many instances of national movements to convert into Latin script or to romanize the language.
Lebanon
A Beirut newspaper, ''La Syrie'', pushed for the change from Arabic script to Latin script
Latin script, also known as Roman script, is an alphabetic
An alphabet is a standardized set of basic written symbols
A symbol is a mark, sign, or word
In linguistics, a word of a spoken language can be defined as the smallest sequ ...
in 1922. The major head of this movement was Louis Massignon
Louis Massignon (25 July 1883 – 31 October 1962) was a Catholic scholar of Islam and a pioneer of Catholic-Muslim mutual understanding. He was an influential figure in the twentieth century with regard to the Catholic Church, Catholic church ...
, a French Orientalist, who brought his concern before the Arabic Language Academy in Damascus in 1928. Massignon's attempt at romanization failed as the Academy and the population viewed the proposal as an attempt from the Western world to take over their country. Sa'id Afghani, a member of the Academy, asserted that the movement to romanize the script was a Zionist plan to dominate Lebanon.[History of Arabic Writing]
Egypt
After the period of colonialism in Egypt, Egyptians were looking for a way to reclaim and reemphasize Egyptian culture. As a result, some Egyptians pushed for an Egyptianization of the Arabic language
Arabic (, ' or , ' or ) is a that first emerged in the 1st to 4th centuries CE.Semitic languages: an international handbook / edited by Stefan Weninger; in collaboration with Geoffrey Khan, Michael P. Streck, Janet C. E.Watson; Walter de G ...

in which the formal Arabic and the colloquial Arabic
The variety (linguistics), varieties (or dialects or vernacular languages) of Arabic, a Semitic languages, Semitic language within the Afroasiatic languages, Afroasiatic family originating in the Arabian Peninsula, are the linguistic systems that ...
would be combined into one language and the Latin alphabet would be used. There was also the idea of finding a way to use hieroglyphics
Egyptian hieroglyphs () were the formal writing system
A writing system is a method of visually representing verbal communication
Communication (from Latin ''communicare'', meaning "to share" or "to be in relation with") is "an apparent ...
instead of the Latin alphabet. A scholar, Salama Musa, agreed with the idea of applying a Latin alphabet to Egyptian Arabic, as he believed that would allow Egypt to have a closer relationship with the West. He also believed that Latin script was key to the success of Egypt as it would allow for more advances in science and technology. This change in script, he believed, would solve the problems inherent with Arabic, such as a lack of written vowels and difficulties writing foreign words.[Shrivtiel, p. 188] Ahmad Lutfi As Sayid and Muhammad Azmi, two Egyptian intellectuals, agreed with Musa and supported the push for romanization. The idea that romanization was necessary for modernization and growth in Egypt continued with Abd Al Aziz Fahmi in 1944. He was the chairman for the Writing and Grammar Committee for the Arabic Language Academy of Cairo. He believed and desired to implement romanization in a way that allowed words and spellings to remain somewhat familiar to the Egyptian people. However, this effort failed as the Egyptian people felt a strong cultural tie to the Arabic alphabet, particularly the older generation.
See also
*Arabic Chat AlphabetThe Arabic chat alphabet, ''Arabizi'' (, ), Franco-Arabic (, , or ), Arabish, Araby ( ar, عربي, ), and Mu'arrab (), refer to the Romanized alphabets for informal Arabic dialects in which Arabic script is transcribed or encoded into a combina ...
*Arabic diacritics
The Arabic script has numerous diacritics, including ''i'jam'' (, '), consonant pointing, and ''tashkil'' (, '), supplementary diacritics. The latter include the () vowel marks - singular: ' ().
The Arabic script is a modified abjad, where shor ...
*Arabic grammar
Arabic grammar or Arabic language sciences ( ar, النحو العربي ' or ar, عُلُوم اللغَة العَرَبِيَّة ') is the grammar of the Arabic language
Arabic (, ' or , ' or ) is a Semitic languages, Semitic language ...
* Arabic names
*Glottal stop (letter)
The character , called glottal stop, is an letter (alphabet), alphabetic letter in some Latin script, Latin alphabets, most notably in several languages of Canada where it indicates a glottal stop, glottal stop sound. Such usage derives from ...
*Maltese alphabet
The Maltese alphabet is based on the Latin alphabet with the addition of some letters with diacritic marks and Digraph (orthography), digraphs. It is used to write the Maltese language, which evolved from the otherwise extinct Siculo-Arabic dialect ...
*Ottoman Turkish alphabet
The Ottoman Turkish alphabet ( ota, , ') is a version of the Arabic alphabet
The Arabic alphabet ( ar, الْأَبْجَدِيَّة الْعَرَبِيَّة, ' or , ', ), or Arabic abjad, is the Arabic script as it is codified for wr ...
– a Perso-Arabic-based alphabet, which was replaced by the Latin-based Turkish alphabet
The Turkish alphabet ( tr, ) is a Latin-script alphabet
A Latin-script alphabet (Latin alphabet or Roman alphabet) is an alphabet that uses Letter (alphabet), letters of the Latin script. The 21-letter archaic Latin alphabet and the 23-letter ...

in 1928
*Romanization of Hebrew
The Hebrew language
Hebrew (, , or ) is a of the . Historically, it is regarded as one of the spoken languages of the and their longest-surviving descendants: the and . It was largely preserved throughout history as the main of (p ...
*Romanization of Persian
Romanization of Persian or Latinization of Persian ( fa, لاتیننویسی فارسی, Lātinnevisiye fārsi, ) is the representation of the Persian language
Persian (), also known by its endonym
An endonym (from Greek
Greek may re ...
* Standard Arabic Technical Transliteration System (SATTS)
References
External links
Comparative table of DIN 31635, ISO 233, ISO/R 233, UN, ALA-LC, and Encyclopædia of Islam
(not normative)
{{DEFAULTSORT:Romanization Of Arabic
Arabic orthography