Semitic romanization on:
[Wikipedia]
[Google]
[Amazon]
Semitic romanization is the process (generally called romanization) by which Semitic languages are transliterated into the Latin alphabet. The Semitic languages emerged in the Middle East during prehistory. Contemporary Semitic languages are almost all natively written in various abjads or
Semitic romanization is the process (generally called romanization) by which Semitic languages are transliterated into the Latin alphabet. The Semitic languages emerged in the Middle East during prehistory. Contemporary Semitic languages are almost all natively written in various abjads or alphabets
An alphabet is a standardized set of basic written graphemes (called letters) that represent the phonemes of certain spoken languages. Not all writing systems represent language in this way; in a syllabary, each character represents a syllab ...
such as the Arabic
Arabic (, ' ; , ' or ) is a Semitic language spoken primarily across the Arab world.Semitic languages: an international handbook / edited by Stefan Weninger; in collaboration with Geoffrey Khan, Michael P. Streck, Janet C. E.Watson; Walte ...
, Amharic
Amharic ( or ; (Amharic: ), ', ) is an Ethiopian Semitic language, which is a subgrouping within the Semitic branch of the Afroasiatic languages. It is spoken as a first language by the Amharas, and also serves as a lingua franca for all oth ...
, and Hebrew
Hebrew (; ; ) is a Northwest Semitic language of the Afroasiatic language family. Historically, it is one of the spoken languages of the Israelites and their longest-surviving descendants, the Jews and Samaritans. It was largely preserved ...
scripts. A notable exception is Maltese, which is the only Semitic language with a standard native form written in the Latin script.
Romanization schemes for specific Semitic languages
Romanization schemes forProto-Semitic
Proto-Semitic is the hypothetical reconstructed proto-language ancestral to the Semitic languages. There is no consensus regarding the location of the Proto-Semitic ''Urheimat''; scholars hypothesize that it may have originated in the Levant (m ...
and various Semitic languages (Semitic abjad
An abjad (, ar, أبجد; also abgad) is a writing system in which only consonants are represented, leaving vowel sounds to be inferred by the reader. This contrasts with other alphabets, which provide graphemes for both consonants and vowel ...
s):
* Romanization of Arabic
**ISO 233
The international standard ISO 233 establishes a system for romanization of Arabic and Syriac. It was supplemented by ISO 233-2 in 1993.
1984 edition
The table below shows the consonants for the Arabic language.
ISO 233-2:1993
ISO 233-2:1 ...
**DIN 31635 DIN 31635 is a Deutsches Institut für Normung (DIN) standard for the transliteration of the Arabic alphabet adopted in 1982. It is based on the rules of the Deutsche Morgenländische Gesellschaft (DMG) as modified by the International Orientalist ...
* Romanization of Hebrew
** ISO 259
See also
*Transliteration of Ancient Egyptian
As used for Egyptology, transliteration of Ancient Egyptian is the process of converting (or mapping) texts written as Egyptian language symbols to alphabetic symbols representing uniliteral hieroglyphs or their hieratic and demotic counterparts. T ...
* Semitic abjad#Descendants of the Semitic abjad
* Cuneiform#Transliteration
*Proto-Sinaitic alphabet
Proto-Sinaitic (also referred to as Sinaitic, Proto-Canaanite when found in Canaan, the North Semitic alphabet, or Early Alphabetic) is considered the earliest trace of alphabetic writing and the common ancestor of both the Ancient South Arabia ...
Sources
* Khan, Geoffrey., Watson, Janet C. E., Weninger, Stefan. ''The Semitic Languages: An International Handbook''. Germany: De Gruyter, 2011. * George, Coulter H.. ''How Dead Languages Work''. United Kingdom: Oxford University Press, 2020 (p.195-99). Romanization {{latin-script-stub