The Hans Wehr transliteration system is a system for

transliteration Transliteration is a type of conversion of a text from one script to another that involves swapping letters (thus '' trans-'' + '' liter-'') in predictable ways, such as Greek → and → the digraph , Cyrillic → , Armenian → or L ...

of the

Arabic alphabet The Arabic alphabet, or the Arabic abjad, is the Arabic script as specifically codified for writing the Arabic language. It is a unicase, unicameral script written from right-to-left in a cursive style, and includes 28 letters, of which most ...

into the

Latin alphabet The Latin alphabet, also known as the Roman alphabet, is the collection of letters originally used by the Ancient Rome, ancient Romans to write the Latin language. Largely unaltered except several letters splitting—i.e. from , and from � ...

used in the Hans Wehr dictionary (1952; in English 1961). The system was modified somewhat in the English editions. It is printed in lowercase

italics In typography, italic type is a cursive font based on a stylised form of calligraphic handwriting. Along with blackletter and roman type, it served as one of the major typefaces in the history of Western typography. Owing to the influence f ...

. It marks some consonants using diacritics (

underdot When used as a diacritic mark, the term dot refers to the glyphs "combining dot above" (, and "combining dot below" ( which may be combined with some letters of the extended Latin alphabets in use in a variety of languages. Similar marks are ...

macron below Macron below is a combining diacritical mark that is used in various orthographies. A non-combining form is . It is not to be confused with , and . The difference between "macron below" and "low line" is that the latter results in an unbroken ...

, and

caron A caron or háček ( ), is a diacritic mark () placed over certain letters in the orthography of some languages, to indicate a change of the related letter's pronunciation. Typographers tend to use the term ''caron'', while linguists prefer ...

) rather than digraphs, and writes long vowels with macrons. The transliteration of the Arabic alphabet: *

Hamza The hamza ( ') () is an Arabic script character that, in the Arabic alphabet, denotes a glottal stop and, in non-Arabic languages, indicates a diphthong, vowel, or other features, depending on the language. Derived from the letter '' ʿayn'' ( ...

() is represented as ʼ in the middle and at the end of a word. At the beginning of a word, it is not represented. * The ''

tāʼ marbūṭa Taw, tav, or taf is the twenty-second and last letter of the Semitic abjads, including Arabic ''tāʾ'' , Aramaic ''taw'' 𐡕‎, Hebrew ''tav'' , Phoenician ''tāw'' 𐤕, and Syriac ''taw'' ܬ. In Arabic, it also gives rise to the derived ...

'' () is normally not represented, and words ending in it simply have a final ''-a''. It is, however, represented with a ''t'' when it is the ending of the first noun of an ''iḍāfa'' and with an ''h'' when it appears after a long ''ā''. * Native Arabic long vowels: ''ā ī ū'' * Long vowels in borrowed words: ''ē ō'' * Short vowels: ''fatḥa'' is represented as ''a'', ''kasra'' as ''i'' and ''ḍamma'' as ''u''. (see short vowel marks) * ''Wāw'' and ''yāʼ'' are represented as ''u'' and ''i'' after ''fatḥa'': ''ʻain'' "eye", ''yaum'' "day". * Non-standard Arabic consonants: ''p'' (), ''ž'' (), ''g'' () * '' Alif maqṣūra'' (): ''ā'' * ''Madda'' (): ''ā'' at the beginning of a word, ''ʼā'' in the middle or at the end * A final ''yāʼ'' (), the ''nisba'' adjective ending, is represented as ''ī'' normally, but as ''īy'' when the ending contains the third consonant of the root. This difference is not written in the Arabic. * Capitalization: The transliteration uses no capitals, even for proper names. * Definite article: The Arabic definite article is represented as ''

al- (, also romanized as ''el-'', ''il-'', and ''l-'' as pronounced in some varieties of Arabic), is the definite article in the Arabic language: a particle (''ḥarf'') whose function is to render the noun on which it is prefixed definite. For ex ...

'' except where assimilation occurs: ''al-'' + ''šams'' is transliterated ''aš-šams'' (see

sun and moon letters In Arabic and Maltese, all consonants are classified into two distinct groups known as sun letters ( ', ) and moon letters (Arabic: ', ) This distinction affects the way the definite article (equivalent to " the" in English) is assimilated ...

). The ''a'' in ''al-'' is omitted after a final ''a'' (as in ''lamma šamla l-qatīʻ'' "to round up the herd") or changed to ''i'' after a feminine third person singular perfect verb form (as in ''kašafat il-ḥarbu ʻan sāqin'' "war flared up").

Notes

References

*Wehr, Hans. ''

Dictionary of Modern Written Arabic ''A Dictionary of Modern Written Arabic'' (originally published in German language, German as 'Arabic dictionary for the contemporary written language'), also published in English as ''The Hans Wehr Dictionary of Modern Written Arabic'', is a tra ...

''. {{DEFAULTSORT:Hans Wehr Transliteration Romanization of Arabic

See also

Notes

References