Arabic chat alphabet
The Arabic chat alphabet, Arabizi,[1] Arabeezi, Arabish or Franco-Arabic[2] (franco-arabe) refer to the romanized alphabets for informal Arabic dialects in which Arabic script is transcribed or encoded into a combination of Latin script and Arabic numerals. These informal chat alphabets were originally used primarily by youth in the Arab world in very informal settings—especially for communicating over the Internet or for sending messages via cellular phones—though use is not necessarily restricted by age anymore and these chat alphabets have been used in other media such as advertising.[3][4]
These chat alphabets differ from more formal and academic
Because of their widespread use, including in public advertisements by large multinational companies, large players in the online industry like Google and Microsoft have introduced tools that convert text written in Arabish to Arabic (Google Translate and Microsoft Translator). Add-ons for Mozilla Firefox and Chrome also exist (Panlatin[5] and ARABEASY Keyboard [6]). The Arabic chat alphabet is never used in formal settings and is rarely, if ever, used for long communications.[3]
History
During the last decades of the 20th century, Western text-based communication technologies, such as
Online communication systems, such as IRC, bulletin board systems, and blogs, are often run on systems or over protocols that do not support code pages or alternate character sets. Thus, the Arabic chat alphabet has become commonplace. It can be seen even in domain names, like Qal3ah.
According to one 2020 paper based on a survey done in and around Nazareth, there is now "a high degree of normativization or standardisation in Arabizi orthography."[7]
Comparison table
Because of the informal nature of this system, there is no single "correct" or "official" usage. There may be some overlap in the way various letters are transliterated.
Most of the characters in the system make use of the Latin character (as used in English and French) that best approximates phonetically the Arabic letter that one would otherwise use (for example,
Those letters that do not have a close phonetic approximation in the Latin script are often expressed using numerals or other characters, so that the numeral graphically approximates the Arabic letter that one would otherwise use (e.g.
Since many letters are distinguished from others solely by a dot above or below the main portion of the character, the transliterations of these letters frequently use the same letter or number with an
| Letters | Arabic chat alphabet[8][9][10][11] | IPA |
|---|---|---|
| أ إ آ ء ئ ؤ | 2 | ʔ |
ا
|
a e è[1] | æ(ː) a(ː) ɑ(ː) ɛ(ː) ɐ |
ب
|
b p | b p |
ت
|
t | t̪ t͡s
|
ث
|
s th t[11] | s θ |
ج
|
j g dj[1] | ʒ d͡ʒ ɟ ɟ͡ʝ ɡ |
ح
|
7 h[7] | ħ ʜ |
خ
|
kh 7' 5 | x χ |
د
|
d | d̪
|
ذ
|
z th dh d[11] | z ð |
ر
|
r | r rˤ
|
ز
|
z | z |
س
|
s | s |
ش
|
sh ch[1] $[6] | ʃ |
ص
|
s 9 | sˤ sˠ |
ض
|
d dh 9' D[8] | dˤ d̪ˤ d̪ˠ |
ط
|
t 6 T[8] | tˤ t̪ˤ t̪ˠ |
ظ
|
z th dh 6' | zˤ ðˤ ðˠ |
ع
|
3[13] | ʕ ʢ |
غ
|
gh 3' 8[9] | ɣ ʁ |
ف
|
f v | f v |
ق
|
2 g q 8[10] 9[10] | ʔ ɡ ɢ q |
ك
|
k g ch[12] | k ɡ t͡ʃ |
ل
|
l | ɫ
|
م
|
m | m |
ن
|
n | n
|
ه
|
h a e ah eh é[1] | h, /a e/ |
ة
|
a e eh at et é[1] | /a e at et/ |
و
|
w o ou oo u | w o(ː) u(ː) |
ي ى [2]
|
y i ee ei ai a é[1] | j i(ː) e(ː), /a/ |
| Additional letters | Arabic chat alphabet | IPA |
|---|---|---|
پ
|
p | p |
چ [3]
|
j ch tch g | ʒ t͡ʃ ɡ |
ڜ [4]
|
ch tch | t͡ʃ |
ڥ [5]
|
v | v |
ݣ [5]
|
g | ɡ |
- ^1 é, è, ch, and dj are most likely to be used in regions where French is the primary non-Arabic language. dj is especially used in Algerian Arabic.
- ى (without dots), representing both final /i/ and /a/. It is the more traditional way of spelling the letter for both cases.
- Gimel Yafit).
- ^4 Only used in Morocco to transliterate Spanish /t͡ʃ/.[12]
- ^5 Depending on the region, different letters may be used for the same phoneme.
- ^6 The dollar sign is only used in Jordan.
- ^7 This use for h is also found in Morocco.
- ^8 Capitalized D and T may be used in Lebanon.
- ^9 The number 8 is used for /ɣ/ only in Lebanon.
- ^10 Less common forms for /q/.
- ^11 The letters t and d are used for the pronunciations /t, d/, respectively.
- ^12 Used in a Palestinian dialect where the letter is sometimes pronounced /t͡ʃ/.
- ^13 /ʕ/ rarely spelled ⟨a⟩ as names are commonly transcribed in official documents.
Examples
Each of the different varieties of Arabic chat alphabets is influenced by the particular phonology of the Arabic dialect being transcribed and the orthography of the dominant European language in the area—typically the language of the former colonists. Below are some examples of Arabic chat alphabet varieties.
Egyptian Arabic
The frequent use of .
Additionally, the letter
| Egyptian Arabic | انا رايح الجامعه الساعه 3 العصر |
الجو عامل ايه النهارده فى إسكندريه؟ |
|---|---|---|
| Arabic transcription | ana raye7 el gam3a el sa3a 3 el 3asr. | el gaw 3amel eh elnaharda f eskendereya? |
| IPA | [ænæˈɾɑˑjeħ elˈɡæmʕæ (ʔe)sˈsæːʕæ tæˈlæːtæ lˈʕɑsˤɾ] | [elˈɡæwwe ˈʕæːmel ˈe(ːhe)nnɑˈhɑɾdɑ feskendeˈɾejjæ] |
| English | I'm going to college at 3 pm. | How is the weather today in Alexandria? |
Levantine Arabic
| Levantine Arabic | كيف صحتك، شو قاعد بتعمل؟ |
|---|---|
| Arabic transcription | keef so7tak, shu 2a3ed bte3mal? |
| English | How is your health, what are you doing? |
Moroccan Arabic
The use of
One of the characteristics of Franco-Arabic as it is used to transcribe Darija is the presence of long consonant clusters that are typically unorthodox in other languages. These clusters represents the deletion of short vowels and the syllabification of medial consonants in the phonology of Darija, a feature shared with and derived from Amazigh languages.[14]
| Moroccan Arabic | كيفاش داير فالقراية؟ |
|---|---|
| Arabic transcription | kifach dayer fle9raya? |
| IPA | [kifæʃ dæjər fləqrˤɑja] |
| English | How are you doing with your studies? |
Gulf Arabic
- Spoken along the Persian Gulf coasts of UAE and eastern Saudi Arabia
| Gulf Arabic | شلونك؟ شنو قاعد تسوي الحين؟ |
|---|---|
| Arabic transcription | shlonik? Shnu ga3d tsawe al7een? |
| English | How are you? What are you doing right now? |
Iraqi Arabic
Iraqi Arabic
|
عليمن يا گلُب تعتب عليمن؟ |
|---|---|
| Arabic transcription | 3alayman ya galb ti3tib 3alayman? |
| English | Who are you blaming, my heart, who? |
Palestinian Bedouin/Triangle Region Arabic
The use of
| Palestinian Arabic | بخير الله إيسلمك شحالك إنتي |
|---|---|
| Arabic transcription | b7'air allah eysallemch .. sh7aalech enty?? |
| English | Fine, God bless you. How about you?[17] |
Sudanese Arabic
| Sudanese Arabic | والله مشتاق ليك شديد يا زول كيفك إنتا؟ انا الحمدلله اكنت داير امشى المحل داك جمب النيل، المكان قريب من بيتك. حاستناك فى الكبرى اتفقنا؟. |
|---|---|
| Arabic transcription | wallahi moshtag lik shadid ya zol kefak inta? ana alhamdolillah konta dayir amshi le al ma7al dak gamb al nil, al makan garib men betak. 7astanak fi al kubri. htafakna |
| English | Oh, God, I missed you a lot, man! How are you? Thank God. So I want to go to that one place near the Nile, the place near your very house! I'll wait for you at the bridge. deal?? |
Chadian Arabic
- N'Djamena, Chad.
| Chadian Arabic | بوه ياخي، إنت عفة؟ ولله سمح أنا ماشي لسوبرمارشة ديك بي وسط نجامينا لو تدور تمشي يعني، تعال معاي يلا ياخي. |
|---|---|
| Arabic transcription | Boh yakhi, inta afé? Wallah semeh, ana maché lê supermarché dik bi ousut n'djamena lô tidoura tamshi yani, ta'al maa'ai yalla yakhi. |
| English | Oh, hey, my brother. How are you? Good. I am going to that supermarket in downtown N'Djamena, so if you want to come, hurry and come with me, my brother! |
Criticism
The phenomenon of writing Arabic with these improvised chat alphabets has drawn sharp rebuke from a number of different segments of Arabic-speaking communities. While educators and members of the intelligentsia mourn the deterioration and degradation of the standard, literary, academic language,[18] conservative Muslims, as well as Pan-Arabists and some Arab nationalists, view the Arabic Chat Alphabet as a detrimental form of Westernization. Arabic chat alphabets emerged amid a growing trend among Arab youth, from Morocco to Iraq, to incorporate former colonial languages—especially English and French—into Arabic through code switching or as a form of slang. These improvised chat alphabets are used to replace Arabic script, and this raises concerns regarding the preservation of the quality of the language.[2]
See also
- Languages portal
Internet portal
- Arablish
- Arabic alphabet
- Varieties of Arabic
- Arabic phonology
- Arabic transliteration
- Romanization of Syriac
- Arabist
- Fingilish, the same idea with Persian
- l33t
- Yamli, a tool for real time Arabic transliteration
- Greeklish, a similar phenomenon in Greek
- Maltese, a related standardized Semitic language written in Latin script
References
- ^ Ghanem, Renad (20 April 2011). "Arabizi is destroying the Arabic language". Arab News.
- ^ a b Al-Fawaz, Nadia (26 December 2014). "Purists alarmed at increasing popularity of Franco-Arabic". Arab News.
- ^ a b Yaghan, M. (2008). "Araby: A Contemporary Style of Arabic Slang". Design Issues 24(2): 39-52.
- ^ ISBN 9780199719495.
- ^ "Panlatin". Firefox Add-ons.
- ^ "ARABEASY Keyboard type Arabic in English IME". Chrome Web Store. Archived from the original on 2022-03-28. Retrieved 2019-03-31.
- ^ Aula Khatteb Abu-Liel, Zohar Eviatar & Bracha Nir (2019) Writing between languages: the case of Arabizi, Writing Systems Research, 11:2, 226-238, DOI: 10.1080/17586801.2020.1814482
- ^ a b Bjørnsson, Jan Arild (November 2010). "Egyptian Romanized Arabic: A Study of Selected Features from Communication Among Egyptian Youth on Facebook" (PDF). University of Oslo. Retrieved 31 March 2019.
- hdl:2152/72420. Archived from the originalon Jun 17, 2022.
- .
- ^ Abdurazag Ahmed Saide (December 2019). "Arabizi - Help or Harm? Analysis of the Impacts of Arabizi -threat or Benefit to the Written Arabic Language?". Ohio, US: University of Dayton. Archived from the original on Jul 23, 2023.
- ^ José de Lerchundi: Rudimentos del árabe vulgar que se habla en el Imperio de Marruecos, Madrid 1872, S. 5, 26, 95.
- OCLC 855022840.
- ^ Mohamed Lahrouchi. The Amazigh influence on Moroccan Arabic: Phonological and morphological borrowing. International Journal of Arabic Linguistics, 2018, Arabic-Amazigh contact, 4 (1), pp.39-58. ffhalshs-01798660v2f
- ISBN 9783734041389– via Google Books.
- – via www.academia.edu.
- ISBN 9783110198539– via Google Books.
- ^ جناحي, نجوى عبداللطيف (2018-01-06). "لنهجر لغة "العربيزي"!". Watan (in Arabic). Retrieved 2019-07-22.
- Bjørnsson, Jan Arild (2010). Egyptian Romanized Arabic: A Study of Selected Features from Communication Among Egyptian Youth on Facebook (Thesis) (PDF). University of Oslo.
