Learn about the Arabic writing script
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Intro |
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| Michael: What writing system does Arabic use? |
| Nora: And has it changed over time? |
| Michael: At ArabicPod101.com, we hear these questions often. Imagine the following situation: Emma, an exchange student, is preparing a presentation about the Arabic language. She asks her friend, Mina, |
| "What script does Arabic use?" |
| أَيُّ حُروفٍ تُستَخدَم لِكِتابَةِ العَرَبِيَّة؟ (ayyu ḥurūfin tustaḫdam likitābaẗi al-ʿarabiyyah?) |
| Dialogue |
| Emma Emam: أَيُّ حُروفٍ تُستَخدَم لِكِتابَةِ العَرَبِيَّة؟ (ayyu ḥurūfin tustaḫdam likitābaẗi al-ʿarabiyyah?) |
| Mina Malaak: .تُكتَبُ العَرَبِيَّة بِالأَبجَدِيَّة (tuktabu al-ʿarabiyyah bilʾabǧadiyyah.) |
| Michael: Once more with the English translation. |
| Emma Emam: أَيُّ حُروفٍ تُستَخدَم لِكِتابَةِ العَرَبِيَّة؟ (ayyu ḥurūfin tustaḫdam likitābaẗi al-ʿarabiyyah?) |
| Michael: "What script does Arabic use?" |
| Mina Malaak: .تُكتَبُ العَرَبِيَّة بِالأَبجَدِيَّة (tuktabu al-ʿarabiyyah bilʾabǧadiyyah.) |
| Michael: "It uses the Arabic alphabet. " |
Lesson focus |
| Michael: In this lesson, you’ll learn all about the Arabic writing system. Arabic uses the Arabic alphabet, or |
| Nora: الأَبجَدِيَّة العَرَبِيَّة (al-ʾabǧadiyyah al-ʿarabiyyah) |
| Michael: as its writing system. It originated from Aramaic—the same ancient script that Hebrew comes from. Although Arabic inscriptions became most common after the birth of Islam, around the 7th century, the origin of the Arabic alphabet goes further back in time. The Nabataeans, who established the kingdom in what is modern-day Jordan from the 2nd century, were Arabs. They wrote with a highly cursive Aramaic-derived alphabet that would eventually evolve into the Arabic alphabet. The Nabataeans endured until the year 106 CE when they were conquered by the Romans. But, Nabataean inscriptions continued to appear until the 4th century CE, coinciding with the first inscriptions in the Arabic alphabet, which is also found in Jordan. |
| The Arabic script is a writing system adapted for use in a wide variety of languages besides Arabic, including Persian, Malay, and Urdu. In order to accommodate the needs of these other languages, new letters and other symbols were added to the original alphabet. We might use the Arabic dialects to communicate, but, when it comes to the formal or literary written form, we most likely go with standard Arabic. |
| [Recall 1] |
| Michael: Let’s take a closer look at the dialogue. |
| Do you remember how Emma says "What script does Arabic use?" |
| [PAUSE 4 SEC] |
| Nora as Emma Emam: أَيُّ حُروفٍ تُستَخدَم لِكِتابَةِ العَرَبِيَّة؟ (ayyu ḥurūfin tustaḫdam likitābaẗi al-ʿarabiyyah?) |
| Michael: Now, let’s take a look at our second sentence. |
| Do you remember how Mina Malaak says "It uses the Arabic alphabet?" |
| [PAUSE 4 SEC] |
| Nora as Mina Malaak: .تُكتَبُ العَرَبِيَّة بِالأَبجَدِيَّة (tuktabu al-ʿarabiyyah bilʾabǧadiyyah.) |
| Michael: So, what does this alphabet look like? Well, the Arabic alphabet is simple and concise. It has 28 letters, which are all consonants except for three used for long vowels. These vowels are called: |
| Nora: [NORMAL] أ، و، ي. ('alif,wāw,yā') [SLOWLY] أ، و، ي. |
| Michael: The other vowels are supplied by 14 diacritical marks, which also serve as noun and verb modifiers. These are placed above or below the consonants to bring out the correct pronunciation of the words. |
| The rest of the letters are all consonants, for example: |
| Nora: [NORMAL] ب، ت، ث، ج، د، ر، ز، (b, t, th, j, d, r, z,) [SLOWLY] ب، ت، ث، ج، د، ر، ز، |
| Michael: Five of the consonant letters are emphatic or hard versions of other letters. They are the ones pronounced in a different part of the mouth, like this: |
| Nora: [NORMAL] ض، ح، ص، ظ، ق (d, h, s, z, q) [SLOWLY] ض، ح، ص، ظ، ق |
| Michael: As for the actual shape of the letters, many look similar, but are distinguished from one another by dots placed above or below their central part. These dots are an integral part of a letter, since they distinguish between letters that represent different sounds. For instance, the same letter shape is pronounced as a ‘b’ sound (ب) when one dot is placed below it; a ‘t’ sound (ت) when two dots are placed above, or a ‘th’ sound (ث) when three dots are added above! |
| Now, let’s discuss the two different styles of writing in Arabic. The first is Classical Arabic |
| Nora: [NORMAL] فُصحى التُراث (Fuṣḥā al-Turāth) [SLOWLY] فصحى التراث |
| Michael: which is the language of the Qur'an and classical literature. The second is Modern Standard Arabic |
| Nora: [NORMAL] فُصحى العَصر (Fuṣḥā al-ʻAṣr) [SLOWLY] فصحى العصر |
| Michael: Modern Standard Arabic is the official language of the Arabic-speaking countries. It's the language of the vast majority of formal written material, textbooks, news, lectures, and so on. |
| The biggest difference between these two writing styles is that Classical Arabic represents vowels, while Modern Standard Arabic mostly does not. To help you understand, we can compare it to English. Take, for example, a word like ‘cover’ in English. It's written C-O-V-E-R. |
| That is how you would write it in Classical Arabic. |
| In Modern Standard Arabic, however, it is customary to omit the vowels. So, it would be written C-V-R. In this case, the vowels are merely implied. It relies on you to fill in the gaps on your own to come up with the correct word based on context. |
| You will, however, see vowelled Modern Standard Arabic text in books for children and foreign learners, and occasionally on certain words in complex texts to avoid ambiguity. |
| The writing style of Arabic may require some getting used to because, unlike English and other western languages, Arabic is written in the opposite direction: from right to left. |
| So, using the commonly used verb “to go” as an example: |
| Nora: ذَهَبَ ( ḏahaba) |
| Michael: meaning ‘go’, first you write |
| Nora: ذ (ḏ) |
| Michael: followed by |
| Nora: ه, (h) |
| Michael: and then |
| Nora: ب (b) |
| Michael: While words are written from right to left, numerals are written from left to right instead. So, please keep that in mind! Now, let us talk a bit about the different forms of an individual letter. |
| The Arabic alphabet is always cursive. In fact, unlike English, writing cursive in Arabic is not optional! Arabic does not have words written with separate letters, and that is why each letter has three forms—the beginning, medial, and end—plus the isolated form. It is always written this way, where letters within a word connect from one to the next, and this is great because it makes it easier when we write it! As for case, there are no distinct upper and lower case letter forms. Each letter is written differently, depending on its position within a word. Take the letter |
| Nora: ب (b) |
| Michael: for example. This letter is written in the 'initial' form when it is the first letter in a word, as in the word |
| Nora: [NORMAL] بَيض (baīḍ) [SLOWLY] بيض |
| Michael: meaning ‘eggs’. Then, when it is wedged between two other letters, it will be written in the 'medial' form, as in this word: |
| Nora: [NORMAL] اِنطِباع (inṭibāʿ) [SLOWLY] انطباع |
| Michael: which means ‘impression’. Lastly, it can be written in the 'final' form when it's the last letter in a word—as in ‘homework’: |
| Nora: [NORMAL] واجِب (wajib) [SLOWLY] واجب |
| [Summary] |
| Michael: In this lesson, you learned that Arabic is written using the Arabic alphabet, which has 28 letters, three being vowels and the rest being consonants. Then, you learned that texts using Classical Arabic are vowelled, whereas, in Modern Standard Arabic, vowels are mostly omitted with a few exceptions. You also learned that Arabic is written from right to left, and that there are four forms of a letter: the initial, medial, final, and isolated. Finally, you learned that Arabic is always written in cursive. |
| Expansion |
| If you are more likely to type Arabic than to write it by hand, you might be wondering what the Arabic keyboard layout is like. Since Arabic is written from right to left, when you type with an Arabic keyboard, the letters will start appearing from the right side of the screen. Also, all Arabic keyboards allow typing Roman characters so that you can write things like the URL in a web browser. The keys will be marked with both Arabic and Roman characters—pretty handy, right? |
| Cultural Insight |
| Michael: If you know a bit of Modern Standard Arabic, you can survive in Arabic countries. You will see it on all street signs, at the airport, train and bus stations, newspapers and guide books. |
| Many students go for Standard Arabic first. But, if you want to communicate with people on all levels in an Arabic-speaking country and really understand their genuine thoughts, the best for that is probably the Egyptian colloquial Arabic! It is the popular dialect used in Arabic entertainment—especially in movies. Luckily, we have an entire separate pathway dedicated to Egyptian Arabic on ArabicPod101.com. |
Outro |
| Michael: Do you have any more questions? We are here to answer them! |
| Nora: !سلام (Salam!) |
| Michael: See you soon! |
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