I've noticed in a number of bi-lingual blogs that there's an increasingly popular method for writing Arabic with Latin/English letters. For example: "AsSlamu 3alaikum ." I can usually figure out the system, but I came across a post recently that was in heavy Egyptian dialect and was using "2" and I just couldn't put it together. Can anyone post a comment with a translation of the lettering system or a link to one? For example 3 = ع and 7 = خ ? Right?
And, secondly, why are so many people using this system? It would seem to me that if you are a native Arabic speaker, you would be more comfortable typing Arabic with Arabic letters. Is it that people are learning how to type English in schools, or does it have something to do with phones and texting and all? Please post a comment to enlighten me.
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6 comments:
The 2 in Arablish is the hamzaa ء or alf mamdooda. Hope that helps decipher the post
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arablish
Kay,
Thanks a lot for your help. I've been looking for the transliteration chart for some time, but my google searches never came up with the wiki article. I should have known to look there.
So, why do so many people use the Arablish on blogs instead of just switching to Arabic script?
If I'm not mistaken, this system was first used in the 90's on mIRC and people used it because their computers did not support the Arabic language. My uncle is a Ph.D in Arabic and when I told him about this system, he told me that there was a similar thing a very long time ago in the Arabic Literature.
So, people just got used to it. Those who used mIRC in the 90's used it when they were in the US, UK and other countries pursuing their university degrees. At the time, there was no Internet in the Arab countries, and they only used Internet from abroad, and of course, the computers abroad did not support the Arabic language, so they invented this system and just got used to it. I hope I'm not mistaken about this, because I'm not 100% sure. Besides, even though those who have computers that support Arabic still use this system, they use it because they type a lot faster in English, and it will take them forever to write in Arabic.
Anyhow, here is the lettering system:
2 - أ (hamza)
3 - ع
4 - nothing
5 - خ
6 - ط
7 - ح
8 - ق
9 - ص
'9 - ض
Sometimes ح can also be used as '7.
Amjad,
Thanks. But why are they so much faster at typing in English than Arabic? Isn't there much call for typing in Arabic for secondary school, etc? Why are people learning to type well in English, but not Arabic?
Because when computers were first introduced, they did not support Arabic. So people got used to typing in English and almost all the work done on computers is in English. Though, there are some people who type faster in Arabic and prefer using Arabic on computers now that computers in the Middle East do support the Arabic language.
When we were in school, even though our IT curriculum was in Arabic, all the applications done on the computer were done in English.
Same for mobile phones. When they were first introduced, they did not support Arabic, so people got used to text in English and now they text faster in English.
Personally for me, I type quite fast in English, but I still type relatively fast in Arabic as well. It's just about getting yourself used to something.
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