TheArabic chat alphabet,Arabizi,[1]Arabeezi,Arabish,Franco-Arabic or simplyFranco[2] (fromfranco-arabe) refer to theromanized alphabets for informalArabic dialects in whichArabic script istranscribed orencoded into a combination ofLatin script andArabic numerals.[3][4] These informal chat alphabets were originally used primarily byyouth in the Arab world in very informal settings—especially for communicating over theInternet or for sendingmessages viacellular phones—though use is not necessarily restricted by age anymore and these chat alphabets have been used in other media such asadvertising.[5][6]
These chat alphabets differ from more formal and academicArabic transliteration systems, in that they usenumerals andmultigraphs instead of diacritics for letters such asṭāʾ (ط) orḍād (ض) that do not exist in the basic Latin script (ASCII), and in that what is being transcribed is an informaldialect and notStandard Arabic.[6] These Arabic chat alphabets also differ from each other, as each is influenced by the particular phonology of theArabic dialect being transcribed and theorthography of the dominant European language in the area—typically the language of the former colonists, and typically eitherFrench orEnglish.
Because of their widespread use, including in public advertisements by large multinational companies, large players in the online industry likeGoogle andMicrosoft have introduced tools that convert text written in Arabish to Arabic (Google Translate andMicrosoft Translator). Add-ons for Mozilla Firefox and Chrome also exist (Panlatin[7] and ARABEASY Keyboard,[8] whence the termArabizi). The Arabic chat alphabet is never used in formal settings and is rarely, if ever, used for long communications.[5]
During the last decades of the 20th century, Western text-based communication technologies, such asmobile phone text messaging, theWorld Wide Web,email,bulletin board systems,IRC, andinstant messaging became increasingly prevalent in theArab world. Most of these technologies originally permitted the use of the Latin script only, and some still lack support for displayingArabic script. As a result, Arabic-speaking users frequently transliterate Arabic text into Latin script when using these technologies to communicate.To handle those Arabic letters that do not have an approximatephonetic equivalent in the Latin script, numerals and other characters were appropriated known as "code switching".[9][10] For example, the numeral "3" is used to represent the Arabic letter⟨ع⟩ (ʿayn)—note the choice of a visually similar character, with the numeral resembling a mirrored version of the Arabic letter. Many users of mobile phones and computers use Arabish even though their system is capable of displaying Arabic script. This may be due to a lack of an appropriatekeyboard layout for Arabic, or because users are already more familiar with theQWERTY orAZERTYkeyboard layout.
Onlinecommunication systems, such as IRC, bulletin board systems, andblogs, are often run on systems or over protocols that do not supportcode pages or alternate character sets. Thus, the Arabic chat alphabet has become commonplace. It can be seen even indomain names, likeQal3ah.
According to one 2020 paper based on a survey done in and aroundNazareth, there is now "a high degree of normativization or standardisation in Arabizi orthography."[11]
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,ب corresponds tob).Regional variations in the pronunciation of an Arabic letter can also produce some variation in its transliteration (e.g.ﺝ might be transliterated asj by a speaker of theLevantine dialect, or asg by a speaker of theEgyptian dialect).[12]
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.ع is represented using the numeral3 because the latter looks like a verticalreflection of the former).
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 anapostrophe added before or after (e.g. '3 is used to representغ).
| Letters | Arabic chat alphabet[12][13][14][15] | 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 | bp |
| ت | t | tt̪t͡s |
| ث | s th t[11] | sθ |
| ج | j g dj[1] | ʒd͡ʒɟɟ͡ʝɡ |
| ح | 7 h[7] | ħʜ |
| خ | kh 7' 5 | xχ |
| د | d | dd̪ |
| ذ | z th dh d[11] | zð |
| ر | r | ɾrrˤ |
| ز | z | z |
| س | s | s |
| ش | sh ch[1] $[6] x[14] | ʃ |
| ص | s 9 | sˤsˠ |
| ض | d dh 9' D[8] | dˤd̪ˤd̪ˠ |
| ط | t 6 T[8] | tˤt̪ˤt̪ˠ |
| ظ | z th dh 6' | zˤðˤðˠ |
| ع | 3[13] | ʕʢ |
| غ | gh 3' 8[9] | ɣʁ |
| ف | f v | fv |
| ق | 2 g q 8[10] 9[10] | ʔɡɢq |
| ك | k g ch[12] | kɡt͡ʃ |
| ل | l | lɫ |
| م | m | m |
| ن | n | n |
| ه | h a e ah eh é[1] | h,/ae/ |
| ة | a e eh at et é[1] | /aeatet/ |
| و | w o ou oo u | wo(ː)u(ː) |
| يى[2] | y i ee ei ai a é[1] | ji(ː)e(ː),/a/ |
| Additional letters | Arabic chat alphabet | IPA |
|---|---|---|
| پ | p | p |
| چ[3] | j ch tch g | ʒt͡ʃɡ |
| ڜ[4] | ch tch | t͡ʃ |
| ڤڥ[5] | v | v |
| ڨگݣ[5] | g | ɡ |
Each of the different varieties of Arabic chat alphabets is influenced by the particular phonology of theArabic dialect being transcribed and theorthography of the dominant European language in the area—typically the language of the former colonists. Below are some examples of Arabic chat alphabet varieties.
The frequent use ofy andw to representى andو demonstrates the influence ofEnglish orthography on the romanization ofEgyptian Arabic.
Additionally, the letterqāf (ق) is usually pronounced as aglottal stop, like ahamza (ء) in Metropolitan (Cairene) Egyptian Arabic—unlikeStandard Arabic in which it represents avoiceless uvular stop. Therefore, in EgyptianArabizi, the numeral 2 can represent either a Hamza or a qāf pronounced as a glottal stop.
| 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 | [ænæˈɾɑˑjeħelˈɡæmʕæ(ʔe)sˈsæːʕætæˈlæːtælˈʕɑsˤɾ] | [elˈɡæwweˈʕæːmelˈe(ːhe)nnɑˈhɑɾdɑfeskendeˈɾejjæ] |
| English | I'm going to college at 3 pm. | How is the weather today in Alexandria? |
| Levantine Arabic | كيف صحتك، شو قاعد بتعمل؟ |
|---|---|
| Arabic transcription | keef so7tak, shu 2a3ed bte3mal? |
| English | How is your health, what are you doing? |
The use ofch to representش demonstrates the influence ofFrench orthography on the romanization ofMoroccan Arabic orDarija. French became the primary European language inMorocco as a result ofFrench colonialism.[17][18]
One of the characteristics of Franco-Arabic as it is used to transcribeDarija is the presence of longconsonant 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 fromAmazigh languages.[19]
| Moroccan Arabic | كيفاش داير فالقراية؟ |
|---|---|
| Arabic transcription | kifach dayer fle9raya? |
| IPA | [kifæʃdæjərfləqrˤɑja] |
| English | How are you doing with your studies? |
| 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 | عليمن يا گلُب تعتب عليمن؟ |
|---|---|
| Arabic transcription | 3alayman ya galb ti3tib 3alayman? |
| English | Who are you blaming, my heart, who? |
The use ofch to representك (kāf) indicates one of thePalestinian Arabic variant pronunciations of the letter in one of its subdialects, in which it is sometimespalatalized to[t͡ʃ] (as in English "chip").[20][21] Where this palatalization appears in other dialects, the Arabic letter is typically respelled to eitherتش orچ.
| Palestinian Arabic | بخير الله إيسلمك شحالك إنتي |
|---|---|
| Arabic transcription | b7'air allah eysallemch .. sh7aalech enty?? |
| English | Fine, God bless you. How about you?[22] |
| 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 | 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! |
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,[23] conservative Muslims, as well asPan-Arabists and someArab nationalists, view the Arabic Chat Alphabet as a detrimental form ofWesternization. Arabic chat alphabets emerged amid a growing trend amongArab youth, from Morocco to Iraq, to incorporate former colonial languages—especially English and French—into Arabic throughcode switching or as a form of slang. These improvised chat alphabets are used to replaceArabic script, and this raises concerns regarding the preservation of the quality of the language.[2]
