Dictionary of Modern Written Arabic - Transcription and Orthography

Transcription and Orthography

Transcriptions (for specific details, see Hans Wehr transliteration) are provided for the past tense of the basic verb form, for the vowel of the imperfect tense, and for all nouns and particles, but they are not provided for verb forms of the derived stems, except for any irregular forms, the rare XI to XV stems, and the quadriliteral roots. The morphology of the derived stems II-X is regular and is given in Wehr's "Introduction".

Foreign words are transliterated according to pronunciation, for which Arab students at the University of Münster were consulted. This means that the sounds, and, which are used in Modern Standard Arabic pronunciation among well-educated and careful speakers, but cannot be easily represented in standard Arabic script (even with full vowel diacritics), can be unambiguously indicated.

As to orthography, word-initial glottal stops or hamza (i.e. the ا vs. أ vs. إ distinction) are not written either in the Arabic of the entries or in the transliteration. For example, اكل (transliterated akala, "to eat", from the root أ ك ل ʼ k l), which has an initial hamzat qaṭʻ, and ابن (ibn "son", from the root ب ن b-n), which does not have an initial hamzat qaṭʻ, are both written without a hamza represented in either the Arabic or the transliteration. In transliteration systems such as DIN 31635, the first would be transliterated as ʼakala, with an apostrophe representing hamza, and the second as ibn, without an apostrophe. Hamzas in the middle and end of words, however, are written, as in مأكل maʼkal "food".

Word-final yā ي (-y or -ī) and alif maqṣūra ى (-ā) are not distinguished in the Arabic: they are both written as ى, without dots (an Egyptian custom). They are, however, distinguished in the transliteration: for example, ثنى ("to double") and ثني ("bending") are both written as ثنى, but the first is transliterated as ṯanā and the second as ṯany.