Lebanese Arabic - Spelling Reform

Spelling Reform

Lebanese is rarely written, except in novels where a dialect is implied or in some types of poetry that do not use classical Arabic at all. Lebanese is also utilized in many Lebanese songs, theatrical pieces, local television and radio productions, and very prominently in zajal.

The Lebanese language has been popularized throughout the Arab World, in particular through Lebanese pan-Arab singers including Fairuz, Sabah, Wadih El Safi, Nancy Ajram, and many others.

Formal publications in Lebanon, such as newspapers, are typically written in Modern Standard Arabic, French, or English.

While Arabic script is usually employed, informal usage such as online chat may mix and match Latin letter transliterations. The Lebanese poet Saïd Akl proposed the use of the Latin alphabet but did not gain wide acceptance. Whereas some works, such as Romeo and Juliet and Plato's Dialogues have been transliterated using such systems, they have not gained widespread acceptance. Yet, now, most Arabic web users, when short of an Arabic keyboard, transliterate the Lebanese words in the Latin alphabet in a pattern similar to the Said Akl alphabet, the only difference being the use of digits to render the Arabic letters with no obvious equivalent in the Latin alphabet.

There is still today no generally accepted agreement on how to use the Latin alphabet to transliterate Lebanese words. In 2012, Antoine Rizk has carried out an analysis of the way Lebanese use Latin alphabet over chat systems, social networks, sms, and emails then summarized the most used conventions on a web page. These conventions form the basis of a comprehensive online system for learning the Lebanese language online.

In 2010, The Lebanese Language Institute has released a Lebanese keyboard layout and made it easier to write Lebanese in a Latin script, using unicode-compatible symbols to substitute for missing sounds. For example: Marḣaba, kiifak? : Hello, how are you? Ana ismi Ḱaliil. Inta chu ismak? : My name is Khalil, what is your name?