Comments on: News #3 - Romanization System

by: ArabicPod101.com

Thu, 08 May 2008 01:49:43 +0000

Judith, thank you for mentioning the Egyptian dialect. You make a great point about using ‘G’ to transcribe ج. We will use ‘g’ when transcribing the Egyptian variety to reinforce the hard ‘g’ sound that distinguishes Egyptian colloquial speech from other regional varieties.

Sean, the grave accent ` is definitely easier to type than ^c, but I often get it confused with the apostrophe ‘, especially when there aren’t any nearby for comparison. As for the ^c, it comes from the International Phonetic Alphabet symbol /ʕ/ for the sound made by ^cayn.

Bouks, the transliteration systems that you mentioned developed from native Arabic speakers utilizing western communication devices…SMS, text-messaging, etc.. which didn’t support Arabic script. The idea is 3 looks like ع and 7 looks like ح. But there is a lot of inconsistency with that system. For example, ج is transcribed as 7′ or ‘7 by different people. Native speakers of Arabic can get away with such inconsistencies because they can guess the letter from context.

Thank you all for such inspiring comments.
شكرا جزيلا - shukran jaziilan - Thanks a lot.

by: Bouks

Wed, 07 May 2008 22:00:54 +0000

I am well acquainted with the pronunciation, so I might be of some help. I can also help with some basic grammatical points. It’s the intermediate/advanced things that I need brushing up on. (Lots of cobwebs to wipe out of my brain.) I can be reached on Skype - my ID there is nenuphar_ (just like that, with the underscore at the end).

I used to see people using 3 for “‘ayn” and 7 for “khaf”. It’s tricky to transcribe foreign sounds!

by: Sean Somers

Wed, 07 May 2008 21:03:40 +0000

Looks good — pretty standard stuff. For the `ayn (or cayn, as you have it), will you be using the superscript ‘c’, as you often find in scholarly texts, or just a regular ‘c’? Alternatively, as you see above, I tend to use the [`] . . . as in, as-salaam `alaikum.

by: Judith

Wed, 07 May 2008 10:46:38 +0000

Oh and I’d be happy to find a practice partner… I could help you with German, English or French in exchange.

by: Judith

Wed, 07 May 2008 10:45:47 +0000

The romanization system looks good. The only thing that will take some getting used to for me is to transliterate jiim as J… I personally prefer G, since the letter G can be pronounced either Egyptian (”go”) or Fussha (”giant”).

by: ArabicPod101.com

Tue, 06 May 2008 04:14:26 +0000

Just one more day until Beginner Lesson 1. Have you found a partner to practice speaking and writing Arabic with? Announce your availability here or send a private message to another member through the forum.