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}} {{Arabic alphabet}}{{alphabet}}(File:Arabic alphabet world distribution.png|thumb|400px|Countries and regions that use the Arabic script: {{Legend|#00884B|as the sole official script}}{{Legend|#83C30F|as a co-official script}})The Arabic alphabet (, {{transliteration|ar|DIN|al-ʾabǧadiyyah l-ʿarabiyyah}} {{IPA-ar|æl.ʔæb.d͡ʒæˈdɪj.jæ l.ʕɑ.rɑˈbɪj.jæ|}} or , {{transliteration|ar|ALA|al-ḥurūf al-ʿarabiyyah}}), or Arabic abjad, is the Arabic script as specifically codified for writing the Arabic language. It is written from right-to-left in a cursive style, and includes 28 letters, of which most have contextual letterforms. The Arabic alphabet is considered an abjad, with only consonants required to be written; due to its optional use of diacritics to notate vowels, it is considered an impure abjad.BOOK, Natural Language Processing of Semitic Languages, Zitouni, Imed, Springer Science & Business, 2014, 978-3642453588, 15,

Letters

The basic Arabic alphabet contains 28 letters. Forms using the Arabic script to write other languages added and removed letters: for example Persian, Ottoman Turkish, Kurdish, Urdu, Sindhi, Azerbaijani, Malay, Acehnese, Banjarese, Javanese, Pashto, Punjabi, Uyghur, Arwi and Arabi Malayalam all have additional letters in their alphabets. Unlike Greek-derived alphabets, Arabic has no distinct upper and lower case letterforms.Many letters look similar but are distinguished from one another by dots ({{transliteration|ar|ALA|ʾiʿjām}}) above or below their central part ({{transliteration|ar|rasm}}). These dots are an integral part of a letter, since they distinguish between letters that represent different sounds. For example, the Arabic letters {{transliteration|ar|b}}, {{transliteration|ar|t}}, and {{transliteration|ar|th}} have the same basic shape, but with one dot added below, two dots added above, and three dots added above respectively. The letter {{transliteration|ar|n}} also has the same form in initial and medial forms, with one dot added above, though it is somewhat different in its isolated and final forms.Both printed and written Arabic are cursive, with most letters within a word directly joined to adjacent letters.

Alphabetical order

There are two main collating sequences ('alphabetical orderings') for the Arabic alphabet: {{transliteration|ar|ʾabjadīy}}, and {{transliteration|ar|hijā’ī}}.The original {{transliteration|ar|ʾabjadī}} order derives from that used by the Phoenician alphabet, and is therefore reminiscent of the orderings of other alphabets, such as those in Hebrew and Greek. With this ordering, letters are also used as numbers known as abjad numerals, possessing the same numerological codes as in Hebrew gematria and Greek isopsephy.The {{transliteration|ar|hijā’ī}} or {{transliteration|ar|ALA|alifbāʾī}} order is used when sorting lists of words and names, such as in phonebooks, classroom lists, and dictionaries. The ordering groups letters by the graphical similarity of the glyphs' shapes.

Abjadi

The {{transliteration|ar|ʾabjadī}} order is not a simple correspondence with the earlier north Semitic alphabetic order, as it has a position corresponding to the Aramaic letter samek , which has no cognate letter in the Arabic alphabet historically.The loss of {{transliteration|he|sameḵ}} was compensated for by:

• In the Mashriqi abjad sequence, the letter shin was split into two Arabic letters, {{transliteration|ar|shÄ«n}} and {{transliteration|ar|sÄ«n}}, the latter of which took the place of {{transliteration|he|sameḵ}}.
• In the Maghrebi abjad sequence, the letter {{transliteration|he|ALA|tsade}} was split into two independent Arabic letters, {{transliteration|ar|ALA|ḍad}} and {{transliteration|ar|ALA|á¹£ad}}, with the latter taking the place of {{transliteration|he|ALA|sameḵ}}.

The six other letters that do not correspond to any north Semitic letter are placed at the end.{| class="wikitable" style="text-align:center;"ar|ALA|abjadī}} sequence{{sfn|Macdonald|1986|p= 117, 130, 149}}

ar

ar

ar

ar

ar

ar

ar

ar

ar

ar

ar

ar

ar

ar

ar

ar

ar

ar

ar

ar

ar

ar

ar

ar

ar

ar

ar

ar|gh}}

style="color:gray"|

| 28

style="color:gray"

| 900

This is commonly vocalized as follows: Another vocalization is: {| class="wikitable" style="text-align:center;"Maghrebian {{transliteration>ar|abjadī}} sequence (quoted in apparently earliest authorities & considered older){{sfn|Macdonald|1986|p= 117, 130, 149}}{{in lang|ar}} Alyaseer.net Ordering entries and cards in subject indexes {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20071223135008weblink |date=23 December 2007 }} Discussion thread (Accessed 2009-October–06)

ar

ar

ar

ar

ar

ar

ar

ar

ar

ar

ar

ar

ar

ar

ar

ar

ar

ar

ar

ar

ar

ar

ar

ar

ar

ar

ar

ar|sh}}

style="color:gray"|

| 28

style="color:gray"

| 1000

The colors indicate which letters have different positions from the previous table

This can be vocalized as:

{{transliteration|ar|hijāʾī}}

(File:Arabic vs Hebrew Syriac Greek mul.svg|thumb|320px|hijāʾī collation compared to Hebrew, Syriac, and Greek)Modern dictionaries and other reference books do not use the {{transliteration|ar|abjadī}} order to sort alphabetically; instead, the newer {{transliteration|ar|hijāʾī}} order is used wherein letters are partially grouped together by similarity of shape. The {{transliteration|ar|hijāʾī}} order is never used as numerals.{| class="wikitable" style="text-align:center;"ar|hijāʾī}} order

ar

ar

ar

ar

ar

ar

ar

ar

ar

ar

ar

ar

ar

ar

ar

ar

ar

ar

ar

ar

ar

ar

ar

ar

ar

ar

ar

ar|y}}

In the {{transliteration|ar|ALA|hijāʾī}} order replaced recently {{when|date=July 2023}} by the Mashriqi order,{{unreliable source?|date=April 2020}} though still used in many Quranic schools in Algeria,{{citation needed|date=July 2023}} the sequence is:{{sfn|Macdonald|1986|p= 117, 130, 149}}{| class="wikitable" style="text-align:center;"ar|hijāʾī}} order

ar

ar

ar

ar

ar

ar

ar

ar

ar

ar

ar

ar

ar

ar

ar

ar

ar

ar

ar

ar

ar

ar

ar

ar

ar

ar

ar

ar|y}}

The colors indicate which letters have different positions from the previous table

In Abu Muhammad al-Hasan al-Hamdani's encyclopedia {{transliteration|ar|Kitāb al-Iklīl min akhbār al-Yaman wa-ansāb Ḥimyar}}, the letter sequence is:{{sfn|Macdonald|1986|p= 130}}{| class="wikitable" style="text-align:center;"|+ Al-Iklīl's order

ar

ar

ar

ar

ar

ar

ar

ar

ar

ar

ar

ar

ar

ar

ar

ar

ar

ar

ar

ar

ar

ar

ar

ar

ar

ar

ar

ar|y}}

Letter forms

{{Calligraphy}}The Arabic alphabet is always cursive and letters vary in shape depending on their position within a word. Letters can exhibit up to four distinct forms corresponding to an initial, medial (middle), final, or isolated position (IMFI). While some letters show considerable variations, others remain almost identical across all four positions. Generally, letters in the same word are linked together on both sides by short horizontal lines, but six letters () can only be linked to their preceding letter. For example, (Ararat) has only isolated forms because each letter cannot be connected to its following one. In addition, some letter combinations are written as ligatures (special shapes), notably {{transliteration|ar|lām-alif}} ,BOOK, Writing Systems: A Linguistic Approach, Rogers, Henry, Blackwell Publishing, 2005, 135, which is the only mandatory ligature (the unligated combination is considered difficult to read).{{Use dmy dates|date=February 2015}}">

Table of basic letters{|class"wikitable sortable" style"text-align:center;"|+ Arabic letters usage in Literary Arabic

!colspan="2"|Maghrebian! colspan="2" |Common! rowspan="2" |Closest Englishequivalent in pronunciation! rowspan="2" |Letter name(Classical pronunciation)!rowspan="2"|Letter name in Arabic script{{efn|name=names|The Arabic letter names below are the standard and most universally used names, other names (e.g. letter names in Egypt) might be used instead.}}!rowspan="2"|Value in Literary Arabic (IPA)!colspan="3"|Contextual forms!rowspan="2"|Isolated form!ʾAbjadÄ« !! Hijāʾī!ʾAbjadÄ« !! Hijāʾī!Final!Medial!Initial! !! ! !!! !! !! !! !! !! !! !!  

1.

1.

1.

1.

uh–oh / car, cat{{efn>name=alif}}

ar

ʾalif}}

aː}}, {{IPAslink

name=alif

ar

Alif}} can represent different phonemes; initially: a/i/u /a, i, u/ or sometimes silent in the definite article ال (a)l-. Medially and finally it represents a long vowel ā /aː/. It also part of the hamzah /ʔ/ forms, check #Hamzah forms}}

{{huge

{{huge

2.	2.	2.	2.|barn	ar	bāʾ}}		b}}	}}	}}	}}	}}

|22.

3.|22.	3.|tick	ar	tāʾ}}		t}}	}}	}}	}}	}}

|23.

4.|23.	4.|think	ar	thāʾ}} / {{transliteration	ALA|ṯāʾ}}		θ}}	}}	}}	}}	}}

3.

5.

3.

5.|gem

ar

jīm}}

d͡ʒ}}{{efn

}}

}}

}}

}}

8.	6.	8.	6.|no equivalent(pharyngeal h)	ar	ḥāʾ}}		ħ}}	}}	}}	}}	}}

|24.

7.|24.	7.|Scottish loch	ar	khāʾ}} / {{transliteration	ALA|ḵāʾ}}		x}}	}}	}}	}}	}}

4.

8.

4.

8.|dear

ar

dāl}}

d}}

{{huge

{{huge

|25.

9.|25.	9.|that	ar	dhāl}} / ḏāl		ð}}	{{huge			{{huge

|20.|10.|20.|10.|Scottish right

ar	rāʾ}}		r}}	{{huge			{{huge

7.|11.

7.|11.|zebra

ar

zāy}}

name=zāy names

z}}

{{huge

{{huge

|21.|24.|15.|12.|sin

ar	sīn}}		s}}	}}	}}	}}	}}

|28.|25.|21.|13.|shin

ar	shīn}} / šīn		ʃ}}	}}	}}	}}	}}

|15.|18.|18.|14.

Emphatic consonant>emphatic s)	ar	ṣād}}		sˤ}}	}}	}}	}}	}}

|18.|19.|26.|15.|no equivalent(emphatic d)

ar	ḍād}}		dˤ}}	}}	}}	}}	}}

9.|12.	9.|16.|no equivalent(emphatic t)	ar	ṭāʾ}}		tˤ}}	}}	}}	}}	}}

|26.|13.|27.|17.|no equivalent(emphatic the)

ar	ẓāʾ}}		ðˤ}}	}}	}}	}}	}}

|16.|20.|16.|18.

ḥāʾ but voiced)	ar	ʿayn}}		ʕ}}	}}	}}	}}	}}

|27.|21.|28.|19.|no equivalent(Spanish abogado or French rouge)

ar	ghayn}} / {{transliteration	ALA|ḡayn}}		ɣ}}	}}	}}	}}	}}

|17.|22.|17.|20.|far

ar	fāʾ}}		f}}	}}	}}	}}	}}{{efn	See the section on regional variations in letter form.}}

|19.|23.|19.|21.

name=regional-variation}}

|11.|14.|11.|22.|cap

ar	kāf}}		k}}	}}	}}	}}	}}{{efn|name=regional-variation}}

|12.|15.|12.|23.|lamp

ar	lām}}		l}}	}}	}}	}}	}}

|13.|16.|13.|24.|me

ar	mīm}}		m}}	}}	}}	}}	}}

|14.|17.|14.|25.|nun

ar	nūn}}		n}}	}}	}}	}}	}}

5.|26.	5.|26.|hat	ar	hāʾ}}		h}}	}}}}	{{lrm}}}}}}	}}}}	{{lrm}}}}}}{{efn|In certain contexts such as serial numbers and license plates the initial form is used to prevent confusion with the western number zero or Eastern Arabic Numeral for 5(٥)}}

6.|27.

6.|27.|wow, pool

ar

wāw}}

w}}, {{IPAslink

name=vowels

و⟩ and ⟨ي⟩ are used to transcribe the vowels {{IPAslink>oː}} and {{IPAslink|eː}} respectively in loanwords and dialects, ⟨و⟩ is also used as a silent letter in some words like عمرو.}}

{{huge

{{huge

|10.|28.|10.|28.|yes, meet

ar	yāʾ}}		j}}, {{IPAslink	name=vowels}}	}}	}}	}}	}}{{efn|name=regional-variation}}

! colspan="12" ||29.|29.|29.|29.| uh–oh

hamzah}}		Ê”}}	{{huge				(counted as a letter in the Arabic and plays an important role in Arabic spelling but not considered as one) denoting most irregular female nouns {{citation needed	date=March 2020}}|name=hamzah}}(used in medial and final positions as an unlinked letter)

Notes{{notelist}}

• See the article Romanization of Arabic for details on various transliteration schemes. Arabic language speakers may usually not follow a standardized scheme when transcribing words or names. Some Arabic letters which do not have an equivalent in English (such as Ù‚) are often spelled as numbers when Romanized. Also names are regularly transcribed as pronounced locally, not as pronounced in Literary Arabic (if they were of Arabic origin).
• Regarding pronunciation, the phonemic values given are those of Modern Standard Arabic, which is taught in schools and universities. In practice, pronunciation may vary considerably from region to region. For more details concerning the pronunciation of Arabic, consult the articles Arabic phonology and varieties of Arabic.
• The names of the Arabic letters can be thought of as abstractions of an older version where they were meaningful words in the Proto-Semitic language. Names of Arabic letters may have quite different names popularly.
• Six letters () do not have a distinct medial form and have to be written with their final form without being connected to the next letter. Their initial form matches the isolated form. The following letter is written in its initial form, or isolated form if it is the final letter in the word.
• The letter {{transliteration|ar|ALA|alif}} originated in the Phoenician alphabet as a consonant-sign indicating a glottal stop. Today it has lost its function as a consonant, and, together with {{transliteration|ar|ALA|ya’}} and {{transliteration|ar|ALA|wāw}}, is a mater lectionis, a consonant sign standing in for a long vowel (see below), or as support for certain diacritics ({{transliteration|ar|ALA|maddah}} and {{transliteration|ar|ALA|hamzah}}).
• Arabic currently uses a punctuation mark called the {{transliteration|ar|ALA|hamzah}} () to denote the glottal stop {{IPA|[Ê”]}}, written alone or with a carrier:

alone: with a carrier: (above or under an {{transliteration|ar|ALA|alif}}), (above a {{transliteration|ar|ALA|wāw}}), (above a dotless {{transliteration|ar|ALA|yā’}} or {{transliteration|ar|ALA|yā’ hamzah}}).

Hamzah forms

{{Unreferenced section|date=April 2023}}{|class="wikitable"! rowspan="2" |Name! colspan="3" |Contextual forms! rowspan="2" |Isolated! rowspan="2" |Position occurrence! Final !Medial!Initial

ar	Aleph#Arabic variants	}} ()	{{huge			|Initial / Medial / Final positions

ar	Aleph#Arabic variants	}} ()	-		|Initial position only

ar	Aleph#Arabic variants	}} ()	{{huge			-	|Medial / Final only

ar	Aleph#Arabic variants	}} ()	{{huge			-	|Medial / Final only

ar	Aleph#Arabic variants	}} () (medial){{transliteration>ar	Aleph#Arabic variants	}} () (final)	{{huge		{{huge		-	{{huge

ar	Aleph#Arabic variants	}} ()	-	{{huge		|Initial / Medial only

For the writing rule of each form, check Hamza.

Modified letters

The following are not individual letters, but rather different contextual variants of some of the Arabic letters.{|class="wikitable"! rowspan="2" |Name! colspan="3" |Contextual forms! rowspan="2" |Isolated! rowspan="2" |Translit.! rowspan="2" |Phonemic Value (IPA)!Final!Medial!Initial

tāʾ marbūṭah}}()		(only final)			ar	h}} or {{transliteration	ALA|t/ẗ}}|(aka "correlated tā{{'}}")used in final position only and for denoting the feminine noun/word or to make the noun/word feminine; however, in rare irregular noun/word cases, it appears to denote the "masculine";singular nouns: {{IPA|/a/}},plural nouns: {{transliteration|ar|ALA|āt}} (a preceding letter followed by a {{transliteration|ar|ALA|fatḥah alif}} + {{transliteration|ar|ALA|tāʾ}} = {{script/Arabic|1=ـَات}})

ar

Aleph#Arabic variants

}} ()

(only final)

ar

ā}} or {{transliteration

ALA|y/ỳ}}

ar

alif maqṣūrah}} or {{transliteration

ALA

ar

alif mamdūda}} ), pronounced {{IPA

tā’ marbūṭah}} cannot be used.{{citation needed|date=February 2023}}2. A way of writing the letter {{transliteration|ar|ALA|yāʾ}} without its dots at the end of words, either traditionally or in contemporary use in Egypt and Sudan.

! colspan="7" ||ʾalif al-waṣl()

(only initial)		or |silent(check Wasla)| an ʾalif with a hamzat waṣl above it, rarely used in this form and mostly written as an ordinary ʾalif ا. Initial/ Medial/ Final position: silent Marker/connector/conjoiner between two words, either using the Arabic definite article al or with an ʾalif or hamzah ʾalif to form a phrase, phrasal noun, or even name: e.g. 'Abd 'Allah عَبْدَ ٱلله - "servant of Allah (God)".

Gemination

{{further|Shadda}}Gemination is the doubling of a consonant. Instead of writing the letter twice, Arabic places a W-shaped sign called {{transliteration|ar|ALA|shaddah}}, above it. Note that if a vowel occurs between the two consonants the letter will simply be written twice. The diacritic only appears where the consonant at the end of one syllable is identical to the initial consonant of the following syllable. (The generic term for such diacritical signs is {{transliteration|ar|ALA|ḥarakāt}}), e. g., {{transliteration|ar|darasa}} (with full diacritics: ) is a Form I verb meaning to study, whereas {{transliteration|ar|darrasa}} (with full diacritics: ) is the corresponding Form II verb, with the middle {{transliteration|ar|r}} consonant doubled, meaning to teach.{| class="wikitable"! colspan="2" | General Unicode ! Name! Name in Arabic script! Transliteration style="text-align:center;"

0651 |{{script/Arabic|size=200%|attribute=lang="ar"| ــّـ }}	ar	shaddah}}

Nunation

Nunation ( {{transliteration|ar|ALA|tanwÄ«n}}) is the addition of a final {{transliteration|ar|ALA|-n}}  to a noun or adjective. The vowel before it indicates grammatical case. In written Arabic nunation is indicated by doubling the vowel diacritic at the end of the word.

Ligatures

File:Arabic components (letters) in the word Allah only black.png|thumb|307x307px|Components of a ligature for "Allah": 1. alif2. hamzat waṣl ({{Script/Arabic|ْهَمْزَة وَصْل}})3. lām4. lām5. shadda ({{Script/Arabic|شَدَّة}}) 6. dagger alif ({{Script/Arabic|أَلِفْ خَنْجَریَّة}}) 7. hāʾhāʾThe use of ligature in Arabic is common. There is one compulsory ligature, that for {{transliteration|ar|ALA|lām}} ل + {{transliteration|ar|ALA|alif}} ا, which exists in two forms. All other ligatures, of which there are many,WEB,weblink A list of Arabic ligature forms in Unicode., are optional.{| class="wikitable" style="text-align: center;"! colspan="4" | Contextual forms! rowspan="2" | Name! rowspan="2" |Trans.! rowspan="2" |Value! Final! Medial! Initial! Isolated

{{Script/Arabic|ﻼ}}		{{Script/Arabic|ﻻ}}| lām + alif|laa|/laː/

{{Script/Arabic|ﲓ}}	{{Script/Arabic|ﳰ}}	{{Script/Arabic|ﳝ}}Depending on fonts used for rendering, the form shown on-screen may or may not be the ligature form.	{{Script/Arabic|ﱘ}}| yāʾ + mīm|īm|/iːm/

{{Script/Arabic|ﲅ}}	{{Script/Arabic|ﳭ}}	{{Script/Arabic|ﳌ}}	{{Script/Arabic|ﱂ}}| lam + mīm|lm|/lm/

A more complex ligature that combines as many as seven distinct components is commonly used to represent the word {{transliteration|ar|ALA|Allāh}}.The only ligature within the primary range of Arabic script in Unicode (U+06xx) is {{transliteration|ar|ALA|lām}} + {{transliteration|ar|ALA|alif}}. This is the only one compulsory for fonts and word-processing. Other ranges are for compatibility to older standards and contain other ligatures, which are optional.

• {{transliteration|ar|ALA|lām}} + {{transliteration|ar|ALA|alif}}
• : {{Script/Arabic|لا}}

Note: Unicode also has in its Presentation Form B FExx range a code for this ligature. If your browser and font are configured correctly for Arabic, the ligature displayed above should be identical to this one, U+FEFB ARABIC LIGATURE LAM WITH ALEF ISOLATED FORM:

• U+0640 ARABIC TATWEEL + {{transliteration|ar|ALA|lām}} + {{transliteration|ar|ALA|alif}}
• : {{Script/Arabic|ـلا}}

Note: Unicode also has in its Presentation Form B U+FExx range a code for this ligature. If your browser and font are configured correctly for Arabic, the ligature displayed above should be identical to this one:

• U+FEFC ARABIC LIGATURE LAM WITH ALEF FINAL FORM
• : {{Script/Arabic|ﻼ}}

Another ligature in the Unicode Presentation Form A range U+FB50 to U+FDxx is the special code for glyph for the ligature {{transliteration|ar|ALA|Allāh}} ("God"), U+FDF2 ARABIC LIGATURE ALLAH ISOLATED FORM: This is a work-around for the shortcomings of most text processors, which are incapable of displaying the correct vowel marks for the word {{transliteration|ar|ALA|Allāh}} in the Quran. Because Arabic script is used to write other texts rather than Quran only, rendering {{transliteration|ar|ALA|lām}} + {{transliteration|ar|ALA|lām}} + {{transliteration|ar|ALA|hā’}} as the previous ligature is considered faulty.{{lquote|This simplified style is often preferred for clarity, especially in non-Arabic languages, but may not be considered appropriate in situations where a more elaborate style of calligraphy is preferred. –SIL InternationalWEB, Scheherazade New, //software.sil.org/scheherazade/design/, SIL International, 4 February 2022, }}If one of a number of the fonts (Noto Naskh Arabic, mry_KacstQurn, KacstOne, Nadeem, DejaVu Sans, Harmattan, Scheherazade, Lateef, Iranian Sans, Baghdad, DecoType Naskh) is installed on a computer (Iranian Sans is supported by Wikimedia web-fonts), the word will appear without diacritics.

• {{transliteration|ar|ALA|lām}} + {{transliteration|ar|ALA|lām}} + {{transliteration|ar|ALA|hā’}} = LILLÄ€H (meaning "to Allāh [only to God]")
• : {{Script/Arabic|لله}}  or   لله
• {{transliteration|ar|ALA|alif}} + {{transliteration|ar|ALA|lām}} + {{transliteration|ar|ALA|lām}} + {{transliteration|ar|ALA|hā’}} = ALLÄ€H (the Arabic word for "god")
• : {{Script/Arabic|الله}}  or   الله
• {{transliteration|ar|alif}} + {{transliteration|ar|lām}} + {{transliteration|ar|lām}} + U+0651 ARABIC SHADDA + U+0670 ARABIC LETTER SUPERSCRIPT ALEF + {{transliteration|ar|ALA|hā’}}
• : اللّٰه   (DejaVu Sans and KacstOne don't show the added superscript Alef)

An attempt to show them on the faulty fonts without automatically adding the gemination mark and the superscript alif, although may not display as desired on all browsers, is by adding the U+200d (Zero width joiner) after the first or second {{transliteration|ar|ALA|lām}}

• ({{transliteration|ar|alif}} +) {{transliteration|ar|lām}} + {{transliteration|ar|lām}} + U+200d ZERO WIDTH JOINER + {{transliteration|ar|ALA|hā’}}
• : {{Script/Arabic|الل‍Ù‡}}   ‎   {{Script/Arabic|لل‍Ù‡}}

Vowels

Users of Arabic usually write long vowels but omit short ones, so readers must utilize their knowledge of the language in order to supply the missing vowels. However, in the education system and particularly in classes on Arabic grammar these vowels are used since they are crucial to the grammar. An Arabic sentence can have a completely different meaning by a subtle change of the vowels. This is why in an important text such as the {{transliteration|ar|ALA|Qur’ān}} the three basic vowel signs are mandated, like the Arabic diacritics and other types of marks, like the cantillation signs.

Short vowels

{{Further|Arabic diacritics}}In the Arabic handwriting of everyday use, in general publications, and on street signs, short vowels are typically not written. On the other hand, copies of the {{transliteration|ar|ALA|Qur’ān}} cannot be endorsed by the religious institutes that review them unless the diacritics are included. Children's books, elementary school texts, and Arabic-language grammars in general will include diacritics to some degree. These are known as "vocalized" texts.Short vowels may be written with diacritics placed above or below the consonant that precedes them in the syllable, called {{transliteration|ar|ALA|ḥarakāt}}. All Arabic vowels, long and short, follow a consonant; in Arabic, words like "Ali" or "alif", for example, start with a consonant: {{transliteration|ar|‘Aliyy}}, {{transliteration|ar|ALA|alif}}.{|class="wikitable"! Short vowels(fully vocalized text)! Code! Name! Name in Arabic script! Trans.! Phonemic Value! scope="col" style="width: 50%;" | Remarks style="text-align:center;"

size=220%| ــَـ }}| 064E| fat·ḥah	size=150%	فَتْحَة }}	ar	a}}	/a/}}	æ}}, {{IPAblink	ä}}, {{IPAblink	ɐ}}, to {{IPAblink|e}}, depending on the native dialect, position, and stress.

style="text-align:center;"

size=220%| ــُـ }}| 064F	ar	ḍammah}}	size=150%	ضَمَّة }}	ar	u}}	/u/}}	ʊ}}, {{IPAblink	u}}, depending on the native dialect, position, and stress. Approximated to English "OO" (as "boot" but shorter)

style="text-align:center;"| {{script/Arabic|size=200%|attribute=lang="ar"| ــِـ }}|0650

ar	kasrah}}	size=150%	كَسْرَة }}	ar	i}}	/i/}}	ɪ}}, {{IPAblink	i}}, depending on the native dialect, position, and stress. Approximated to English "I" (as in "pick")

Long vowels

In the fully vocalized Arabic text found in texts such as the Quran, a long {{transliteration|ar|ALA|ā}} following a consonant other than a {{transliteration|ar|ALA|hamzah}} is written with a short {{transliteration|ar|ALA|a}} sign ({{transliteration|ar|ALA|fatḥah}}) on the consonant plus an {{transliteration|ar|ALA|ʾalif}} after it; long {{transliteration|ar|ALA|ī}} is written as a sign for short {{transliteration|ar|ALA|i}} ({{transliteration|ar|ALA|kasrah}}) plus a {{transliteration|ar|ALA|yāʾ}}; and long {{transliteration|ar|ALA|ū}} as a sign for short {{transliteration|ar|ALA|u}} ({{transliteration|ar|ALA|ḍammah}}) plus a {{transliteration|ar|ALA|wāw}}. Briefly, {{transliteration|ar|ᵃa}} = {{transliteration|ar|ALA|ā}}; {{transliteration|ar|ⁱy}} = {{transliteration|ar|ALA|ī}}; and {{transliteration|ar|ᵘw}} = {{transliteration|ar|ALA|ū}}. Long {{transliteration|ar|ALA|ā}} following a {{transliteration|ar|ALA|hamzah}} may be represented by an {{transliteration|ar|ALA|ʾalif maddah}} or by a free {{transliteration|ar|ALA|hamzah}} followed by an {{transliteration|ar|ALA|ʾalif}} (two consecutive {{transliteration|ar|ALA|ʾalif}}s are never allowed in Arabic).The table below shows vowels placed above or below a dotted circle replacing a primary consonant letter or a {{transliteration|ar|ALA|shaddah}} sign. For clarity in the table, the primary letters on the left used to mark these long vowels are shown only in their isolated form. Most consonants do connect to the left with {{transliteration|ar|ALA|ʾalif}}, {{transliteration|ar|ALA|wāw}} and {{transliteration|ar|ALA|yāʾ}} written then with their medial or final form. Additionally, the letter {{transliteration|ar|ALA|yāʾ}} in the last row may connect to the letter on its left, and then will use a medial or initial form. Use the table of primary letters to look at their actual glyph and joining types.{|class="wikitable"|+Long vowels (fully vocalized text)! Unicode! Letter with diacritic! Name! Trans.! Variants! Value style="text-align:center;"

064E 0627	size=200%|ـَـا}}	ar	fatḥah ʾalif}}	ar	ā}}|aa	{{IPA|/aː/}}

style="text-align:center;"

064E 0649	size=200%|ـَـى}}|fatḥah ʾalif maqṣūrah	ar|ā}}|aa

style="text-align:center;"

064F 0648	size=200%|ـُـو}}	ar	ḍammah wāw}}	ar	ū}}| uw/ ou	/uː/}}

style="text-align:center;"

0650 064A	size=200%|ـِـي}}	ar	kasrah yāʾ}}	ar	ī}}|iy	/iː/}}

! colspan="6" | style="text-align:center;"|0650 0649

ـِـى	name=regional-variation	#Regional variations>regional variations in letter form.}}|kasrah yāʾ|ī|iy	/iː/}}

In unvocalized text (one in which the short vowels are not marked), the long vowels are represented by the vowel in question: {{transliteration|ar|ALA|ʾalif ṭawīlah/maqṣūrah}}, {{transliteration|ar|ALA|wāw}}, or {{transliteration|ar|ALA|yāʾ}}. Long vowels written in the middle of a word of unvocalized text are treated like consonants with a {{transliteration|ar|ALA|sukūn}} (see below) in a text that has full diacritics. Here also, the table shows long vowel letters only in isolated form for clarity.Combinations and are always pronounced {{transliteration|ar|ALA|wā}} and {{transliteration|ar|ALA|yāʾ}} respectively. The exception is the suffix in verb endings where {{transliteration|ar|ALA|ʾalif}} is silent, resulting in {{transliteration|ar|ALA|ū}} or {{transliteration|ar|ALA|aw}}.{|class="wikitable"!Long vowels(unvocalized text)!Name!Trans.!Value style="text-align:center;"

0627{{script/Arabic	ا}}	ar	fatḥah}}) {{transliteration	ALA|ʾalif}}	ar	ā}}	{{IPA|/aː/}}

style="text-align:center;"

0649{{script/Arabic	ى}}	ar	fatḥah}}) {{transliteration	ALA|ʾalif maqṣūrah}}	ar	ar	y}}

style="text-align:center;"

0648{{script/Arabic	و}}	ar	ḍammah}}) {{transliteration	ALA|wāw}}	ar	ū}}	/uː/}}

style="text-align:center;"

064A{{script/Arabic	ي}}	ar	kasrah}}) {{transliteration	ALA|yāʾ}}	ar	ī}}	/iː/}}

In addition, when transliterating names and loanwords, Arabic language speakers write out most or all the vowels as long ({{transliteration|ar|ALA|ā}} with {{transliteration|ar|ALA|ʾalif}}, {{transliteration|ar|ALA|ē}} and {{transliteration|ar|ALA|ī}} with {{transliteration|ar|ALA|yaʾ}}, and {{transliteration|ar|ALA|ō}} and {{transliteration|ar|ALA|ū}} with {{transliteration|ar|ALA|wāw}}), meaning it approaches a true alphabet.

Diphthongs

The diphthongs {{IPA|/aj/}} and {{IPA|/aw/}} are represented in vocalized text as follows:{|class="wikitable"!Diphthongs(fully vocalized text)!Name!Trans.!Value style="text-align:center;"

064A 064E{{script/Arabic	ـَـي}}	ar	fatḥah yāʾ}}	ar	ay}}	/aj/}}

style="text-align:center;"

0648 064E{{script/Arabic	ـَـو}}	ar	fatḥah vāv/ wāw}}	ar	aw}}	/aw/}}

Vowel omission

An Arabic syllable can be open (ending with a vowel) or closed (ending with a consonant):

• open: CV [consonant-vowel] (long or short vowel)
• closed: CVC (short vowel only)

A normal text is composed only of a series of consonants plus vowel-lengthening letters; thus, the word qalb, "heart", is written qlb, and the word qalaba "he turned around", is also written qlb.To write qalaba without this ambiguity, we could indicate that the l is followed by a short a by writing a fatḥah above it.To write qalb, we would instead indicate that the l is followed by no vowel by marking it with a diacritic called sukÅ«n ({{script/Arabic| Ù’}}), like this: .This is one step down from full vocalization, where the vowel after the q would also be indicated by a fatḥah: .The Qurʾān is traditionally written in full vocalization.The long i sound in some editions of the Qur’ān is written with a kasrah followed by a diacritic-less y, and long u by a ḍammah followed by a bare w. In others, these y and w carry a sukÅ«n. Outside of the Qur’ān, the latter convention is extremely rare, to the point that y with sukÅ«n will be unambiguously read as the diphthong {{IPA|/aj/}}, and w with sukÅ«n will be read {{IPA|/aw/}}.For example, the letters {{transliteration|ar|m-y-l}} can be read like English meel or mail, or (theoretically) also like mayyal or mayil. But if a sukÅ«n is added on the y then the m cannot have a sukÅ«n (because two letters in a row cannot be sukÅ«nated), cannot have a ḍammah (because there is never an uy sound in Arabic unless there is another vowel after the y), and cannot have a kasrah (because kasrah before sukÅ«nated y is never found outside the Qur’ān), so it must have a fatḥah and the only possible pronunciation is {{IPA|/majl/}} (meaning mile, or even e-mail). By the same token, m-y-t with a sukÅ«n over the y can be mayt but not mayyit or meet, and m-w-t with a sukÅ«n on the w can only be mawt, not moot (iw is impossible when the w closes the syllable).Vowel marks are always written as if the i‘rāb vowels were in fact pronounced, even when they must be skipped in actual pronunciation. So, when writing the name Aḥmad, it is optional to place a sukÅ«n on the ḥ, but a sukÅ«n is forbidden on the d, because it would carry a ḍammah if any other word followed, as in Aḥmadu zawjÄ« "Ahmad is my husband".Another example: the sentence that in correct literary Arabic must be pronounced Aḥmadu zawjun shirrÄ«r "Ahmad is a wicked husband", is usually pronounced (due to influence from vernacular Arabic varieties) as Aḥmad zawj shirrÄ«r. Yet, for the purposes of Arabic grammar and orthography, is treated as if it were not mispronounced and as if yet another word followed it, i.e., if adding any vowel marks, they must be added as if the pronunciation were Aḥmadu zawjun sharrÄ«run with a tanwÄ«n 'un' at the end. So, it is correct to add an un tanwÄ«n sign on the final r, but actually pronouncing it would be a hypercorrection. Also, it is never correct to write a sukÅ«n on that r, even though in actual pronunciation it is (and in correct Arabic MUST be) sukÅ«ned.Of course, if the correct i‘rāb is a sukÅ«n, it may be optionally written.{|class="wikitable"!colspan=2| General Unicode!Name!Name in Arabic script!Translit.!Phonemic Value (IPA) style="text-align:center;"

0652	{{script/Arabic	ــْـ }}|sukūn|سُكُون|(no vowel with this consonant letter ordiphthong with this long vowel letter)|∅

style="text-align:center;"

0670	{{script/Arabic	ــٰـ }}| alif khanjariyyah [dagger ’alif – smaller ’alif written above consonant]| أَلِف خَنْجَرِيَّة| ā	/aː/}}

ٰٰThe sukūn is also used for transliterating words into the Arabic script. The Persian word (mâsk, from the English word "mask"), for example, might be written with a sukūn above the to signify that there is no vowel sound between that letter and the .

Additional letters

Regional variations

Some letters take a traditionally different form in specific regions:{|class="wikitable"! colspan="4" | Letter !! rowspan="2" | Explanation! Isolated !! Final !! Medial !! Initialstyle="text-align:center;"

size=200%|ڛ}}	size=200%|ـڛ}}	size=200%|ـڛـ}}	size=200%|ڛـ}}	A traditional form to denotate the {{transl	ALA	Persian alphabet>Persian script and former Ottoman Turkish alphabet	, although rarely. Also used in older Pashto alphabet>Pashto script.NOTICE SUR LES DIVERS GENRES D'éCRITURE ANCIENNE ET MODERNE DES ARABES, DES PERSANS ET DES TURCS / PAR A.-P. PIHAN>URL=HTTP://GALLICA.BNF.FR/ARK:/12148/BPT6K5824879V/F26.ITEM.ZOOM, 1856,

style="text-align:center;"

size=200%|ڢ}}	size=200%|ـڢ}}	size=200%|ـڢـ}}	size=200%|ڢـ}}	A traditional Pe (Semitic letter)#Maghrebi variant	of {{transl>ar	fā’}} .

style="text-align:center;"

{{script/Arabic	ڧ/ٯ}}}}	{{script/Arabic	ـڧ/ـٯ}}}}	size=200%|ـڧـ/ـٯـ}}	size=200%|ڧـ/ٯـ}}	A traditional Qoph#Maghrebi variant	of {{transl>ar	qāf}} . Generally dotless in isolated and final positions and dotted in the initial and medial forms.

style="text-align:center;"

size=200%|Ú©}}	size=200%|Ù€Ú©}}	size=200%|Ù€Ú©Ù€}}	size=200%|Ú©Ù€}}	An alternative version of {{transl	ALA	Maghrebi script>Maghrebi under the influence of the Ottoman Turkish alphabet	or in Gulf Arabic>Gulf script under the influence of the Persian script.

style="text-align:center;"

size=200%|ی}}	size=200%|ـی}}	size=200%|ـیـ}}	size=200%|یـ}}	The traditional style to write or print the letter, and remains so in the Nile Valley region (Egypt, Sudan, South Sudan... etc.) and sometimes Maghreb; {{transl	ALA	ar	Ottoman Turkish language>Ottoman Turkish.

The phoneme {{IPA|/g/}} is considered native in most Arabic dialects, below are the different representations of the phoneme in native and loanwords:{| class="wikitable"! colspan="10" |Arabic Dialects!Moroccan!Tunisian!Algerian!Egyptian!Najdi!Hejazi!South Levantine!North Levantine!Iraqi!Gulf style="text-align:center;"

Ú­}} / {{Script/Arabic

Gaf>Ú¯}} / {{Script/Arabic|Ù‚}}

{{Script/Arabic

Ú¨}} / {{Script/Arabic>Ù‚}}

ج}}

{{Script/Arabic|Ù‚}}

Ùƒ}} / {{Script/Arabic

ج}} / {{Script/Arabic>ق}}

ك}} / {{Script/Arabic|ج}}

{{Script/Arabic

Gaf>Ú¯}} / {{Script/Arabic

Ùƒ}} / {{Script/Arabic>Ù‚}}

{{Script/Arabic|Ù‚ / Ú¯}}

Non-native letters to Standard Arabic

Some modified letters are used to represent non-native sounds of Modern Standard Arabic. These letters are used in transliterated names, loanwords and dialectal words.{|class="wikitable"! Letter !! Value !! Note

{{Script/Arabic	Pe (Persian letter)>پ}}	{{IPAslink|p}}	ar	ب}}

{{Script/Arabic	Ve (Arabic letter)>ڤ}}	{{IPAslink|v}}	ar	ف}}.HTTP://WWW1.CCLS.COLUMBIA.EDU/~CADIM/ARABICDIALECTTUTORIALAMTA2006.PDF >TITLE=ARABIC DIALECT TUTORIAL	ARCHIVE-URL=HTTPS://WEB.ARCHIVE.ORG/WEB/20081217151017/HTTP://WWW1.CCLS.COLUMBIA.EDU/~CADIM/ARABICDIALECTTUTORIALAMTA2006.PDF	URL-STATUS=DEAD	ڨ}}.

{{Script/Arabic	Ve (Arabic letter)>Ú¥}}|Used in Tunisia, Algeria and Morocco.

{{Script/Arabic	Che (Persian letter)>چ}}	{{IPAslink|t͡ʃ}}1	Iraqi Arabic>Iraqi Arabic dialects. The sequence {{Script/Arabic	ar	ت	-ش>shīn}} is usually preferred in most of the Arab world (e.g. {{Script/Arabic|تشاد}} for "Chad").

{{IPAslink|ʒ}}2	ʒ}} or {{IPAslink	ج}} is pronounced {{IPAslink|ɡ}}.

{{IPAslink|É¡}}3|Used in Israel, for example on road signs.

{{Script/Arabic|Ú¯}}|Used in Gulf and Iraqi Arabic dialects

{{Script/Arabic	Ve (Arabic letter)#Similar-looking letter>Ú¨}}	ar	Ù‚}} in some words. Not to be confused with {{Script/Arabic|Ú¤}}.

{{Script/Arabic	Gaf#Gaf with three dots>Ú­/Ý£}}|Used in Morocco.

1. {{IPAslink|t͡ʃ}} is considered a native phoneme/allophone in some dialects, e.g. Kuwaiti and Iraqi dialects.
2. {{IPAslink|ʒ}} is considered a native phoneme (instead of {{IPAslink|d͡ʒ}}) in a number of Levantine and North African dialects and as an allophone in others.
3. The phoneme {{IPAslink|ɡ}} is considered native in most Arabic dialects, but not always part of Modern Standard Arabic. E.g. in Egypt, spells {{IPA|/g/}} in all cases,BOOK, al Nassir, Abdulmunʿim Abdulamir,weblink Sibawayh the Phonologist, University of New York, 1985, 80, ar, 23 April 2024, the same applies to Oman, and coastal Yemen. Regionally, in MSA or dialects, {{IPAslink|ɡ}} is differently spelled in loanwords; most commonly , , , and . For example, "golf" can be written , , , or {{IPA|/ɡolf/}}.

Used in languages other than Arabic

{{further|Arabic script#Additional letters used in other languages}}">

Numerals {| class"wikitable floatright" style"text-align:center"

! rowspan="2" | Western(Maghreb, Europe) || rowspan="2" | Central(Mideast) || colspan=2 | Eastern!Persian!Urdu| 0| 1| 2| 3| 4| 5| 6| 7| 8| 9| 10There are two main kinds of numerals used along with Arabic text; Western Arabic numerals and Eastern Arabic numerals. In most of present-day North Africa, the usual Western Arabic numerals are used. Like Western Arabic numerals, in Eastern Arabic numerals, the units are always right-most, and the highest value left-most. Eastern Arabic numbers are written from left to right.

Letters as numerals

In addition, the Arabic alphabet can be used to represent numbers (Abjad numerals). This usage is based on the {{transliteration|ar|ʾabjadī}} order of the alphabet. {{transliteration|ar|ʾalif}} is 1, {{transliteration|ar|ALA|bāʾ}} is 2, {{transliteration|ar|jīm}} is 3, and so on until {{transliteration|ar|ALA|yāʾ}} = 10, {{transliteration|ar|ALA|kāf}} = 20, {{transliteration|ar|ALA|lām}} = 30, ..., {{transliteration|ar|ALA|rāʾ}} = 200, ..., {{transliteration|ar|ALA|ghayn}} = 1000. This is sometimes used to produce chronograms.

History

File:Arabic script evolution.svg|thumb|250px|Evolution of early Arabic calligraphy (9th–11th century). The {{transliteration|ar|ALA|Basmala}} is taken as an example, from Kufic {{transliteration|ar|ALA|Qur’ān}} manuscripts. (1) Early 9th century script used no dots or diacritic marks;(commons:File:Basmala kufi.svg|File:Basmala kufi.svg – Wikimedia Commons) (2) and (3) in the 9th–10th century during the Abbasid dynasty, Abu al-Aswad's system used red dots with each arrangement or position indicating a different short vowel. Later, a second system of black dots was used to differentiate between letters like {{transliteration|ar|ALA|fā’}} and {{transliteration|ar|ALA|qāf}};(commons:File:Kufi.jpg|File:Kufi.jpg – Wikimedia Commons) (4) in the 11th century (al-FarāhÄ«dÄ«'s system) dots were changed into shapes resembling the letters to transcribe the corresponding long vowels. This system is the one used today.(commons:File:Qur'an folio 11th century kufic.jpg|File:Qur'an folio 11th century kufic.jpg – Wikimedia Commons) ]]The Arabic alphabet can be traced back to the Nabataean script used to write Nabataean Aramaic. The first known text in the Arabic alphabet is a late fourth-century inscription from {{transliteration|ar|Jabal Ram}} 50 km east of {{transliteration|ar|ALA|‘Aqabah}} in Jordan, but the first dated one is a trilingual inscription at Zebed in Syria from 512.{{citation needed|date=December 2016}} However, the epigraphic record is extremely sparse, with only five certainly pre-Islamic Arabic inscriptions surviving, though some others may be pre-Islamic. Later, dots were added above and below the letters to differentiate them. (The Aramaic language had fewer phonemes than the Arabic, and some originally distinct Aramaic letters had become indistinguishable in shape, so that in the early writings 14 distinct letter-shapes had to do duty for 28 sounds; cf. the similarly ambiguous Book Pahlavi.)The first surviving document that definitely uses these dots is also the first surviving Arabic papyrus (PERF 558), dated April 643, although they did not become obligatory until much later. Important texts were and still are frequently memorized, especially in Qurʾan memorization.Later still, vowel marks and the hamzah were introduced, beginning some time in the latter half of the 7th century, preceding the first invention of Syriac and Tiberian vocalizations. Initially, this was done by a system of red dots, said to have been commissioned in the Umayyad era by Abu al-Aswad al-Du'ali, a dot above = {{transliteration|ar|ALA|a}}, a dot below = {{transliteration|ar|ALA|i}}, a dot on the line = {{transliteration|ar|ALA|u}}, and doubled dots indicated nunation. However, this was cumbersome and easily confusable with the letter-distinguishing dots, so about 100 years later, the modern system was adopted. The system was finalized around 786 by al-Khalil ibn Ahmad al-Farahidi.

Other tributes and alphabets written in Arabic dialects

Arabic dialects were written in different alphabets before the spread of the Arabic alphabet currently in use. The most important of these alphabets and inscriptions are the Safaitic inscriptions, amounting to 30,000 inscriptions discovered in the Levant desert.WEB, 2018-12-15, علم اللغة العربية • الموقع الرسمي للمكتبة الشاملة,weblink" title="web.archive.org/web/20181215022117weblink">weblink 2024-03-16, web.archive.org, There are about 3,700 inscriptions in Hismaic in central Jordan and northwest of the Arabian Peninsula, and Nabataean inscriptions, the most important of which are the Umm al-Jimal I inscription and the Numara inscription.WEB, 2021-01-13, (PDF) Al-Jallad. A Manual of the Historical Grammar of Arabic {{!, Ahmad Al-Jallad - Academia.edu |url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210113063433weblink |access-date=2024-03-16 |website=web.archive.org}} File:Panel Almaqah Louvre DAO18.jpg|thumb|Musnad script as is clear from one of the Sabaean inscriptions.]]

Arabic printing

Medieval Arabic blockprinting flourished from the 10th century until the 14th. It was devoted only to very small texts, usually for use in amulets.In 1514, following Johannes Gutenberg's invention of the printing press in 1450, Gregorio de Gregorii, a Venetian, published an entire prayer-book in Arabic script; it was entitled Kitab Salat al-Sawa'i and was intended for eastern Christian communities.WEB,weblink 294° anniversario della Biblioteca Federiciana: ricerche e curiosità sul Kitab Salat al-Sawai, 2017-01-31, Between 1580 and 1586, type designer Robert Granjon designed Arabic typefaces for Cardinal Ferdinando de' Medici, and the Medici Oriental Press published many Christian prayer and scholarly Arabic texts in the late 16th century.BOOK,weblink Design and Structure of Arabic Script, Naghashian, Naghi, 2013-01-21, epubli, 9783844245059, en, File:الكامل في صنعة الأسطرلاب الشمالي والجنوبي وعللهما بالهندسة والحساب.png|thumb|A page from the manuscript of Al-Kamil's book on the making of the northern and southern astrolabe and their reasons for geometry and arithmetic by Ahmed bin Katheer Al-Farghani, where the letters appear in red in an arranged order expressing numbers.]]Maronite monks at Maar Quzhay Monastery on Mount Lebanon published the first Arabic books to use movable type in the Middle East. The monks transliterated the Arabic language using Syriac script.Although Napoleon generally receives credit for introducing the printing press to Egypt during his invasion of the country in 1798, and though he did indeed bring printing presses and Arabic presses to print the French occupation's official newspaper Al-Tanbiyyah "The Courier", printing in the Arabic language had started several centuries earlier. A goldsmith (like Gutenberg) designed and implemented an Arabic-script movable-type printing-press in the Middle East. The Lebanese Melkite monk Abdallah Zakher set up an Arabic printing press using movable type at the monastery of Saint John at the town of Dhour El Shuwayr in Mount Lebanon, the first homemade press in Lebanon using Arabic script. He personally cut the type molds and did the founding of the typeface. The first book came off his press in 1734; this press continued in use until 1899.Arabic and the Art of Printing – A Special Section {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20061229133008weblink |date=29 December 2006 }}, by Paul Lunde

Computers

The Arabic alphabet can be encoded using several character sets, including ISO-8859-6, Windows-1256 and Unicode, latter thanks to the "Arabic segment", entries U+0600 to U+06FF. However, none of the sets indicates the form that each character should take in context. It is left to the rendering engine to select the proper glyph to display for each character.Each letter has a position-independent encoding in Unicode, and the rendering software can infer the correct glyph form (initial, medial, final or isolated) from its joining context. That is the current recommendation. However, for compatibility with previous standards, the initial, medial, final and isolated forms can also be encoded separately.

Unicode

As of Unicode {{Unicode version|version=15.1}}, the Arabic script is contained in the following blocks:WEB,weblink Unicode Character Database, UAX #24: Script data file, The Unicode Consortium,

• Arabic (0600–06FF, 256 characters)
• Arabic Supplement (0750–077F, 48 characters)
• Arabic Extended-A (08A0–08FF, 96 characters)
• Arabic Extended-B (0870–089F, 41 characters)
• Arabic Extended-C (10EC0–10EFF, 3 characters)
• Arabic Presentation Forms-A (FB50–FDFF, 631 characters)
• Arabic Presentation Forms-B (FE70–FEFF, 141 characters)
• Rumi Numeral Symbols (10E60–10E7F, 31 characters)
• Indic Siyaq Numbers (1EC70–1ECBF, 68 characters)
• Ottoman Siyaq Numbers (1ED00–1ED4F, 61 characters)
• Arabic Mathematical Alphabetic Symbols (1EE00—1EEFF, 143 characters)

The basic Arabic range encodes the standard letters and diacritics but does not encode contextual forms (U+0621-U+0652 being directly based on ISO 8859-6). It also includes the most common diacritics and Arabic-Indic digits. U+06D6 to U+06ED encode Qur'anic annotation signs such as "end of ayah" ۝ۖ and "start of rub el hizb" ۞. The Arabic supplement range encodes letter variants mostly used for writing African (non-Arabic) languages. The Arabic Extended-A range encodes additional Qur'anic annotations and letter variants used for various non-Arabic languages.The Arabic Presentation Forms-A range encodes contextual forms and ligatures of letter variants needed for Persian, Urdu, Sindhi and Central Asian languages. The Arabic Presentation Forms-B range encodes spacing forms of Arabic diacritics, and more contextual letter forms. The Arabic Mathematical Alphabetical Symbols block encodes characters used in Arabic mathematical expressions.See also the notes of the section on modified letters.

Keyboards

{{see also|Keyboard layout|Arabic keyboard}}(File:KB Arabic MAC.svg|thumb|450px|Arabic Mac keyboard layout)(File:KB Arabic.svg|thumb|450px|Arabic PC keyboard layout)File:Intellark4qwerty.png|thumb|450px|IntellarkIntellarkKeyboards designed for different nations have different layouts, so proficiency in one style of keyboard, such as Iraq's, does not transfer to proficiency in another, such as Saudi Arabia's. Differences can include the location of non-alphabetic characters.All Arabic keyboards allow typing Roman characters, e.g., for the URL in a web browser. Thus, each Arabic keyboard has both Arabic and Roman characters marked on the keys. Usually, the Roman characters of an Arabic keyboard conform to the QWERTY layout, but in North Africa, where French is the most common language typed using the Roman characters, the Arabic keyboards are AZERTY.To encode a particular written form of a character, there are extra code points provided in Unicode which can be used to express the exact written form desired. The range Arabic presentation forms A (U+FB50 to U+FDFF) contain ligatures while the range Arabic presentation forms B (U+FE70 to U+FEFF) contains the positional variants. These effects are better achieved in Unicode by using the zero-width joiner and zero-width non-joiner, as these presentation forms are deprecated in Unicode and should generally only be used within the internals of text-rendering software; when using Unicode as an intermediate form for conversion between character encodings; or for backwards compatibility with implementations that rely on the hard-coding of glyph forms.Finally, the Unicode encoding of Arabic is in logical order, that is, the characters are entered, and stored in computer memory, in the order that they are written and pronounced without worrying about the direction in which they will be displayed on paper or on the screen. Again, it is left to the rendering engine to present the characters in the correct direction, using Unicode's bi-directional text features. In this regard, if the Arabic words on this page are written left to right, it is an indication that the Unicode rendering engine used to display them is out of date.For more information about encoding Arabic, consult the Unicode manual available at The Unicode websiteSee also Multilingual Computing with Arabic and Arabic Transliteration: Arabicizing Windows Applications to Read and Write Arabic & Solutions for the Transliteration Quagmire Faced by Arabic-Script Languages and A PowerPoint Tutorial (with screen shots and an English voice-over) on how to add Arabic to the Windows Operating System. {{webarchive |url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110911024303weblink |date=11 September 2011 }}There are competing online tools, e.g. Yamli editor, which allow entry of Arabic letters without having Arabic support installed on a PC, and without knowledge of the layout of the Arabic keyboard.WEB,weblink Yamli in the News,

Handwriting recognition

The first software program of its kind in the world that identifies Arabic handwriting in real time was developed by researchers at Ben-Gurion University (BGU).The prototype enables the user to write Arabic words by hand on an electronic screen, which then analyzes the text and translates it into printed Arabic letters in a thousandth of a second. The error rate is less than three percent, according to Dr. Jihad El-Sana, from BGU's department of computer sciences, who developed the system along with master's degree student Fadi Biadsy.WEB,weblink Israel 21c, 14 May 2007,

Variations

{| class="wikitable" The modern hijā’ī sequence and abjadī sequence (excluding {{transliteration>ar|DIN|hamzah}}) in 15 fonts: class="nowrap"

	hijā’ī sequence

(File:Arabic in 15 fonts 2020-03-25 1554.png	center)	•	noto fonts	Nastaliq urdu alphabet>Urdu

•	Scheherazade New

•	Lateef

•	Noto Naskh Arabic

•	Markazi Text

•	Noto Sans Arabic

•	El Messiri

•	Lemonada

•	Changa

•	Mada

•	Noto Kufi Arabic

•	Reem Kufi

•	Lalezar

•	Jomhuria

•	Rakkas

	abjadī sequence

(File:Arabic in 15 fonts 2020-03-24 2228.png	center)	•	Noto Nastaliq Urdu

•	Scheherazade New

•	Lateef

•	Noto Naskh Arabic

•	Markazi Text

•	Noto Sans Arabic

•	El Messiri

•	Lemonada

•	Changa

•	Mada

•	Noto Kufi Arabic

•	Reem Kufi

•	Lalezar

•	Jomhuria

•	Rakkas

See also

{{Commons category|Arabic alphabet}}{{div col}}

• Ancient South Arabian script
• Algerian braille
• Arabic braille
• Arabic calligraphy
• Arabic chat alphabet
• Arabic letter frequency
• Arabic numerals
• ArabTeX – provides Arabic support for TeX and LaTeX
• History of the Arabic alphabet
• Modern Arabic mathematical notation
• Romanization of Arabic

{{div col end}}

Notes

{{notelist}}

References

{{Reflist|30em}}

Sources

• JOURNAL, Michael C. A., Macdonald, Michael C. A. Macdonald, 1986, ABCs and letter order in Ancient North Arabian, Proceedings of the Seminar for Arabian Studies, 16, 101–168,

External links

• JOURNAL, Shaalan, Khaled, Raza, Hafsa, NERA: Named entity recognition for Arabic, Journal of the American Society for Information Science and Technology, August 2009, 60, 8, 1652–1663,weblink 10.1002/asi.21090,

{{Arabic alphabets}}{{Arabic language|state=collapsed}}{{list of writing systems}}{{Northwest Semitic abjad}}{{Authority control}}