Arabic

[Shashi]

Greetings Everyone,

This thread is for those who wants to read and write Arabic using Arabic text. I can teach you how to write your names in Arabic and how to read the sound of an Arabic text and hopefully with some vocabulary collecting you could understand some basics of the Arabic language. Note that, you will also be familiar with other languages that uses the same Arabic texts by default. Languages such as Persian(with minor adjustment) and Urdo. Just like Roman characters being spread into various languages(English, Italian, Spanish, French, German, Dutch..etc).

So, first things first. Let me introduce the Alphabets to you. The Arabic Alphabets are very similar to the Roman(English) alphabets in concept. Arabic language has 28 characters. Don't be overwhelmed with the below list. You can memorize them slowly. It's rewarding because that could save your life if you get kidnapped by a terrorist and can't find the "Exit" sign in the building!

http://www.islam101.com/quran/aralph_ph.jpg


You have to know that reading Arabic you must start from Right to Left. Which means, Alif is the first character to read.

Alif, Baa', Taa' (sounds like Alphabeta.. Alpha Be Ta). Easy to memorize right?

The sound could be tricky because there are some letters that are hard to pronounce, don't worry about this for now. Good news is, there are no "tricks" in the sounds which means unlike the English language(that we all can relate to) there's no "C" kind of letters (C pronounced K part of the time).

Usually the sound of a letter is the first sound you make when saying the letter's name. Alif sound is Aa, Baa' sound is Ba and Taa' sound is Ta and so forth.

In the Arabic Language there are hidden short vowels (that explains the ridiculous count of consonants in Arabic names, such as Abdl Jabbar). These short vowels are sometimes written on top or beneath the words, such as in this example below.

http://lib.store.yahoo.net/lib/islamicbookstore-com/651shot2.gif

You also noticed there are long vowels, that are written. The closest I can find to this is the Japanese language when Sasuke name is made by a combination of short vowels while Souu Desu Ka where Souu is follwed by a long vowel.

So far so good?

[Shashi]

Unlike in English language where you can write with isolated letters and still can make sense. Which is exactly how I am typing. For instance, if I want to write Cat I simply do this.

C + a + t = Cat. One letter after another.

This is not true in Arabic. If you want to read or write Arabic you have to understand that letters are rarely isolated. Most of the time they are connected. Explained in the figure below.

http://catarina.ai.uiuc.edu/L408/lecture2_figures/arabic.gif

If you've noticed there are usually 4 shapes for each letter. One is the Isolated shape, second is the shape when it is placed in the beginning of a word(initial). Third is when it's in the middle of a word(middle) and Fourth when it's in the last of a word(final).

Now, let's practice writing a name. Let's pick Ali as an example. It's an easy name to write. So, go back to the first figure and look at the Ayn letter, Laam letter and Yaa letter. These are the letters used writing Ali's name. See how they should be shaped depending if they come in the beginning of the word, middle or last. In this case Ayn comes first, Laam comes middle and Yaa is last.

Note: If you can't view the Arabic Windows text please let me know to provide images for the below example.

Now, lets write all the required letter but Isolated.

Ayn: ع - Laam: ل - Yaa:ي


Referring to the last figure and checking how the letters are shaped we should be able to write Ali in Arabic. Again, for this example Ayne is written in the beginning(pick the initial shape), Laam is in the middle(pick the middle shape) and finally Yaa is in the end(pick the final shape).

You should end up with something like this:

علي



Now, why don't you give it a try and practice writing another name. How about Ali Baba. Now we know how to write Ali try and write Baba in Arabic. If you want you can scan what you written and post it here I will let you know if its correct or not.

Hint: The letter Alif is used as a Long Vowel. Twice.

[Shashi]

Reserved for Lesson 3

[Shashi]

Reserved for Lesson 4