32 Transliteration Table
Transliteration
Until the advent of computers and then cell-phones, there was little Romanization (i.e. the use of the Latin characters we use in English) of the Arabic alphabet to represent the sounds of Arabic. The Romanization that did go on was was mainly done by Western scholars when they wanted to discuss Arabic in Western languages in publications, a practice which still goes on today in scholarship, using dots and macrons (such as “ḥ” and “ā”) for some sounds not in European languages.
However, since the 1990s, the wide proliferation of cell phones using Latin characters but not Arabic ones, has led to people in the Arab world to apply their own transliteration systems to communicate using phones that do not have the Arabic alphabet on them. There is no single, universal universal method of transliteration for Romanizing Arabic letters.
The table below is one system some Egyptians use. We will try to be consistent in using it, though some handouts and charts we borrow from other sources use slightly different systems aasif ma3laysh (sorry never mind!).
Transliteration
(if letter is unexplained it is similar to English sound made by letter)
| aa | “a” as in dad | ا |
| b | ب | |
| t | ت | |
| th | as in “think” (not “the”) | ث |
| j/g | as in joy or give | ج |
| H | aspirated “h” | ح |
| kh | no equivalent | خ |
| d | د | |
| dh | th as in “this” | ذ |
| r | ر | |
| z | ز | |
| s | س | |
| sh | ش | |
| S | “S but darkens” the “a” sound
as the o in “not” |
ص |
| D | D but”darkens” the “a” sound
next to it as the o in “not” |
ض |
| T | t but”darkens” the “a” sound next to it as the o in “not” | ط |
| DH or Z | “th” as in “the” but
darkens…. |
ظ |
| 3 | no equiv | ع |
| gh | no equiv | غ |
| f | ف | |
| q | no equiv | ق |
| k | ك | |
| l | ل | |
| m | م | |
| n | ن | |
| h | ه | |
| w or uu or aw | و | |
| y or “ii” | ي | |
| ‘ | ء | |
| a | َ | |
| u | ُ | |
| i | ِ |
Note: several of the letters have no equivalent sound in English, such as the “3”, and the “kh”.
Note: thaa (“th” ث ) makes the sound of “th” as in “think” but not “th” as in “the”.
For the sound that comes in the first part of the word “this” the letter in Arabic is ذ (dhaa’) and uses the transliteration “dh”.
Letters with sounds quite different from English
ح خ ع غ ص ض ط ظ
H Kh 3 GH q S D T DH
