Arabic Transliteration Rules

Every Arabic consonant is represented by the English phonetic equivalent as shown in the table below. Some letters like ش have more than one representation. Note that CAPITAL letters are used for "heavy" sounding Arabic charcaters like ض .

ا = A	ب = b	ة = 't	ت = t	ث = c, th	ج = j	ح = H	خ = K, kh
د = d	ذ = z', dh	ر = r	ز = z	س = s	ش = x, sh	ص = S	ض = D
ط = T	ظ = Z	ع = E	غ = g, gh	ف = f	ق = q	ك = k	ل = l
م = m	ن = n	ه = h	و = w	ي = y

eiktub™ also allows the use of numbers to represent letters (known as the Arabic chat alphabet):

ح = 7

خ = 5

ص = 9

ض = '9

ط = 6

ظ = '6

ع = 3

أ = 2

Vowelization is handled phonetically شكل كما تسمع :

a = فتحة	aa = ألف	aN = فتحتين	aaa = الف مقصورة
u = ضمة	uu = واو	uN = ضمتين
i = كسرة	ii = ياء	iN = كسرتين

The hamzat' همزة in all its shapes is represented by e, 2, or ' (apostrophe). eiktub™ can figure out the correct hamzat' همزة shape based on the rules of dictation.

A dash is used to seperate prefixes containing Al- Al-taEriif ال التعريف from subsequent words:

Al- = ال

wal- = وال

fal- = فال

bil- = بال

lil- = لل

and to write combination of two letters that together represent one Arabic charcater :

k-h = كه

s-h = سه

t-h = ته

g-h = غه

d-h = ده

Need to learn more? Take the eiktub™ Tutorial, or check out these neatly written examples of: poetry by Al-mutanabbii