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Arabic chat alphabet
The language used in chatrooms in the Arab world.
- URL: Unknown
- Location: Arabic speaking countries such as Egypt, Saudi Arabia, Tunisia, Morocco
- Date: Unknown
- Facebook: Unknown
- Twitter: Unknown
- Known For:
Summary
The internet language used throughout the Arab world.
Origins
Arabic is a Semitic language spoken throughout the Middle East and North Africa. It's spoken in all of the Arab League countries, and it is also an official language in Israel and several other African countries. It has a standard dialect and many regional dialects stretching from Morocco to Oman.
But what does this have to do with the internet? Well, before Arabic language keyboards were invented, Arabic-speaking teenagers needed to communicate over the 'net with their Roman character keyboards. So they devised a system where roman characters (letters and numbers) replaced Arabic characters. Even though Arabic language support is much more robust now, people still use the Arabic chat alphabet.
People have developed software that converts chat Arabic to real Arabic text.
Current status
Still going strong on Facebook and elsewhere.
Facts
- "3" is often used to represent ‘ayn (ع) because the number "3" looks like a mirror image of ‘ayn
- 3’ is often used to represent ghayn (غ) - In chat Arabic the apostrophes represent dots on letters.
- "5" or "7'" can represent khaa’ (خ)
- "6" is used to represent Taa’ (ط) - the shape of the number 6 looks simiar to that of Taa’
- Either "6’" or "6" can represent Zaa’ (ظ)
- "7" is used to represent haa’ (ح) because the number "7" looks so similar to haa'
- "8" is used to represent qaaf (ق). A qaaf would look like a number eight on its side if the two dots at the letter closed the top part.
- "9" is used to represent saad (ص). Saad looks like a number nine on its side.
- "9’" or "9" may be used to represent daad (ض).
Related Pages
External Links
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