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The Hans Wehr transliteration system is a system for transliteration of the Arabic alphabet into the Latin alphabet used in the Hans Wehr dictionary (1952; in English 1961). The system was modified somewhat in the English editions. It is printed in lowercase italics. It marks some consonants using diacritics ( underdot, macron below, and caron) rather than digraphs, and writes long vowels with macrons.

The transliteration of the Arabic alphabet:

Letter Name Transliteration Eng. ed. [1]
ء hamza ʼ
ا alif ā
ب bāʼ b
ت tāʼ t
ث ṯāʼ
ج ǧīm ǧ j
ح ḥāʼ
خ ḫāʼ
د dāl d
ذ ḏāl
ر rāʼ r
ز zāy z
س sīn s
ش šīn š
ص ṣād
ض ḍād
ط ṭāʼ
ظ ẓāʼ
ع ʽain ʽ
غ ġain ġ
ف fāʼ f
ق qāf q
ك kāf k
ل lām l
م mīm m
ن nūn n
ه hāʼ h
و wāw w, u, or ū
ي yāʼ y, i, or ī
  • Hamza (ء) is represented as ʼ in the middle and at the end of a word. At the beginning of a word, it is not represented.
  • The tāʼ marbūṭa (ة) is normally not represented, and words ending in it simply have a final -a. It is, however, represented with a t when it is the ending of the first noun of an iḍāfa and with an h when it appears after a long ā.
  • Native Arabic long vowels: ā ī ū
  • Long vowels in borrowed words: ē ō
  • Short vowels: fatḥa is represented as a, kasra as i and ḍamma as u. (see short vowel marks)
  • Wāw and yāʼ are represented as u and i after fatḥa: ʻain "eye", yaum "day".
  • Non-standard Arabic consonants: p (پ), ž (ژ), g (گ)
  • Alif maqṣūra (ى): ā
  • Madda (آ): ā at the beginning of a word, ʼā in the middle or at the end
  • A final yāʼ (ي), the nisba adjective ending, is represented as ī normally, but as īy when the ending contains the third consonant of the root. This difference is not written in the Arabic.
  • Capitalization: The transliteration uses no capitals, even for proper names.
  • Definite article: The Arabic definite article الـ is represented as al- except where assimilation occurs: al- + šams is transliterated aš-šams (see sun and moon letters). The a in al- is omitted after a final a (as in lamma šamla l-qatīʻ "to round up the herd") or changed to i after a feminine third person singular perfect verb form (as in kašafat il-ḥarbu ʻan sāqin "war flared up").

See also

Notes

  1. ^ English edition (1961, 1994), see "Introduction".

References