Many consider the Arabic alphabet more complicated and difficult than the English. Some find it difficult to change the keyboard language each time they want to write in Arabic, in addition to some locals not being fluent in Arabic due to having lived abroad for a long time. In addition, some people do not know how to use the Arabic keyboard or they type faster in English. A few months ago, for example, Mobily released a prepaid line named 7ala which was hung on outdoor advertising banners all over Jeddah.Įven though Arabic is now usually available on computer keyboards, people still use the Arabic chat alphabet in instant messaging or text messaging. At the same time, because it is widely recognized, in the last few years advertising agencies and media outlets have begun to use it. “I type faster in English than in Arabic but I am getting better in Arabic,” he added.Īlthough many Arabs use it every day, Arabizi has never been formally used. I never used Arabizi and I am slow when it comes to reading it,” he said. “Mobile phones and computers now have the option to switch between English and Arabic easily. Mohammed Talal, a 32-year-old who lived in the United States for 12 years, said that he uses either English or Arabic when writing an e-mail or a text message. Due to its wide use, Arabizi has now become common among all levels and ages of Arab society. This “language” was originally popular with those in the Middle East who had been educated and who had lived abroad. However, there is no exact Arabizi due to its informality, not to mention regional variations due to dialect and accent. For example, ‘7aroof which is sheep the symbol ‘ and the No. 7 is equivalent to H in English, for example, Ba7ar which means “sea.” Moreover, symbols are also used such as (‘ *) either before or after the number. 8 is used for the letter qaff which is equivalent to Q in English, for example, 8alb which means “heart”. 3 is used in Arabizi for the letter ayn which may be an English A or E - Abeer = 3abeer. There is no universal name for the Arabic chat alphabet some call it Arabizi while others call it Arabish, which is the first syllable of the word “Arabic” and the last one of “English.”įor example, the No. As a result, Arabic speakers, in order to ease communication, transliterate (write a letter or word using the closest corresponding letters of a different alphabet or language) the Arabic text into English, creating what is called “Arabizi.” Since some Arabic letters do not have an exact equivalent in English, Arabic speakers use numerals and other symbols such as apostrophes to make it sound more appropriate. However, most of these in the beginning had the ability to communicate only in English rather than in Arabic, and some still lack the Arabic alphabet feature. Since communication technologies such as personal computers, Internet, chatting and cell phone text messaging were first introduced to the Arab world in the 1990s, it has become popular and widely used. The most surprising part is how this combination of numbers and letters is used for communication. Arabs have managed to create their own written language by combining English letters and numbers. Written Arabic has 28 letters which include sounds that are not found in English. Young Arabs around the world refer to it as Arabizi which is the result of combining the words Arab and Inglizi - the word for English - in Arabic. Anyone joining an Arab chat room is most likely to get confused by what she or he reads. Text messaging and chatting are one of the most popular means of communication among the youth.
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