Worldwide use of the Arabic script Countries where the Arabic script is: → the sole official script → official alongside other scripts → official at a provincial level (China, India, Tanzania) or a recognized second script of the official language (Malaysia, Tajikistan)
The Arabic script is the writing system used for Arabic (Arabic alphabet) and several other languages of Asia and Africa. It is the second-most widely used alphabetic writing system in the world (after the Latin script), the second-most widely used writing system in the world by number of countries using it, and the third-most by number of users (after the Latin and Chinese scripts).
The script was first used to write texts in Arabic, most notably the Quran, the holy book of Islam. With the religion's spread, it came to be used as the primary script for many language families, leading to the addition of new letters and other symbols. Such languages using it are Arabic, Persian (Farsi and Dari), Urdu, Uyghur, Kurdish, Pashto, Punjabi (Shahmukhi), Sindhi, Azerbaijani (Torki in Iran), Malay (Jawi), Javanese, Sundanese, Madurese and Indonesian (Pegon), Balti, Balochi, Luri, Kashmiri, Cham (Akhar Srak),Cham romanization table background. Library of Congress Rohingya, Somali, Mandinka, and Mooré, among others.Mahinnaz Mirdehghan. 2010. Persian, Urdu, and Pashto: A comparative orthographic analysis. Writing Systems Research Vol. 2, No. 1, 9–23. Until the 16th century, it was also used for some Spanish texts, and—prior to the script reform in 1928—it was the writing system of Turkish.
The script is written from right to left in a cursive style, in which most of the letters are written in slightly different forms according to whether they stand alone or are joined to a following or preceding letter. The script is unicase and does not have distinct capital or lowercase letters. In most cases, the letters transcribe consonants, or consonants and a few vowels, so most Arabic alphabets are abjads, with the versions used for some languages, such as Sorani dialect of Kurdish, Kashmiri, Gorani, Uyghur and Serbo-Croatian being alphabets, while Mandarin having an abugida where diacritics are showed instead of full letters. It is the basis for the tradition of Arabic calligraphy.
History
The Arabic alphabet is derived either from the Nabataean alphabet or (less widely believed) directly from the Syriac alphabet, which are both derived from the Aramaic alphabet, which, in turn, descended from the Phoenician alphabet. The Phoenician script also gave rise to the Greek alphabet (and, therefore, both the Cyrillic alphabet and the Latin alphabet used in North and South America and most European countries).
Origins In the 6th and 5th centuries BCE, northern Arab tribes emigrated and founded a kingdom centred around Petra, Jordan. This people (now named Nabataeans from the name of one of the tribes, Nabatu) spoke Nabataean Arabic, a dialect of the Arabic language. In the 2nd or 1st centuries BCE, the first known records of the Nabataean alphabet were written in the Aramaic language (which was the language of communication and trade), but included some Arabic language features: the Nabataeans did not write the language which they spoke. They wrote in a form of the Aramaic alphabet, which continued to evolve; it separated into two forms: one intended for inscriptions (known as "monumental Nabataean") and the other, more cursive and hurriedly written and with joined letters, for writing on papyrus. This cursive form influenced the monumental form more and more and gradually changed into the Arabic alphabet.
Overview the Arabic alphabet / أآإئؠءࢬalif hamza↑alif maddaalif hamza↓yā’ hamza↑kashmiri yā’hamzarohingya yā’ىٱیەًٌٍalif maksuraalif waslafarsi yā’aefathatandammatankasratanَُِّْٓۤfathadammakasrashaddasukunmaddahmaddaںٹٺٻپٿڃnūn ghunnattā’ttāhā’bāā’pā’tāhā’nyā’ڄچڇڈڌڍڎdyā’tchā’tchahā’ddāldāhālddāhālduulڑژڤڦکڭگrrā’jā’vā’pāḥā’kāḥā’nggāfڳڻھہةۃۅguehrnūnhā’ doachashmeehā’ goaltā’ marbutatā’ marbuta goalKirghiz oeۆۇۈۉۋېےoeuyuKirghiz yuveeyā’ barree
The Arabic script has been adapted for use in a wide variety of languages aside from Arabic, including Persian, Malay and Urdu, which are not Semitic. Such adaptations may feature altered or new characters to represent phonemes that do not appear in Arabic phonology. For example, the Arabic language lacks a voiceless bilabial plosive (the sound), therefore many languages add their own letter to represent in the script, though the specific letter used varies from language to language. These modifications tend to fall into groups: Indian and Turkic languages written in the Arabic script tend to use the Persian modified letters, whereas the languages of Indonesia tend to imitate those of Jawi. The modified version of the Arabic script originally devised for use with Persian is known as the Perso-Arabic script by scholars.
When the Arabic script is used to write Serbo-Croatian, Sorani, Kashmiri, Mandarin Chinese, or Uyghur, vowels are mandatory. The Arabic script can, therefore, be used as a true alphabet as well as an abjad, although it is often strongly, if erroneously, connected to the latter due to it being originally used only for Arabic.
Use of the Arabic script in West African languages, especially in the Sahel, developed with the spread of Islam. To a certain degree the style and usage tends to follow those of the Maghreb (for instance the position of the dots in the letters and ).Brustad, K. (2000). The syntax of spoken Arabic: A comparative study of Moroccan, Egyptian, Syrian, and Kuwaiti dialects. Georgetown University Press. Additional diacritics have come into use to facilitate the writing of sounds not represented in the Arabic language. The term , which comes from the Arabic root for "foreign", has been applied to Arabic-based orthographies of African languages.
Table of writing styles
Script or style Alphabet(s) Language(s) Region Derived from Comment Naskh Arabic, Pashto, & others Arabic, Pashto, Sindhi, & others Every region where Arabic scripts are used Sometimes refers to a very specific calligraphic style, but sometimes used to refer more broadly to almost every font that is not Kufic or Nastaliq. Nastaliq Urdu, Shahmukhi, Persian, & others Urdu, Punjabi, Persian, Kashmiri & others Southern and Western Asia Taliq Used for almost all modern Urdu and Punjabi text, but only occasionally used for Persian. (The term "Nastaliq" is sometimes used by Urdu-speakers to refer to all Perso-Arabic scripts.) Taliq Persian Persian A predecessor of Nastaliq. Kufic Arabic Arabic Middle East and parts of North Africa Rasm Restricted Arabic alphabet Mainly historical Omits all diacritics including i'jam. Digital replication usually requires some special characters. See: (links to Wiktionary).
Table of alphabets Alphabet Letters Additional Characters Script or Style Languages Region Derived from: (or related to) Note Arabic 28 Naskh, Kufi, Rasm, & others Arabic North Africa, West Asia Phoenician, Aramaic, NabataeanArabic Afrikaans40NaskhAfrikaansSouth AfricaPerso-Arabic Ajami script 33 Naskh, Magherbi Hausa, Yoruba, Swahili, etc West Africa, East Africa Arabic documented use likely between the 15th to 18th century for Hausa, Mande, Pulaar, Swahili, Wolof, and Yoruba Languages, among other languages. Aljamiado 28 Maghrebi, Andalusi variant; Kufic Old Spanish, Andalusi Romance, Ladino, Aragonese, Valencian, Old Galician-Portuguese Southwest Europe Arabic 8th–13th centuries for Andalusi Romance, 14th–16th centuries for the other languages Arebica 30 Naskh Serbo-Croatian Southeastern Europe Perso-Arabic Latest stage has full vowel marking Arwi alphabet 41 Naskh Tamil Southern India, Sri Lanka Perso-Arabic Belarusian Arabic alphabet 32 Naskh Belarusian Eastern Europe Perso-Arabic 15th / 16th century Balochi Standard Alphabet(s) 29 Naskh and Nastaliq Balochi South-West Asia Perso-Arabic, also borrows multiple glyphs from Urdu This standardization is based on the previous orthography. For more information, see Balochi writing. Berber Arabic alphabet(s) 33 Various Berber languages North Africa Arabic Burushaski 53 (see note) Nastaliq Burushaski South-West Asia (Pakistan) Urdu Also uses the additional letters shown for Urdu. Sometimes written with just the Urdu alphabet, or with the Latin alphabet. Chagatai alphabet 32 Nastaliq and Naskh Chagatai Central Asia Perso-Arabic ݣ is interchangeable with نگ and ڭ. Dobrujan Tatar 32Naskh Dobrujan Tatar Southeastern Europe Chagatai Fula36NaskhFulaWest AfricaArabicA dialect continuum from Senegal to Nigeria and not uniformly standardised. Additional characters are only seen in Pulaar Fouta Djallon and Nigerian Fulfulde varieties. Galal 32 Naskh Somali Horn of Africa ArabicHausa alphabet36Naskh, MaghrebiHausaWest AfricaArabicݑ and ٻ change depending on whether its written in Warsh (Maghrebi) or Hafs (Naskh) convention respectively. Similarly with ݣ and ڭ. In use since the 17th century and generally used in Islamic contexts and by anti-colonial groups. Jawi 36 Naskh Malay Peninsular Malaysia, Sumatra and part of Borneo Arabic Since 1303 AD (Trengganu Stone) Kashmiri 44 Nastaliq Kashmiri South Asia Urdu This orthography is fully voweled. 3 out of the 4 (ۆ, ۄ, ێ) additional glyphs are actually vowels. Not all vowels are listed here since they are not separate letters. For further information, see Kashmiri writing. Kazakh Arabic alphabet 35 Naskh Kazakh Central Asia, China Chagatai In use since 11th century, reformed in the early 20th century, now official only in China Khowar 45 Nastaliq Khowar South Asia Urdu, however, borrows multiple glyphs from Pashto Kyrgyz Arabic alphabet 33 Naskh Kyrgyz Central Asia Chagatai In use since 11th century, reformed in the early 20th century, now official only in China Pashto 45 Naskh and occasionally, Nastaliq Pashto South-West Asia, Afghanistan and Pakistan Perso-Arabic ګ is interchangeable with گ. Also, the glyphs ی and ې are often replaced with ے in Pakistan. Pegon script 35 Naskh Javanese, Sundanese, Madurese South-East Asia (Indonesia) Arabic Persian 32 Naskh and Nastaliq Persian (Farsi) West Asia (Iran etc. ) Arabic Also known as Perso-Arabic. Shahmukhi 41 Nastaliq Punjabi South Asia (Pakistan) Perso-Arabic Saraiki 45 Nastaliq Saraiki South Asia (Pakistan) Urdu Sindhi 52 Naskh Sindhi South Asia (Pakistan) Perso-Arabic Sorabe 28 Naskh Malagasy Madagascar Arabic Soranî 33 Naskh Kurdish languages Middle-East Perso-Arabic Vowels are mandatory, i.e. alphabet Swahili Arabic script 28 Naskh Swahili Western and Southern Africa Arabic İske imlâ 35 Naskh Tatar Volga region Chagatai Used prior to 1920. Ottoman Turkish 32ﭖ ﭺ ﮊ ﮒ ﯓ ئە Ottoman Turkish Ottoman Empire Chagatai Official until 1928 Urdu 39+ (see notes) (see notes) Nastaliq Urdu South Asia Perso-Arabic 58 letters including digraphs representing aspirated consonants. Uyghur 32 Naskh Uyghur China, Central Asia Chagatai Reform of older Arabic-script Uyghur orthography that was used prior to the 1950s. Vowels are mandatory, i.e. alphabet Wolofal 33 Naskh Wolof West Africa Arabic, however, borrows at least one glyph from Perso-Arabic Xiao'erjing 36 Naskh Sinitic languages China, Central Asia Chagatai Used to write Chinese languages by Muslims living in China such as the Hui people. Yaña imlâ 29 Naskh Tatar Volga region İske imlâ alphabet 1920–1927 replaced with Cyrillic
Current use Today Iran, Afghanistan, and Pakistan are the main non-Arabic speaking states using the Arabic alphabet to write one or more official national languages, including Azerbaijani, Baluchi, Brahui, Persian, Pashto, Central Kurdish, Urdu, Sindhi, Kashmiri and Punjabi.
In India and China some regions use the Arabic script to write respectively Kashmiri in Jammu and Kashmir, Urdu in Uttar Pradesh and Telangana, Uyghur in Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region
An Arabic alphabet is currently used for the following languages:
Africa North Africa Arabic