Arabic-L:LING:Orthography of non-Arabic Neighbors

[Dilworth B. Parkinson]

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Arabic-L: Mon 08 May 2000
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1) Subject: Orthography of non-Arabic Neighbors

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1)
Date: 08 May 2000
From: Mutarjm at aol.com
Subject: Orthography of non-Arabic Neighbors

Greetings / tahaiya tayyiba wa b3ad...

Re "... the orthography of the Arabic-speaking world's Persian and Urdu
neighbors"

In the United Arab Emirates (especially the coastal cities), such
"transplanted" orthography is common and pervasive because of the large
non-Arab ethnic communities there (largest Indian community outside the
Subcontinent).

Orthography with the three dots (peh, zheh, cheh and veh) and the "gheh"
appear occasionally in some Arabic advertising that involves foreign words
and brand names. Emiratis seem accustomed (blase) to those usages. The
observations by the late T. M. Johnstone on dialectal variations in Gulf
Arabic are valid.

Due to the large "Egyptian academic mafia" (their own self-description) in a
number of universities, colleges and teriary institutes in UAE, one can also
encounter the "jiim" vs "geem" business, although the discussions that follow
seem more for amusement. Older Emiratis in their casual speech among
themselves still tend to shift medial jiim > yaa  > "yaa reyaal..."

BTW, Saudi/Gulf Arabic equivalent of "shop 'til you drop" => al-tasawwiq
hatta al-aflaas (shopping until poverty).

HTH.

Khair, in sha' Allah.

Regards from Los Angeles,

Stephen H. Franke

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End of Arabic-L: 08 May 2000