Arabic-L:LING:Linux/Morrocan Arabic responses

[Dilworth Parkinson]

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Arabic-L: Sat 26 Jan 2008
Moderator: Dilworth Parkinson <dilworth_parkinson at byu.edu>
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-------------------------Directory------------------------------------

1) Subject:Linux response
2) Subject:Linux response
3) Subject:Writing Moroccan Arabic

-------------------------Messages-----------------------------------
1)
Date: 26 Jan 2008
From:"Benjamin Geer" <benjamin.geer at gmail.com>
Subject:Linux response

On 22/01/2008, "Andrew Freeman" <andyf at u.washington.edu> wrote:
> a.       What is a reasonable and readily available text editor that  
> runs on
> RedHat WS 3 for Arabic texts?

Both gedit (http://www.gnome.org/projects/gedit/) and Katoob
(http://www.arabeyes.org/project.php?proj=Katoob) work well for plain
text files.

If you want a word processor (i.e. something that lets you control
formatting) rather than just a text editor, OpenOffice
(http://www.openoffice.org/) is the best option for Arabic, in my
experience.  Make sure you enable the Complex Text Layout (CTL) option
in its Language Settings, and install a good Arabic font; I use SIL's
Scheherazade (http://www.sil.org/computing/catalog/show_software.asp?id=109 
).

> b.      Is there a stable version of emacs that can handle Right-To- 
> Left display and all flavors of
> unicode, cp-1256 & MAC-Arabic code pages?

Please let me know if you find out; I've given up on Emacs for this  
reason.

Ben

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2)
Date: 26 Jan 2008
From:"Alexander J. Stein" <alharaka at gmail.com>
Subject:Linux response

Andrew,

I am not sure of the status of emacs in particular, but I recommend  
you examine the website for Arabeyes[1], a multinational localization  
team from that focuses on translating popular FOSS titles and creating  
useful packages for Arabs and/or Muslims (since most orthographic  
issues apply to any language with Arabic script). Link [2] gives you  
an introduction. By the way, these people are doing excellent work,  
and I can vouch for the quality of it. I suggest all Arabists on this  
site who are Linux enthusiasts check out the links below. Furthermore,  
they are always in need of more translators to help translate open  
source software. If you want to practice your skill with Arabic  
computer terminology and watch the evolution of the language, I  
recommend volunteering.

Regards,
Alexander Stein

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2)
Date: 26 Jan 2008
From:"Jan Hoogland" <j.hoogland at let.ru.nl>
Subject:Writing Moroccan Arabic

Hi Andy,

These are some interesting questions.

And how to write Moroccan Arabic in Arabic script is even more  
interesting,
since the Moroccans are struggling with this themselves too.

There is an interesting development going on in Morocco presently: the
Moroccan Arabic dialect is used more and more as a written language
(billboards, quotations in magazines, subtitles on TV).

There is however no general consensus on the orthography of Moroccan  
Arabic.

So people seem to write it the way they like it.

Some even prefer to vocalize it, which to my humble opinion is less
important in Moroccan Arabic.

The way you spelled the Moroccan sentences is quite usual, with some
concessions to MSA orthography. For example, to represent the Moroccan
Arabic article l- does not demand the writing of an alif (like alif  
lam for
‘al-‘ in MSA). However, very few people leave the alif out.

On the other hand you write the demonstrative ‘had’ as it is pronounced,
without any concessions to MSA orthography hâdha.

Some people even write kaf-alif for the durative particle ka-.

I do have some doubts about the correctness of your MA sentences, but  
I’ll
leave that to the native speakers.

Good luck with Moroccan Arabic Darizja (characterised by some Arabs as  
‘non
Arabic’)

Jan

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End of Arabic-L:  26 Jan 2008
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