Sim-Arabic Alphabet & Phonetics page 1

Alphabet and Phonetics

The table below shows the Sim-Arabic characters. Each character of this alphabet corresponds to a character, or other orthographic mark, in the Arabic (or Persian) alphabet. Moreover, for those characters that have multiple pronunciations in Arabic (such as the semi-vowels), separate Sim- Arabic characters are used to represent this. The phonetic pronunciations (in both Arabic and Persian) using the International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA) are also shown.

Arabic/ IPA IPA Arabic/ IPA IPA Sim-Arabic Persian (Arabic) (Persian) Sim-Arabic Persian (Arabic) (Persian) k k ك aː/ɑː ɒː k ا A l l ل ʔ ʔ l ء * m m م b b m ب b n n/ŋ ن t t n ت t h h ه θ s h ث x w و dʒ dʒ w ج j w و ħ h W ح H uː o و x x U خ K v و d d v د d j j ي ð z y ذ X iː iː ي r ɾ I ر r aː/ɑː iː/ɒː ى z z Y ز z a/at ة s s e س s a/æ æ فتحة ʃ ʃ a ش c i e كسرة sˤ s i ص S u o ضمة dˤ z u ض D n n تنوين tˤ t N ط T p پ ðˤ z p ظ Z tʃ چ ʕ ʔ C ع ^ ʒ ژ ɣ ɣ J غ R g گ f f g ف f q ɢ ق q

The Sim-Arabic alphabet is a transliteration scheme, not a transphonation scheme. Its purpose is to provide an accurate rendering of the original Arabic text, not the manner in which it would be vocalized.

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Notes:

 The prefix al- (which means the) is always written in the same way, regardless of whether it precedes a “sun letter” or a “moon letter.” Doubled (or “geminate”) letters are written with two letters in Sim-Arabic; there is no symbol for the shadda.

,in Arabic functions as a syntactical feminine suffix. When followed by a vowel (ة)  The ta’-marbutah .In Sim-Arabic, though, this character is always written as e .(ت) ’in Arabic, it is written as a ta

 Every Sim-Arabic word starts with a consonant, with one exception, the prefix al- (the). There is no representation in Sim-Arabic for the hamzatu’l-wasl (or silent hamza), including for those verbs .in Arabic (ا) which start with an alif

For comparison purposes, other Romanization schemes in common use for the Arabic alphabet are shown in the table below. Note that none of the Sim-Arabic characters require digraphs or diacritical marks (which makes them easy to use for email or texting).

DIN DIN Sim-Arabic Baha’i Bikdash Sim-Arabic Baha’i Bikdash 31635 31635 A á ā A q q q q * ’ ʾ e k k k k b b b b l l l l t t t t m m m m x th ṯ c n n n n j j ǧ j h h h h H ḥ ḥ H w/W w w w K kh ḫ K U ú ū w d d d d v v X dh ḏ z' y y y y r r r r I í ī y z z z z Y á ā aaa s s s s e at h/t t' c sh š x a a a a S ṣ ṣ S i i i i D ḍ ḍ D u u u u T ṭ ṭ T N N Z ẓ ẓ Z p p ^ ‘ ʿ E C ch R gh ġ g J j f f f f g g

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The “names” of the letters of the Sim-Arabic are given in the table below:

A *alif D DAd v vAv * hamze T TA* y yA* b bA* Z ZA* I I t tA* ^ ^ain Y maqSUre x xA* R Rain e marbUTe j jIm f fA* a fatHe H HA* q qAf i kasre K KA* k kAf u Damme d dAl l lAm N tanwIn X XAl m mIm p pai r rA* n nUn C Cai z zA* h hA* J Jai s sIn w wAu g gAf c cIn W wA*

S SAd U U

Version 2.2 31 January 2013