International Journal of Education, Culture and Society 2019; 4(1): 1-12 http://www.sciencepublishinggroup.com/j/ijecs doi: 10.11648/j.ijecs.20190401.11 ISSN: 2575-3460 (Print); ISSN: 2575-3363 (Online) The Impact of Arabic Orthography on Literacy and Economic Development in Afghanistan Anwar Wafi Hayat Department of Economics, Kabul University, Kabul, Afghanistan Email address: To cite this article: Anwar Wafi Hayat. The Impact of Arabic Orthography on Literacy and Economic Development in Afghanistan. International Journal of Education, Culture and Society . Vol. 4, No. 1, 2019, pp. 1-12. doi: 10.11648/j.ijecs.20190401.11 Received : October 15, 2018; Accepted : November 8, 2018; Published : January 31, 2019 Abstract: Currently, Pashto and Dari (Afghan Persian), the two official languages, and other Afghan languages are written in modified Arabic alphabets. Persian adopted the Arabic alphabets in the ninth century, and Pashto, in sixteenth century CE. This article looks at how the Arabic Orthography has hindered Literacy and Economic development in Afghanistan. The article covers a comprehensive analysis of Arabic Orthography adopted for writing Dari and Pashto, a study of the proposed Arabic Language reforms, and research conducted about reading and writing difficulty in Arabic script by Arab intellectuals. The study shows how adopting modified Latin alphabets for a language can improve literacy level which further plays its part in the economic development of a country. The article dives into the history of Romanization of languages in the Islamic World and its impact on Literacy and economic development in those countries. Romanization of the Afghan Official languages and its possible impact on Literacy, Economy, and Peace in Afghanistan is discussed. Proposed Latin-based Alphabets are introduced for Dari and Pashto languages and factors that may facilitate or hinder the implementation of a Latin-based script in Afghanistan are explained at the end of the article. Romanization, referred to in this article, means converting to Roman script, also called Latin-based script, the alphabets of a language currently written in orthography other than the Latin. Keywords: Romanization, Arabic, Pashto, Dari, Literacy, Orthography, Script declared Arabic as the official language of the Islamic 1. Introduction Caliphate in seventh century CE. [1] Before the reign of Abd The Arabic script, which is also called the alphabets of the al-Malik (685–705), Coptic, Greek, Latin, Persian and other Quran, is the writing system used for Arabic language and for languages of Non-Arab communities had official status in different languages of the world, especially languages of the certain regions. Muslim communities under Islamic Muslim speech communities. Arabic Script has 28 total Caliphate in parts of Middle East, Central Asia, North Africa, letters with numerous diacritic signs used to represent the Western Europe, and India, were obliged to learn and use the vowel sounds. The script is cursive and most of the letters Arabic language and script because it was introduced as the change form when they are combined to write a word. The language of the Holy Quran. Non-Muslims had to learn it current Persian Script, which is a modified form of Arabic because it was the language of Administration. As a result of orthography, added four more letters to the Arabic alphabets the religious and political influence of Arabic, Non-Arab and created 34 letters alphabets with 9 diacritic marks for communities modified the Arabic alphabets to create their Persian used in Iran and Afghanistan. The Pashto, which also own writing systems replacing their previous orthographies. uses a modified Arabic script, added more letters to it Apart from Persian in Iran and Afghanistan, Arabic script creating a 45 letters script with four diacritics. was also used for writing Tajik and Turkic languages of The spread of Islam brought with it the Arabic language Central Asia such as Uzbek, Kyrgyz, Kazak, Azeri, and and alphabets to the non-Arab world. After conversion to Turkmen. In the 1920s these languages changed their Islam, it was obligatory for Non-Arab communities to learn alphabets from Arabic to Latin. Later, Latin was replaced by the Arabic script for reciting the Holy Quran and performing Cyrillic in 1938. Cyrillic was replaced by Latin again in the other religious duties. The Umayyad Dynasty (661–750) 1990s in most of the Central Asian countries after the 2 Anwar Wafi Hayat: The Impact of Arabic Orthography on Literacy and Economic Development in Afghanistan influence of Russia declined in this area. Tajikistan still uses newscaster of a famous pri1ate T8 channel in /abul XYZ[ as /ushindaه Cyrillic to write the Tajik language. Similarly, Turks had pronounced the name of one of the districts modified Arabic script according to their own language needs which means killer. instead of /ishindeh e1en though the which was replaced with Latin in the 1920s by Mustafa context here is known as the word 4olaswaly is written with Kemal Ataturk as part of widespread reforms. [2] The Turkic it indicating it is the name of a district. Doth /oshinda and communities living in Afghanistan, Iran and China; Kazakhs, /ishindeh are written exactly the same in Dari due to the Uzbeks, Turkmens, and Kyrgyz, for example, still, use the absence of the short 1owels o and i. Similarly. a prominent modified Arabic scripts for writing. Pashto channelHs newscaster in Pakistan pronounced the Similarly, in Asia and Africa, the Arabic script was name of the Northern pro1ince Balkh of Afghanistan. as adopted for various Hindustani and African languages. Apart Balakh . due to his unfamiliarity with the pronunciation of from Africa and Asia, languages in other parts of the world this word and because it is written without the short 1owel a like Europe, Caucasus, and the Middle East, have also been in Dari and Pashto. using Arabic Script out of which several languages have This confusion is not limited to context or lack of prior adopted the Latin script now. knowledge. E1en sentences. for which a reader might ha1e prior knowledge of the meanings and pronunciations of 2. Reading Difficulty in Arabic Script words. will cause trouble. For instance. the sentence written M]`ab cd]` can ha1e three different meanings and را ^[\Kد in Dari 2.1. Vowel Sounds can be three different sentences written in different tenses. The sentence can be read as 7aila ealin ra mibaradG7aila Arabic Script does not have separate letters to indicate the carries the carpet. 7aila ealin ra miburdG7aila used to carry vowel sounds in writing. Vowel sounds are differentiated by the carpet. 7aila ealin ra miborad A 7aila cuts the carpet. the use of diacritic signs which are called Tashkeel Harakāt— Itfs not only difficult for students to comprehend the short vowel letters for the phonetic purpose, written above or written text in books without making mistakes but also below the alphabets. These short vowel signs are not written newscasters. politicians. and go1ernment officials face in usual publications and are restricted to the Holy Quran embarrassment while deli1ering public speeches. Recently. a because one has to recite it with the exact pronunciation. It’s minister of the Afghan Cabinet made hilarious reading also used in material written for the new learners of the mistakes while deli1ering a speech about the Afghan Post Arabic language. In earlier versions of the Holy Quran, the which became 1iral on social media. recei1ing huge criticism diacritic signs were not written. from Afghans. Without the diacritic vowel sounds, it is difficult to read 4hen it comes to Dari and Pashto. they are 1owel based texts correctly in the Arabic script if the reader lacks a prior languages while Arabic is consonantal. The Semitic and knowledge of the words used in a sentence. In Dari and consonantal nature of Arabic has made it difficult for Pashto Pashto, the short vowel signs are also not written which has and Dari to fit in the Arabic Script. For instance. Pashto has 7 made reading a confusing and complex task. The reader, for 1owels (and in some of its accents. more than 7). 4hen instance, has to guess the pronunciation of a word according written in Arabic Script. the 1owel sounds are not properly S) pronounced) ۀ to the context of the sentence and must have prior knowledge pronounced. For example. the 1owel sound of its pronunciation. Without using diacritics, the majority of as i in English word bird. is not properly represented by the words in Dari and Pashto with different meanings and current Pashto alphabets. E1en though this 1owel is denoted pronunciation are written with the same spelling. The only in the current Pashto script by adding a diacritic sign 5amza and can only be written at the .ۀ which makes it ه to letter ء way to write or pronounce them correctly is the use of diacritics which is a tedious and erroneous task if one end of a word to denote this 1owel but the fact that hamza is chooses to write them. The following words, which are a diacritic sign. like other diacritics it is also not written in which ه written the same, can be pronounced in more than one way, majority of the Pashto texts and is always written as KL can be read as is pronounced as iaj resulting in confusion. For instance. theور ;with completely different meanings She) ھkm راSarwar. a male name in Afghanistan. also as Sorur which 1erb Pashto word for Came in these sentences kdl 5aghoy ھQmی راmeans joy. Decause it is written without writing the short came) pronounced as 5agha raaghla and kdl 1owels in Dari and Pashto. therefore the reader is confused raaghla (They came) are pronounced by two different 1owels whether to read it with a.