LATINIZATION OF ARABIC LANGUAGE IN THE ELECTRONIC COMMUNICATION: CONCEPT AND PRACTICE

Affiliation: * Asst Prof. D/o English language & Translation, Unaizah Community College, Qassim university. Saudi Arabia Page 75

Aligarh Journal of Linguistics

Volume 4, 2014 (ISSN-2249-1511)

LATINIZATION OF ARABIC LANGUAGE IN THE ELECTRONIC

COMMUNICATION: CONCEPT AND PRACTICE

Atef Odeh AbuSa‟aleek*

[email protected]

Abstract:

The new electronic communications increasingly induce the language change. Like many languages

of the worlds due to electronic communications the change is visible in Arabic too and consequently

we have a variety that many be labelled as the „Latinized Arabic‟, The paper endeavours to examine

the Latinized Arabic language and discusses the impact of electronic communication on Arabic

language script among Saudi students. In addition, it investigates the linguistic and sociolinguistic

issues of the Latinized Arabic on the basis of analysis of the language used in students‟ writings in the

electronic communication. The data for the paper was collected from voluntary students‟ electronic

conversation. The findings indicate that the students are using new variety of Arabic language by

writing it in English script when they chat in the electronic communication. Another finding is that

Latinized Arabic language has its own orthographic system. Further, the students use code mixing

and code switching with English language. The paper conclude that further research should continue

so that we may investigate and analyse the features of Latinized Arabic at all levels of linguistics.

Obviously such investigation must examine a large body of data involving mixed sexes and sometimes

female samples too.

Keywords: Latinization of Arabic, Electronic Communication, Electronic discourse,

1.0. Introduction:

The use of the Internet and computer technology has significant impact on language change and

usage. Technology bears gifts for linguistic investigation: Netspeak is a new opportunity for academic

study. Crystal points out that “once in a lifetime” opportunity offered by the emerging communication

media. A new academic study of “Internet Linguistics” includes, at the very least, a comparative

study of the style of different formats and the development of language change within these new

media (Crystal 2001). Similarly, Graddol (1997) states that the new electronic communications

increase the language change. The innovations in the Internet and electronic communication may

give rise to new modes of communication. The characteristics of spoken language are shared in the

style of written text, which used in electronic mail.



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New patterns of communication might be created by using computer-mediated communication

(CMC), by generating and crating the needed new words to describe the situations that arise around

their use. According to (Crystal 2001:17) the term „Netspeak‟ “is an alternative to „Netlish‟,

„Weblish‟, „Internet language‟, „cyberspeak‟, „electronic discourse‟, „electronic language‟, „interactive

written discourse‟, „computer-mediated communication‟ (CMC),” .

The language of electronic communication is a new variety of language and leads to remarkable

variations in written form of language. The emergence of the phenomenon of Latinized Arabic attracts

the attention of researchers, linguists because it became widely used language variety in the electronic

communication especially with the effects of the internet on language use. ASCII-ized Arabic (AA)

refers to (American Standard Code for Information Interchange) symbols that used to signify and

represent Arabic script in electronic communication. In other words ASCII is a character-encoding

scheme originally based on the English alphabet that encodes 128 specified characters - the numbers

0-9, the letters a-z and A-Z, some basic punctuation symbols,

1.1. Methodology:

The study conducted in the Department of English Language and Translation, Unaizah Community

College and Arts & Sciences College at Qassim University in Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. The present

study explores the impact of electronic communication on Arabic language script. The primary data

for this study was corpus collected from students‟ electronic conversation. The researcher asked the

students to provide sample of their conversations. For this purpose, fifty volunteer students in the

Department of English Language and Translation provide sample of their electronic discourse,

participants were enrolled in a B.A program.

2.0. Latinized Arabic: Concept and Characteristics:

In the present study, the writer uses a variety of terms to signify the written form of Arabic language

by using Latin characters and Arabic numerals in the electronic communication. Throughout the

literature there is no specific term is assigned to this new phenomenon. „Arabizi‟ one of them,

alongside „Arabic Chat Alphabet‟, „Arabish‟, „Franco‟, „Latinized Arabic‟ and „Romanized Arabic‟.

To date, there is no research on how widespread the Romanisation of Arabic script is in electronic

communication, whether there are inter-regional variations in the use of numerals and whether there

may also be inter-media variations (i. e. in emails as compared to SMS text messages) (Haggan, 2007,

p. 442).



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Of the terms that are used, “Arabizi” is a hybrid form of popular informal speech of Arabic where

Latin characters are used to replace Arabic orthographic system in the electronic communication. This

expression is a blend of two words “arabi” (Arabic) and “engliszi” (English). „Arabish‟ also is a

combined of two words “Arabic” and “English”. According to (YGQ 2009), Arabizi is the term i.e.

the more or less phonetic Arabic written with Roman characters in order to use various electronic

communications when an Arabic keyboard is not obtainable and/or easy to use. Arabizi is formed to

refer to the mode of writing Arabic language using the Latin characters. In addition, the term Arabizi

is used to refer to code switching in online communication (Bjornsson, 2010).

Arabizi considers the main potential threat to the Arabic writing and it reinforces the handwriting

endangerment. Arabizi is used in the electronic communication to supplement Arabic writing to

convey a particular, informal communication style. Youngster devised a new mode of writing using

the Latin characters with Arabic numerical symbols to substitute the missing letters and to replace

some Arabic characters, which are not available in the English script. Arabizi has important impact on

youngster handwriting who use Arabizi to chat and text. (Al-Tamimi & Gorgis 2007), define Arabizi

as colloquial Arabic, a patois, which has developed with the integration of electronic communication

results in transmitted system of writing implementing a hybrid of characters, Roman and Arabic

numerals. Youngsters in the electronic communication email, chat rooms, SMS and social networking

extensively use such a code. Youngsters make unique and creative features of Arabic spoken dialogue

in the electronic communication via using the Latin characters in communication. Youngsters

transliterate their electronic communication language in a distinctive and amazingly regular fashion.

This system contains Arabic numerals and Roman characters in substitution for Arabic sounds, the

characters normally resembling the visual form of the unique Arabic letters. Hence, the sounds with

counterparts in the Roman characters are represented phonetically (Gordon 2011).

The ASCII-ized Arabic used in the electronic communication differs from conventional ways of

writing Arabic in some ways. Most obviously, it uses ASCII characters rather than Arabic letters; this

in turn means that ASCII-ized Arabic is read from left to right (the opposite direction from normal

Arabic script); and that the letters are always separate from each other, rather than joined together

(Palfreyman & Al-Khalil 2003). The substitutions of Arabic characters by numeric emerged in

previous studies conducted by (Gordon, 2011; Mostari, 2009, Al-Khatib & Sabbah, 2008; Palfreyman

& Al Khalil, 2008; and Haggan, 2007).



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The use of numerals in a Romanised form of written Arabic has also been found in the Kuwaiti

students studied by (Haggan 2007), where texting has become popular among the youngster. He

conducted a study, to ascertain whether Kuwaitis youngster still use the English characters for Arabic

texting. The findings indicate that while texting in Arabic, a substantial percentage of messages use

English and a mixture of Arabic and English. Hence, users use English characters to substitute their

Arabic texts. Yaghan states that „due to the advancement of the Internet and the global use of the

English language (and without any imperialistic implications) the use of Latin letters to write Arabic

over the Internet and on text-messaging cellular phones is becoming increasingly common and

natural‟ (2008:41).

2.1. Linguistic Perspective of Latinized Arabic:

Latinized Arabic also known as Arabizi, Arabish, Arabic chat alphabet, „Romanized Arabic‟

or Franco-Arab, is an alphabet used to communicate in the Arabic language over the electronic

communication for texting via cellular phones when the actual Arabic alphabet is unavailable for

technical reasons. It is a character encoding of Arabic to the Latin characters and the Arabic numerals.

Users of this alphabet have developed some special notations to transliterate some of the letters that

do not exist in the basic Latin script (ASCII). ASCII stands for “American Standard Code for

Information Interchange.” It is a character-encoding scheme originally based on the English

alphabet that encodes 128 specified characters, the numbers 0-9, the letters a-z and A-Z, some

basic punctuation symbols, some control codes. The rise use of the electronic communication in the

Arab world such as computers, the Internet, email, instant messaging, texting and social networking,

hence these technologies originally had the ability to communicate using Latin script only, and some

of them still do not have the Arabic alphabet as an optional feature. This paved the way to transliterate

the Arabic script in to English using Latin script. Therefore, Arabic letters that do not have an

approximate phonetic equivalent in the Latin script, numerals and other characters were appropriated.

Generally the Latinized Arabic used by youngsters in very informal situations, such as

communicating with friends or classmates. The Arabic Chat Alphabet is no more used in formal

settings and is rarely, if happens. (Warschauer, El Said, & Zohry 2002), investigate English and

Arabic language use in online communications by Egyptian people. The findings reveal that, among

this group, English is used significantly in the Internet and in formal e-mail communication, but that a

Romanized Arabic is used widely in informal e-mail messages and online chats. (Palfreyman & Al-

Khalil 2003), conducted a study to analyzing ASCII-ized Arabic as used among female university

students in the United Arab Emirates. The ASCII-ized Arabic in the conversations was found to show

influences from computer character sets, mixture of Arabic script, English and Romanized Arabic that

is, spoken Arabic written out in the Roman alphabet.



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The findings reveal that the users are tending to substitute Arabic sounds that cannot be represented in

the Roman character with numerals.

Table 1 below lists out the way the modern Standard Arabic (Arabic) letters are transliterated

in Arabic Chat Alphabet (ACA) or Latinized Arabic System. On the left side column the MSA

characters are given; in the middle column are given equivalent Arabic Chat Alphabet and in the

right-side column are given equivalent IPA symbols.

MSA Consonant ACA (Latinized Arabic) IPA

B/P [b] ب

T [t] ت

Th [θ] ث

g, j [dʒ,ɡ,ʒ] ج

h,7 [ħ] ح

[x] 5 خ

D [d] د

z/dh/th [ð] ذ

R [r] ر

Z [z] ز

S [s] س

Sh/ ch [ʃ] ش

s/ 9 [s صʕ]

t/6 [t طʕ]

d‟/‟9 [d ضʕ]

z/ th [d/ 6„ ظʕ]

a [ʕ] ,3 ع

gh [ɣ] /3‟/‟3 غ

F [f] ف

[q] 8 ق

K [k] ك

L [l] ل

M [m] م

N [n] ن

H [h] ه

[ʔ] 2 أ ,ء



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The Arabic Alphabet contains 28 consonants and 3 vowels. As can be seen from the above table,

Arabic Alphabet contains 12 consonants, which have only one counterpart in Roman characters such

as [t], [th], [d], [r], [s], [z], [f], [k], [l], [m], [n], [h]. Unusually, these Alphabets are used

systematically. (Yaghan 2008) & (Abdel-Ghaffar, et al 2011), conclude that Arabic consonant

Alphabets are represented by their English correspondence. Hence, the other alphabets have more

than one counterpart for example [b/p], [j,g], [z/dh/th], [sh/ch], [s/9], [t/6], [d‟/‟9],[ „6 /z/ th], [3, a],

[3‟/‟3/ gh]. It can be noticed that some students use the same Latinized Alphabet to represent many

Arabic Alphabet for example [z] represents [ذ], [ز], [ظ]. [s], represents [س], [ص]. [t], represents [ت],

point out that Arabic number 3 is a mirror image of the voiced ,(Tamimi & Gorgis 2007) .[ط]

pharyngeal consonant occurring word finally in Arabic. The students rely either on pictorial or

pronunciation similarity. Selection of the characters is mostly determined by the availability of

approximate characters on the keyboard.

It may be seen in Table 1 that there are some of MSA alphabets, which are written with numerals.

Their list is given in table 2 below:

MSA Consonant ACA (Latinized Arabic) IPA

[ħ] 7 ح

[x] 5 /‟7 /7„ خ

s] 9 صʕ]

t] 6 طʕ]

d] 9‟/‟9 ضʕ]

d] ‟6/ 6„ ظʕ]

[ʕ] 3 ع

[ɣ] 3‟/‟3 غ

[q] 8 ق

[ʔ] 2 ء

These are the Alphabets, which do not have English correspondence. It may be noticed that some of

the letters have more than one numeral to represent them. Thus, there is no consistency representing

them. This variation in selecting numerals mainly due to the impact of educational backgrounds,

gender, and regional dialect. According to (Yaghan 2008), the selection of a particular numeral for a

particular letter may also attribute to the resemblance of the shape of the Arabic Alphabet to their

correspondence numeral for example the alphabet [ح] represented by [7], [ص] represented by [9], [ط]

represented by [6], [ع] represented by [3], [ق] represented by [8], [ء] represented by [2].



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Another interesting finding is that the users of Latinized Arabic have devised a novel method to

represent two MSA alphabets, which have similar shape. That is, one letter is represented by numerals

whereas the other with similar shape will be represented by the numeral plus apostrophe. For example

the alphabet [خ] represented by [7‟/‟7], [ض] represented by [„9/9‟], [ظ] represented by[6‟/‟6], [غ]

represented by [3‟/ „3].

Table 3 below gives the representation of MSA vowels:

MSA Vowels ACA (Latinized Arabic) IPA

A [a][a:] ا

o/ou/u [u][u:] و

e/ee/i [i][e] ي

As may be seen Arabic script contains 3 vowels [ا], [و], [ي]. There is inconsistency in using Arabic

short and long vowels in electronic communication. Thus, the short vowel [u] in Arabic script is

represented by [o], [ou], [u]; the short vowel [e] in Arabic script is represented by [e], [i]; the long

vowel [u:] in Arabic script is represented by the letters [oo], or [ou]. In addition, the long vowel of [e:]

in Arabic script is represented by [ee].

2.2. Sociolinguistics Perspective of Latinized Arabic:

Two main challenges emerge on the linguistic and sociolinguistic scenes. First, the diglossia situation

of Arabic language. It is spoken in all Arab countries, alongside with their regional varieties. Second

the prestige of the „„High‟‟ variety, namely Modern Standard Arabic. It is based on Classical Arabic,

which is considered to be the standard form of Arabic. The speakers of Arabic language educated and

non-educated use the language of the media (Badawi, 2006).

Al-Tamimi & Gorgis (2007) describe Romanized Arabic described as a hybrid lingua franca or even a

pidgin. Romanised Arabic is an emerging code of electronic communication used extensively by

youngsters. Al-Tamimi & Gorgis (2007) conducted a study entitled Romanised Jordanian Arabic E-

messages. On the basis of their findings they state that for one Arabic character there can be up to 6

Roman codes, and Arabic numerals are selected on the basis of pictorial representation of the letter

compared to the Arabic consonant the representations of vowels seem to be less systematic as the

same vowel character is represented by different letters. The findings also reveal that code-switching

is clear among the students. 60% of the messages contain switching from English into Romanised

Jordanian Arab. Where a switch happens to be clausal, code-switching turns out to be „code-mixing‟.



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The current author feels that if the Romans Arabic is continued in the times to come and spreads to

other domains, it may present a bit challenged to Standard Arabic. The feeling of threat indeed is

more among the conservatives and language purists. It must be conceded however that the latin

Arabic code will remain a favourite with youngsters as long as there is no better competing code (Al-

Tamimi & Gorgis, 2007, p1). Warschauer et al. (2002) found that Egyptians professional group use a

code-switching and code-mixing. This mixing of varieties often associated with various functions or

topics. Thus Arabic language is being used for more formulaic phrases whereas English for topics

such as university courses.

2.3. Code Switching In Latinized Arabic:

Code switching is a linguistic phenomenon commonly occurring in bilingual and multilingual speech

communities. It broadly refers to the systematic use of two or more languages or varieties of the same

language during oral or written discourse‟‟ (Mahootain 2006: 511). According to Gumperz Code

Switching can be defined as the „„juxtaposition within the same speech exchange of passages of

speech belonging to two different grammatical systems or subsystems” (Gumperz 1982:59).

Many researchers think that code switching is a natural result of competence in more than one code

(language) and that it should not be mistaken for a language deficit (Mahootain, 2006). Looking at the

structure and composition of Latinized Arabic, can we call it as a code-switched variety of Arabic?

Will it fit into code-switching situation? The current author feels that it is in fact a code-switched

variety of Arabic. Look at these examples the researcher has collected from the corpus of Latinized

Arabic obtained from the students‟ writings in the electronic communication.

(1) God morning friends. Bukrh 3andna 7aflah elsal3a sab3ah. Everyone is invited. Ok, salam,

bashoofkum bukrahal masa.

God morning friends, tomorrow I a throwing a party at seven o‟clock. Everyone is invited. Ok,

bye, see you tomorrow evening.

(2) Saba7 el7‟ar shabab. How are you today?

Good morning guys. How are you today?

(3) I have to go now. Eta7‟ar elwaqt, lazem anam badri.

I have to go now. It is late, I should sleep early

(4) Kaf kan emte7anak? I hope you did well.

How was your exam? I hope you did well

(5) Dear Khalid, check your email. Arsaltelak wajeb eltarjama el eslameha.

Dear Khalid, check your email. I have sent you the Islamic translation homework.

(6) I have to go now talk u later, a5ui yenadi 3alai, ashufak almasa, salam.

I have to go now talk u later, my brother is calling me, see you in the evening, bye.



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(7) Etasel 3ali „6aroori , I do not have balance.

Call me urgently, I do not have balance

(8) Alsalamaleikum, wenak , is everything ok? Y u were absent yesterday?

Islamic greeting, where are you, is everything is ok? Why you were absent yesterday?

2.4. Code -Mixing in Latinized Arabic

Code-mixing is a shift of two or more codes (languages) within the same speech. According to

(Mahootain 2006), the term „code mixing‟ is used interchangeably with „code switching,‟ with both

terms referring to both types of language mixing. Recently, a few researchers have distinguished

between the two terms. They use the term „code-mixing‟ and „mixed code‟ to describe a situation

where the switching among two or more (codes) languages happens at the clause/word level. This

may be differentiated from code-switching where the switching among two or more (codes) language

happens at the discourse level. According to Singh code-mixing indicates a switch in language that

occurs within the same statement whereas code switching refers only to cases where the language

switch marks a distinctly different unit of speech 1985: 34).

In the following, the researcher will cite and analyze samples from the corpus of Latinized Arabic

obtained from the students‟ writings in the electronic communication.

(9) Mar7ba kiifak shoo akhbarak kiif eljaw 3ndkom elyoum belmonasbeh ana b3tlak my new mail

eza weslak eb3teely.

Hello, how are you? How is the weather there, by the way, I have sent you my email address. If

you got it, reply to my email.

(10)

A. Hi kiifak

Hello, how are you?

B. El7amdellah

I am fine.

A. Kiifkan emte7nk, Enshallah good

How was your exam? I hope it was good.

B. Ameen

Ameen

A. Atmanallak all the best

I wish you all the best.

A. Anyway, Take care o ma tday3 wa8t, O tamnenes hobeseer m3ak

Anyway, take care, do not waste your time, and let me know how it goes.

B. Shukran 4 u'r advice

Thank you for your advice



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(11) Good morning, faisal, wanak elyom ma shoftak fi el speaking class, take care, ma3 elsalameh.

Good morning Faisal, where were you today. I did not see you in the speaking class. Take care,

bye.

(12) Uktub esmi 3a el facebook e3mal search, r7 teshoof 9oorti.

Write my name on facebook end search on it. You will see my photo.

(13) Eshtarek fi el English groups. El group mufeed jedan le ta3alm el English language.

Have you joined the English group? This group is very good to learn English language.

(14) Mumken tersely el emailelyawom.

Can you send the mail today?

(15) Bedak ten‟9am lel e group.

Would you like to join the group?

(16) Elyoom enseet mobile fi el college.

Today I forget my mobile in the college.

Sample of Latinized Arabic Only

(17) La tnkdene 5lene a3ref adrus la emt7an bukra

Do not disturb me. I want to study. I have exam tomorrow.

(18) Men gal eno ketha, ala5tbar astema3 wa al mu7adatha kan shl.

Who said this? The listening and speaking exam was easy.

(19) Marhaba Faisal keefak? wash te3mal? Kaaf 7alleat fi el7‟tebar. Inshallah 7alaat zain.

Hello Faisal, how are you? What are you doing? How was your exam? I hope you answered

correctly.

(20) Kif 7alk? 2n sha2allah 6ib, 2nt mn win? M3k fahad mn alsa3udiah, ana 2drus b jam3t

alqassim, masroor le ma3reftak.

How are you? I hope you are fine. Where are you from? My name is Fahad from KSA, I study

in Al Qassim University. Nice to meet you.

(21) Kul 3am wantum be‟7ar. Taqabal Allah 6a3atekum.

May the whole year be prosperous for you. May God accept your good deeds.

(22)

A. Wanak ya waleed? Ata9l feek, leh ma betrud 3a el telephone.

Where are you Waleed? I am calling you, why you do not receive the call?

B. Asef kunt nayem

I am sorry I was sleeping

(23) Al7en ana wedi a3‟er el re8am elseri, bas ma a3ref al6re8a kaf.

I want to change my password, but I do not know how to do it.

(24) Ana ante‟9rak fi el kuleah

I will wait you in the college.



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2.4.1. Discussion:

The above-mentioned examples contain students code-switching and code-mixing between Arabic

and English when they chat by using the electronic communication. It can be noticed that the students

use code-mixing and code-switching in above examples without following any comprehensible rules.

The above examples (1)-(16) show that the students use English borrowed words when they write

Latinized Arabic, whether it is single English borrowed words or sentence. Many English words such

as in examples (11)-(16) preceded by definite article el (ال), „speaking class‟, „facebook‟, „English

language‟, „email‟, „group‟, and „college‟. This shows that the students apply the syntax of Arabic

language to the English words, hence these words are used more that their equivalents in Arabic

language. Whereas, the corpus obtained from the students in examples (17)-(24) contains only

Latinized Arabic, this shows those students are not making code switching or mixing with English

language.

Tamimi & Gorgis (2007) point out that code-mixing is adopted intentionally because students might

like to show off, i.e. that they are bilingual and capable of using two codes efficiently, or for rhetorical

reasons. In addition, they state that code-switching, is largely unconscious and may be attributed to

transfer from Arabic. Latinized Arabic considered as „„lingua franca‟‟ that spoken in all over the

world via electronic communication. It became more dynamic and widespread among Arab

communities. Aboelezz (2009), point out that Latinized Arabic is not based on one standard variety of

Arabic. The variations in regional dialects shape the characters in Latinized Arabic. One of the

interesting finding is that the students do not use the upper case letters they confined mainly to lower

case, due to the lack of upper case letters in Arabic script. In addition, Arabic language is read from

right to left and the alphabets are often joined together Arabic script. Palfreyman & Khalil (2003)

point out that the ASCII-ized Arabic used in the electronic communication differs from the way

Arabic language is written. Most obviously, it uses ASCII characters rather than Arabic letters;

ASCII-ized Arabic is read from left to right and that the alphabets are always separate from each

other, but Arabic language is read from right to left and the alphabets are often joined together Arabic

script.

Indeed, the Latinized Arabic is used in informal situation. Standard Arabic is no more used in the

electronic communication chat, hence, the vernaculars Arabic t are more commonly used in electronic

communication. (Warschauer et al. 2002), point out that, to some extend the disorganized world of

CMC may promote the development of linguistic varieties and lead to changes in the linguistic

stability of the Arab World. Bilingualism leads to the frequency of use English and Latinized Arabic

in students e discourse. According to (Androutsopoulos 2006), English dominated the Internet

landscape of the 1990s in terms of both the native language of estimated users and the language of



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available websites, but more recent years have witnessed a rapid increase in linguistic diversity, with

the majority of users and websites today using a language other than English.

3.0. Conclusion:

The emergence of the phenomenon of Latinized Arabic attracts the attention of researchers, linguists

because it became widely used language variety in the electronic communication especially with the

effects of the internet on language use. The general conclusion drown from this study is that the

students are using new variety of Arabic language by writing it in Latin letters when they chat in the

electronic communication. Another finding is that Latinized Arabic language has its own orthographic

system. In addition, that the students use code mixing and code switching with English language. The

use of Latinized Arabic has been extended to be used in magazines, TV programs, and commercials

advertisements. Educators (Aboelezz, 2009; Abdullah, 2008;Yaghan, 2008; Hofheinz, 2007; Al

Share‟, 2005; Palfreyman& Al-Khalil, 2003;Warschauer et al., 2002) indicate that the use of Latinized

Arabic in the electronic communication has been widespread in many Arab countries such as The

United Arab Emirates , Kuwait, Egypt, Jordan, and Lebanon. They also reported that Latinization of

Arabic language also has regional varieties influenced by vernacular spoken dialects. Reasons of

using Latinized Arabic are to communicate with Arabs who live in Europe Arabic whose their

systems do not support the Arabic script. (Yaghan 2008), points out most important reason for using

Latinized Arabic is economics. The number of typescript allowed in a written English message is

much greater than that in an Arabic one. Hence, students prefer to use Latinized Arabic because it

considered being “cool”, free of errors and flexibility of its rules. It is acquired by practice and it is

not taught. (El Essawi 2010), point out that the users of Latinized Arabic use Arabic language and it is

only the alphabets that are not Arabic. In addition, those who do not have full command in Arabic and

English tend to use Latinized Arabic to avoid committing mistakes in both languages.

The impact of electronic communication on the representation of linguistic diversity is particularly

noticeable in the Latinized transliteration of native scripts that is reported for, among others, Greek,

Arabic and Persian (Palfreyman & al Khalil 2003). The use of Latinized Arabic varies from one

country to another and it is extremely unregulated. Some researchers see the Latinization of Arabic

greatly threats the Arabic script. Latinized Arabic is not replacing the Arabic script; it is used only to

supplement Arabic writing to express a particular, casual communication style in the electronic

communication. Hence, „the Arabic script has not only linguistic significance but also historic,

religious, and typographic importance. Unlike writing systems that have been introduced in recent

decades or centuries, the Arabic script has been used to write the Arabic language for over 1,500

years. As Arabic is the language of the Qur‟an, it has come to be seen as a divine language, and to



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meddle with the script since it was standardized in the writing of the Qur‟an would offend many

Muslims and Arabic speakers‟ (Széll, 2012:7).

Muhammed, Farrag, Elshamly & Abdel-Ghaffar (2011), have pointed some disadvantages using

Latinized Arabic first is Inconsistency in the symbols used to represent the same sound. Second, the

same symbol represents the emphatic and non-emphatic sounds. Third, adding apostrophes to some of

the newly used symbols. Fourth, Vocalization (long vowels).Sixth, it takes longer time to be mentally

processed and recognized. Seventh, it is inappropriate in formal talks, and above all religious

discussions. Youngsters who use Latinized Arabic in the electronic communication are still read and

write the Arabic script in other domains. One of the limitations in this study is that male students

provided the entire corpus, it would be recommended to examine the characteristics of Latinized

Arabic in mixed or female samples. It is recommended that the further research should examine

various aspects of linguistics including a larger corpus, drawn from Arabic script in the electronic

communication.

References:

Abdallah, Sebastian (2008). Online chatting in Beirut: sites of occasioned identity-

construction. Ethnographic Studies, 10, 3-22.

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LATINIZATION OF ARABIC LANGUAGE IN THE ELECTRONIC COMMUNICATION: CONCEPT AND PRACTICE

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