Arabic script

Arabic script
Script type	Abjad (abugida or true alphabet in some adaptations)
Time period	400 CE to the present
Direction	right-to-left script
Languages	See below
Related scripts
Parent systems	Egyptian hieroglyphs Phoenician Aramaic Nabataean Arabic script
Child systems	Inspired the N'Ko alphabet and the Hanifi script
ISO 15924
ISO 15924	Arab, 160 , ​Arabic
Unicode
Unicode alias	Arabic
Unicode range	U+0600–U+06FF Arabic U+0750–U+077F Arabic Supplement U+08A0–U+08FF Arabic Extended-A U+FB50–U+FDFF Arabic Pres. Forms-A U+FE70–U+FEFF Arabic Pres. Forms-B U+1EE00–U+1EEFF Arabic Mathematical... U+1EC70–U+1ECBF Indic Siyaq Numbers U+1ED00–U+1ED4F Ottoman Siyaq Numbers U+10E60–U+10E7F Rumi Numeral Symbols
This article contains phonetic transcriptions in the International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA). For an introductory guide on IPA symbols, see Help:IPA. For the distinction between [ ], / / and ⟨ ⟩, see IPA § Brackets and transcription delimiters.

The Arabic script is a writing system used for writing Arabic and several other languages of Asia and Africa, such as Persian (Farsi/Dari), Uyghur, Kurdish, Punjabi, Sindhi, Balti, Balochi, Pashto, Lurish, Urdu, Kashmiri, Rohingya, Somali and Mandinka, among others.^[1] Until the 16th century, it was also used to write some texts in Spanish. Additionally, prior to the language reform in 1928, it was the writing system of Turkish.^[2] It is the second-most widely used writing system in the world by the number of countries using it and the third by the number of users, after the Latin and Chinese scripts.^[3]

The Arabic script is written from right to left in a cursive style, in which most of the letters are written in slightly different forms according to whether they stand alone or are joined to a following or preceding letter. The basic letter form remains unchanged. In most cases, the letters transcribe consonants or consonants and a few vowels, so most Arabic alphabets are abjads. It does not have capital letters.^[4]

The script was first used to write texts in Arabic, most notably the Quran, the holy book of Islam. With the religion's spread, it came to be used as the primary script for many language families, leading to the addition of new letters and other symbols, with some versions, such as Kurdish, Uyghur and old Bosnian being abugidas or true alphabets. It is also the basis for the tradition of Arabic calligraphy.

Calligraphy
Arabic Chinese Georgian Indian Islamic Japanese Korean Mongolian Persian Tibetan Vietnamese Western
v t

Worldwide use of the Arabic script
Countries where the Arabic script:
	→	is the only official script
	→	is the only official script, but other scripts are recognized for national or regional languages
	→	is official alongside other scripts
	→	is official at a sub-national level (China, India) or is a recognized alternative script (Malaysia)

History[]

The Arabic alphabet is a derivative of the Nabataean alphabet^[5][6] or (less widely believed) directly from the Syriac alphabet^[7] which are both derived from the Aramaic alphabet, which descended from the Phoenician alphabet. The Phoenician alphabet gave rise to among others the Arabic alphabet, Hebrew alphabet and the Greek alphabet (and therefore the Cyrillic and Latin alphabets).

Origins[]

In the 6th and 5th centuries BCE, northern Arab tribes emigrated and founded a kingdom centred around Petra, Jordan. These people (now named Nabataeans from the name of one of the tribes, Nabatu) spoke Nabataean Arabic, a dialect of the Arabic language. In the 2nd or 1st centuries BCE,^[8][9] the first known records of the Nabataean alphabet were written in the Aramaic language (which was the language of communication and trade), but included some Arabic language features: the Nabataeans did not write the language which they spoke. They wrote in a form of the Aramaic alphabet, which continued to evolve; it separated into two forms: one intended for inscriptions (known as "monumental Nabataean") and the other, more cursive and hurriedly written and with joined letters, for writing on papyrus.^[10] This cursive form influenced the monumental form more and more and gradually changed into the Arabic alphabet.

Overview[]

the Arabic alphabet

خ	ح	ج	ث	ت	ب	ا
ḫā’ / khā’	ḥā’	gīm	ṯā’ / tha’	tā’’	bā’	’alif
ص	ش	س	ز	ر	ذ	د
ṣād’	šīn / shīn	sīn	zāj / zajn	rā’	ḏāl’ / dhāl’	dāl’’
ق	ف	غ	ع	ظ	ط	ض
qāf	fā’	ġajn’ / ghajn’	‘ajn’	ẓā’ / ḍhā’	ṭā’	ḍād’
ي	و	ه	ن	م	ل	ك
jā’	wāw	hā’	nūn	mīm	lām	kāf
(see below for other alphabets)

The Arabic script has been adapted for use in a wide variety of languages besides Arabic, including Persian, Malay and Urdu, which are not Semitic. Such adaptations may feature altered or new characters to represent phonemes that do not appear in Arabic phonology. For example, the Arabic language lacks a voiceless bilabial plosive (the [p] sound), therefore many languages add their own letter to represent [p] in the script, though the specific letter used varies from language to language. These modifications tend to fall into groups: Indian and Turkic languages written in the Arabic script tend to use the Persian modified letters, whereas the languages of Indonesia tend to imitate those of Jawi. The modified version of the Arabic script originally devised for use with Persian is known as the Perso-Arabic script by scholars.^{[citation needed]}

In the cases of Bosnian, Kurdish, Kashmiri and Uyghur writing systems, vowels are mandatory. The Arabic script can therefore be used in both abugida and abjad forms, although it is often strongly, if erroneously, connected to the latter due to it being originally used only for Arabic.^{[citation needed]}

Use of the Arabic script in West African languages, especially in the Sahel, developed with the spread of Islam. To a certain degree the style and usage tends to follow those of the Maghreb (for instance the position of the dots in the letters fāʼ and qāf). Additional diacritics have come into use to facilitate the writing of sounds not represented in the Arabic language. The term ʻAjamī, which comes from the Arabic root for "foreign," has been applied to Arabic-based orthographies of African languages.^{[citation needed]}

Table of writing styles[]

Script or style	Alphabet(s)	Language(s)	Region	Derived from	Comment
Naskh	Arabic & others	Arabic & others	Every region where Arabic scripts are used		Sometimes refers to a very specific calligraphic style, but sometimes used to refer more broadly to almost every font that is not Kufic or Nastaliq.
Nastaliq	Urdu, Persian, & others	Urdu, Persian, & others	Southern and Western Asia	Taliq	Used for almost all modern Urdu text, but only occasionally used for Persian. (The term "Nastaliq" is sometimes used by Urdu speakers to refer to all Perso-Arabic scripts.)
Taliq	Persian	Persian			A predecessor of Nastaliq.
Kufic	Arabic	Arabic	Middle East and parts of North Africa
Rasm	Restricted Arabic alphabet	Arabic	Mainly historical		Omits all diacritics including i'jam. Digital replication usually requires some special characters. See: ٮ ڡ ٯ (links to Wiktionary).

Table of alphabets[]

Alphabet	Letters	Additional Characters	Script or Style	Languages	Region	Derived from: (or related to)	Note
Arabic	28	^(see above)	Naskh, Kufi, Rasm, & others	Arabic	North Africa, West Asia	Aramaic, Syriac, Nabataean
Ajami script	33			Hausa, Yoruba, Swahili	West Africa	Arabic	Abjad
Aljamiado	28			Old Spanish, Mozarabic, Ladino, Aragonese, Old Galician-Portuguese	Southwest Europe	Arabic	8th-13th centuries for Mozarabic, 14th-16th centuries for the other languages
Arebica	30			Bosnian	Southeastern Europe	Perso-Arabic	Latest stage with full vowel marking
Arwi alphabet	41			Tamil	Southern India, Sri Lanka	Perso-Arabic
Belarusian Arabic alphabet	32			Belarusian	Eastern Europe	Perso-Arabic	15th / 16th century
Berber Arabic alphabet(s)				Various Berber languages	North Africa	Arabic
Burushaski	53	ݳ ݴ څ ݼ ڎ ݽ ڞ ݣ ݸ ݹ ݶ ݷ ݺ ݻ (see note)		Burushaski	South-West Asia (Pakistan)	Urdu	Also uses the additional letters shown for Urdu.(see below) Sometimes written with just the Urdu alphabet, or with the Latin alphabet.
Chagatai alphabet(s)	32			Chagatai	Central Asia	Perso-Arabic
Galal	32			Somali	Horn of Africa	Arabic
Jawi	36	ݘ ڠ ڤ ݢ ڽ ۏ		Malay	Peninsular Malaysia, Sumatra and part of Borneo	Perso-Arabic	Since 1303 AD (Trengganu Stone)
Kashmiri	44	أ ٲ إٳ ۆۄےٚؠ	Nastaliq	Kashmiri	South Asia	Perso-Arabic
Kazakh Arabic alphabet	35			Kazakh	Central Asia, China	Perso-Arabic / Chagatai	Since 11th century, now official only in China
Khowar	60			Khowar	South Asia	Perso-Arabic
Kyrgyz Arabic alphabet	33			Kyrgyz	Central Asia	Perso-Arabic	Now official only in China
Kuryan alphabet	44			Korean	East Asia, South Korea	Perso-Arabic	Invented by Korean Muslim in the 2000s
Pashto	45	پ ټ‎ ځ‎ ݘ څ‎ ډ‎‎ ړ‎‎‎ ژ ږ ښ‎ ګ‎ ڼ‎ ۀ‎ ې‎‎ ی‎‎ ۍ‎‎ ئ‎		Pashto	South-West Asia, Afghanistan and Pakistan	Perso-Arabic
Pegon script	35			Javanese, Sundanese	South-East Asia (Indonesia)	Perso-Arabic
Persian	32	پ ݘ ژ گ	Nastaliq or Naskh	Persian (Farsi)	West Asia (Iran etc. )	Arabic
Saraiki	45			Saraiki	South-West Asia (Pakistan)	Perso-Arabic
Shahmukhi	41+ (see note)	ࣇ ݨ	Usually Nastaliq	Punjabi	South-West Asia (Pakistan)	Perso-Arabic	Similar to Urdu; 58[citation needed] letters including digraphs for aspirated consonants.
Sindhi	64	ڪ ڳ ڱ گ ک پ ڀ ٻ ٽ ٿ ٺ ڻ ڦ ڇ چ ڄ ڃ ھ ڙ ڌ ڏ ڎ ڍ ڊ	Naskh-like	Sindhi	South-West Asia (Pakistan)	Perso-Arabic
Sorabe	33			Malagasy	Madagascar	Arabic
Soranî	33			Central Kurdish	Middle-East	Perso-Arabic	Vowels are mandatory, i.e. abugida
				Swahili
İske imlâ	35			Tatar		Chagatai / Perso-Arabic	Before 1920
Ottoman Turkish	32			Ottoman Turkish	Ottoman Empire	Perso-Arabic	Official until 1928
Urdu	39+ (see notes)	پ ژ ݘ ٹ ڈ ڑ ں ہ ھ ے (see notes)	Nastaliq	Urdu	South Asia	Perso-Arabic	58[citation needed] letters including digraphs representing aspirated consonants. بھ پھ تھ ٹھ جھ چھ دھ ڈھ کھ گھ
Uyghur	32	ئا ئە پ ݘ ژ گ ڭ ئو ئۇ ئۆ ئۈ ۋ ئې ئى		Uyghur	China, Central Asia	Perso-Arabic / Chagatai	Vowels are mandatory, i.e. abugida
Wolofal	28			Wolof	West Africa	Arabic
Xiao'erjing	36			Sinitic languages	China, Central Asia	Perso-Arabic
Yaña imlâ	29			Tatar	Russia	Perso-Arabic / Chagatai	1920–1927 replaced with Cyrillic

Current use[]

Today Iran, Afghanistan, Pakistan, India, and China are the main non-Arabic speaking states using the Arabic alphabet to write one or more official national languages, including Azerbaijani, Baluchi, Brahui, Persian, Pashto, Central Kurdish, Urdu, Sindhi, Kashmiri, Punjabi and Uyghur.^{[citation needed]}

An Arabic alphabet is currently used for the following languages:^{[citation needed]}

Middle East and Central Asia[]

• Arabic
• Garshuni (or Karshuni) originated in the 7th century, when Arabic became the dominant spoken language in the Fertile Crescent, but Arabic script was not yet fully developed or widely read, and so the Syriac alphabet was used. There is evidence that writing Arabic in this other set of letters (known as Garshuni) influenced the style of modern Arabic script. After this initial period, Garshuni writing has continued to the present day among some Syriac Christian communities in the Arabic-speaking regions of the Levant and Mesopotamia.
• Kazakh in Kazakhstan, China, Iran and Afghanistan
• Kurdish in Northern Iraq and Northwest Iran. (In Turkey and Syria the Latin script is used for Kurdish)
• Kyrgyz by its 150,000 speakers in the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region in northwestern China, Pakistan, Kyrgyzstan and Afghanistan
• Turkmen in Turkmenistan,^{[citation needed]} Afghanistan and Iran
• Uzbek in Uzbekistan^{[citation needed]} and Afghanistan
• Official Persian in Iran and its dialects, like Dari in Afghanistan and Tajiki in Tajikistan
• Baluchi in Iran, in Pakistan's Balochistan region, Afghanistan and Oman^[11] An academy for the protection of the Baluchi Language was established in Iran in 2009^[12]
• Southwestern Iranian languages as Lori dialects and Bakhtiari language^[13][14]
• Pashto in Afghanistan and Pakistan, and Tajikistan
• Uyghur changed to Latin script in 1969 and back to a simplified, fully voweled Arabic script in 1983
• Judeo-Arabic languages
  • Judeo-Tunisian Arabic^[15]
• Azerbaijani language in Iran
• Talysh language in Iran

East Asia[]

• The Chinese language is written by some Hui in the Arabic-derived Xiao'erjing alphabet (see also Sini (script))
• The Turkic Salar language is written by some Salar in the Arabic alphabet
• Uyghur alphabet

South Asia[]

• Balochi in Pakistan and Iran
• Dari in Afghanistan
• Kashmiri in India and Pakistan (also written in Sharada and Devanagari although Kashmiri is more commonly written in Perso-Arabic Script)
• Pashto in Afghanistan and Pakistan
• Khowar in Northern Pakistan, also uses the Latin script
• Punjabi (Shahmukhi) in Pakistan, also written in the Brahmic script known as Gurmukhi in India
• Saraiki, written with a modified Arabic script - that has 45 letters
• Sindhi, a British commissioner in Sindh on August 29, 1857, ordered to change Arabic script^[vague],^[16] also written in Devanagari in India
• Aer language^[17]
• Bhadrawahi language^[18]
• Ladakhi (India), although it is more commonly written using the Tibetan script
• Balti^[19] (a Sino-Tibetan language), also rarely written in the Tibetan script
• Brahui language in Pakistan and Afghanistan^[20]
• Burushaski or Burusho language, a language isolated to Pakistan^[21]
• Urdu in Pakistan (and historically several other Hindustani languages). Urdu is one of several official languages in the states of Jammu and Kashmir, Delhi, Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, Jharkhand, West Bengal and Telangana.
• Dogri, spoken by about five million people in India and Pakistan, chiefly in the Jammu region of Jammu and Kashmir and in Himachal Pradesh, but also in northern Punjab, although Dogri is more commonly written in Devanagari
• Arwi language (a mixture of Arabic and Tamil) uses the Arabic script together with the addition of 13 letters. It is mainly used in Sri Lanka and the South Indian state of Tamil Nadu for religious purposes. Arwi language is the language of Tamil Muslims
• Arabi Malayalam is Malayalam written in the Arabic script. The script has particular letters to represent the peculiar sounds of Malayalam. This script is mainly used in madrasas of the South Indian state of Kerala and of Lakshadweep.
• Rohingya language (Ruáingga) is a language spoken by the Rohingya people of Rakhine State, formerly known as Arakan (Rakhine), Burma (Myanmar). It is similar to Chittagonian language in neighboring Bangladesh^[22] and sometimes written using the Roman script, or an Arabic-derived script known as Hanifi

Southeast Asia[]

• Malay in the Arabic script known as Jawi. In some cases it can be seen in the signboards of shops and market stalls. Particularly in Brunei, Jawi is used in terms of writing or reading for Islamic religious educational programs in primary school, secondary school, college, or even higher educational institutes such as universities. In addition, some television programming uses Jawi, such as announcements, advertisements, news, social programs or Islamic programs
  • co-official in Brunei
  • Malaysia but co-official in Kelantan and Kedah, Islamic states in Malaysia
  • Indonesia, Jawi script is co-used with Latin in provinces of Aceh, Riau, Riau Islands and Jambi. The Javanese, Madurese and Sundanese also use another Arabic variant, the Pegon in Islamic writings and pesantren community.
  • Southern Thailand
  • Singapore
  • Predominantly Muslim areas of the Philippines (especially Tausug language)
  • Ida'an language (also Idahan) a Malayo-Polynesian language spoken by the Ida'an people of Sabah, Malaysia^[23]
• Cham language in Cambodia^[24] besides Western Cham script.

Africa[]

• North Africa
  • Arabic
  • Maghrebi Arabic uses a modified Arabic script, with additional letters, in order to support /g/ (ڨ/ڭ), /v/ (ڥ) and /p/ (پ) along with the older /f/ (ڢ) and /q/ (ڧ)^[25][26]
  • Berber languages have often been written in an adaptation of the Arabic alphabet. The use of the Arabic alphabet, as well as the competing Latin and Tifinagh scripts, has political connotations
  • Tuareg language, (sometimes called Tamasheq) which is also a Berber language
  • Coptic language of Egyptian Coptics as Coptic text written in Arabic letters^[27]
• Northeast Africa
  • Bedawi or Beja, mainly in northeastern Sudan
  • Wadaad writing, used in Somalia
  • Nubian languages
    • Dongolawi language or Andaandi language of Nubia, in the Nile Vale of northern Sudan
    • Nobiin language, the largest Nubian language (previously known by the geographic terms Mahas and Fadicca/Fiadicca) is not yet standardized, being written variously in both Latinized and Arabic scripts; also, there have been recent efforts to revive the Old Nubian alphabet.^[28][29]
  • Fur language of Darfur, Sudan
• Southeast Africa
  • Comorian, in the Comoros, currently side by side with the Latin alphabet (neither is official)
  • Swahili, was originally written in Arabic alphabet, Swahili orthography is now based on the Latin alphabet that was introduced by Christian missionaries and colonial administrators
• West Africa
  • Zarma language of the Songhay family. It is the language of the southwestern lobe of the West African nation of Niger, and it is the second leading language of Niger, after Hausa, which is spoken in south central Niger^[30]
  • Tadaksahak is a Songhay language spoken by the pastoralist Idaksahak of the Ménaka area of Mali^[31]
  • Hausa language uses an adaptation of the Arabic script known as Ajami, for many purposes, especially religious, but including newspapers, mass mobilization posters and public information^[32]
  • Dyula language is a Mandé language spoken in Burkina Faso, Côte d'Ivoire and Mali.^[33]
  • Jola-Fonyi language of the Casamance region of Senegal^[34]
  • Balanta language a Bak language of west Africa spoken by the Balanta people and Balanta-Ganja dialect in Senegal
  • Mandinka, widely but unofficially (known as Ajami), (another non-Latin script used is the N'Ko script)
  • Fula, especially the Pular of Guinea (known as Ajami)
  • Wolof (at zaouia schools), known as Wolofal.
• Arabic script outside Africa
  • In writings of African American slaves
    • Writings of by Omar Ibn Said (1770–1864) of Senegal^[35]
    • The Bilali Document also known as Bilali Muhammad Document is a handwritten, Arabic manuscript^[36] on West African Islamic law. It was written by Bilali Mohammet in the 19th century. The document is currently housed in the library at the University of Georgia
    • Letter written by Ayuba Suleiman Diallo (1701–1773)
    • Arabic Text From 1768^[37]
    • Letter written by Abdulrahman Ibrahim Ibn Sori (1762–1829)

Former use[]

In the 20th century, the Arabic script was generally replaced by the Latin alphabet in the Balkans,^{[dubious – discuss]} parts of Sub-Saharan Africa, and Southeast Asia, while in the Soviet Union, after a brief period of Latinisation,^[38] use of Cyrillic was mandated. Turkey changed to the Latin alphabet in 1928 as part of an internal Westernizing revolution. After the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991, many of the Turkic languages of the ex-USSR attempted to follow Turkey's lead and convert to a Turkish-style Latin alphabet. However, renewed use of the Arabic alphabet has occurred to a limited extent in Tajikistan, whose language's close resemblance to Persian allows direct use of publications from Afghanistan and Iran.^[39]

Africa[]

• Afrikaans (as it was first written among the "Cape Malays", see Arabic Afrikaans)
• Berber in North Africa, particularly Shilha in Morocco (still being considered, along with Tifinagh and Latin, for Central Atlas Tamazight)
• French by the Arabs and Berbers in Algeria and other parts of North Africa during the French colonial period
• Harari, by the Harari people of the Harari Region in Ethiopia. Now uses the Geʻez and Latin alphabets
• For the West African languages—Hausa, Fula, Mandinka, Wolof and some more—the Latin alphabet has officially replaced Arabic transcriptions for use in literacy and education
• Kinyarwanda in Rwanda
• Kirundi in Burundi
• Malagasy in Madagascar (script known as Sorabe)
• Nubian
• Shona in Zimbabwe
• Somali (see wadaad Arabic) has mostly used the Latin alphabet since 1972
• Songhay in West Africa, particularly in Timbuktu
• Swahili (has used the Latin alphabet since the 19th century)
• Yoruba in West Africa (this was probably limited, but still notable)

Europe[]

• Albanian called Elifbaja shqip
• Aljamiado (Mozarabic, Berber, Aragonese, Portuguese^{[citation needed]}, Ladino, and Spanish, during and residually after the Muslim rule in the Iberian peninsula)
• Belarusian (among ethnic Tatars; see Belarusian Arabic alphabet)
• Bosnian (only for literary purposes; currently written in the Latin alphabet; Text example: مۉلٖىمۉ سه ته‌بٖى بۉژه‎ = Molimo se tebi, Bože (We pray to you, O God); see Arebica)
• Crimean Tatar
• Greek in certain areas in Greece and Anatolia. In particular, Cappadocian Greek written in Perso-Arabic
• Polish (among ethnic Lipka Tatars)

Central Asia and Caucasus[]

• Adyghe language also known as West Circassian, is an official languages of the Republic of Adygea in the Russian Federation. It used Arabic alphabet before 1927
• Avar as well as other languages of Daghestan: Nogai, Kumyk, Lezgian, Lak and Dargwa
• Azeri in Azerbaijan (now written in the Latin alphabet and Cyrillic script in Azerbaijan)
• Bashkir (officially for some years from the October Revolution of 1917 until 1928, changed to Latin, now uses the Cyrillic script)
• Chaghatay across Central Asia
• Chechen (sporadically from the adoption of Islam; officially from 1917 until 1928)^[40]
• Circassian and some other members of the Abkhaz–Adyghe family in the western Caucasus and sporadically – in the countries of Middle East, like Syria
• Ingush
• Karachay-Balkar in the central Caucasus
• Karakalpak
• Kazakh in Kazakhstan (until the 1930s, changed to Latin, currently using Cyrillic, phasing in Latin)
• Kyrgyz in Kyrgyzstan (until the 1930s, changed to Latin, now uses the Cyrillic script)
• Mandarin Chinese and Dungan, among the Hui people (script known as Xiao'erjing)
• Ottoman Turkish
• Tat in South-Eastern Caucasus
• Tatar before 1928 (changed to Latin Yañalif), reformed in the 1880s (İske imlâ), 1918 (Yaña imlâ – with the omission of some letters)
• Turkmen in Turkmenistan (changed to Latin in 1929, then to the Cyrillic script, then back to Latin in 1991)
• Uzbek in Uzbekistan (changed to Latin, then to the Cyrillic script, then back to Latin in 1991)
• Some Northeast Caucasian languages of the Muslim peoples of the USSR between 1918 and 1928 (many also earlier), including Chechen, Lak, etc. After 1928, their script became Latin, then later^[when?] Cyrillic^{[citation needed]}

South and Southeast Asia[]

• Acehnese in Sumatra, Indonesia
• Banjarese in Kalimantan, Indonesia
• Bengali in Bengal, Arabic scripts have been used historically in places like Chittagong and West Bengal among other places. See Dobhashi for further information.
• Maguindanaon in the Philippines
• Malay in Malaysia, Singapore and Indonesia. Although Malay speakers in Brunei and Southern Thailand still use the script on a daily basis
• Minangkabau in Sumatra, Indonesia
• Pegon script of Javanese, Madurese and Sundanese in Indonesia, used only in Islamic schools and institutions
• Tausug in the Philippines
• Maranao in the Philippines

Middle East[]

• Hebrew was written in Arabic letters in a number of places in the past^[41][42]
• Northern Kurdish in Turkey and Syria was written in Arabic script until 1932, when a modified Kurdish Latin alphabet was introduced by Jaladat Ali Badirkhan in Syria
• Turkish in the Ottoman Empire was written in Arabic script until Mustafa Kemal Atatürk declared the change to Latin script in 1928. This form of Turkish is now known as Ottoman Turkish and is held by many to be a different language, due to its much higher percentage of Persian and Arabic loanwords (Ottoman Turkish alphabet)

Unicode[]

As of Unicode 13.0, the following ranges encode Arabic characters:

• Arabic (0600–06FF)
• Arabic Supplement (0750–077F)
• Arabic Extended-A (08A0–08FF)
• Arabic Presentation Forms-A (FB50–FDFF)
• Arabic Presentation Forms-B (FE70–FEFF)
• Arabic Mathematical Alphabetic Symbols (1EE00–1EEFF)
• Rumi Numeral Symbols (10E60–10E7F)
• Indic Siyaq Numbers (1EC70–1ECBF)
• Ottoman Siyaq Numbers (1ED00–1ED4F)

Additional letters used in other languages[]

Assignment of phonemes to graphemes[]

∅ = phoneme absent from language

Language family	Austron.		Dravid	Turkic			Indic (Indo-European)			Iranian (Indo-European)					Arabic (Semitic)										Germanic
Language/script	Jawi	Pegon	Arwi	Ottoman	Uyghur	Tatars	Sindhi	Punjabi	Urdu	Persian	Balochi	Kurdish	Pashto		Moroccan	Tunisian	Algerian	Hejazi	Najdi	Egyptian	Israeli	Levantine	Iraqi	Gulf	Afrikaans
/p/	ڤ‎		ڣ‎	پ‎											پ‎ / ب‎										پ‎
/g/	ݢ‎	ࢴ‎		گ‎									ګ‎		ڭ‎ / گ‎	ڨ‎ / ڧـ ـڧـ ـٯ‎ / ق‎		ق‎		ج‎	چ‎ / ج‎	ك‎ / ج‎	گ‎ / ك‎	ق / گ‎	گ‎
/t͡ʃ/	چ‎						∅	چ‎								ڜ‎	تش‎							چ‎
/v/	ۏ‎	ف‎	و‎		ۋ‎		و‎				∅	ڤ‎	∅	ڥ‎ / ڢ‎ / ف‎			ڤ‎ / ف‎							ڤ‎
/ʒ/	∅			ژ‎				∅	ژ‎						ج‎		∅			چ‎ / ج‎	ج‎		∅		ژ‎
/ŋ/	ڠ‎		ࢳ‎	ڭ‎			ڱ‎	ن٘‎		∅					∅										ڠ‎
/ɳ/	∅	∅	ڹ‎	∅			ڻ‎	ݨ‎	ن‎	∅			ڼ‎	∅
/ɲ/	ڽ‎	ۑ‎	‎	∅			ڃ‎	نج‎	∅					∅

Table of additional letters in other languages

Letter or Digraph [A]				Use & Pronunciation	Unicode	i'jam & other additions				Shape	Similar Arabic Letter(s)
					U+	[B]	[C]	above	below
پ‎	پـ ـپـ ـپ ‎			Pe, used to represent the phoneme /p/ in Persian, Pashto, Punjabi, Khowar, Sindhi, Urdu, Kurdish, Kashmiri; it is not used in most Arabic varieties (except Mesopotamian and Gulf) and it is normalized as /b/; e.g., pepsi > bibsi.	U+067E	﮹ ‎		none	3 dots	ٮ ‎	ب
ݐ‎	ݐـ ـݐـ ـݐ ‎			used to represent the equivalent of the Latin letter Ƴ (palatalized glottal stop /ʔʲ/) in some African languages such as Fulfulde.	U+0750	﮳﮳﮳ ‎		none	3 dots (horizontal)	ٮ ‎	ب
ٻ‎	ٻـ ـٻـ ـٻ ‎			B̤ē, used to represent a voiced bilabial implosive /ɓ/ in Hausa, Sindhi and Saraiki.	U+067B	﮾ ‎		none	2 dots (vertically)	ٮ ‎	ب
ڀ‎	ڀـ ـڀـ ـڀ ‎			represents an aspirated voiced bilabial plosive /bʱ/ in Sindhi.	U+0680	﮻ ‎		none	4 dots	ٮ ‎	ب
ٺ‎	ٺـ ـٺـ ـٺ ‎			Ṭhē, represents the aspirated voiceless retroflex plosive /ʈʰ/ in Sindhi.	U+067A	﮽ ‎		2 dots (vertically)	none	ٮ ‎	ت
ټ‎	ټـ ـټـ ـټ ‎			Ṭē, used to represent the phoneme /ʈ/ in Pashto.	U+067C	﮿ ‎	﮴ ‎	2 dots	ring	ٮ ‎	ت
ٽ‎	ٽـ ـٽـ ـٽ ‎			Ṭe, used to represent the phoneme (a voiceless retroflex plosive /ʈ/) in Sindhi	U+067D	﮸ ‎		3 dots (inverted)	none	ٮ ‎	ت
ﭦ‎	ٹـ ـٹـ ـٹ ‎			Ṭe, used to represent Ṭ (a voiceless retroflex plosive /ʈ/) in Punjabi, Kashmiri, Urdu.	U+0679	◌ؕ ‎		small ط ‎	none	ٮ ‎	ت
ٿ ‎	ٿـ ـٿـ ـٿ ‎			Teheh, used in Sindhi and Rajasthani (when written in Sindhi alphabet); used to represent the phoneme /t͡ɕʰ/ (pinyin q) in Chinese Xiao'erjing.	U+067F	﮺ ‎		4 dots	none	ٮ ‎	ت
ڄ‎	ڄـ ـڄـ ـڄ ‎			represents the "ц" voiceless dental affricate /t͡s/ phoneme in Bosnian.	U+0684	﮾ ‎		none	2 dots (vertically)	ح ‎	ج
ڃ‎	ڃـ ـڃـ ـڃ ‎			represents the "ћ" voiceless alveolo-palatal affricate /t͡ɕ/ phoneme in Bosnian.	U+0683	﮵ ‎		none	2 dots	ح ‎	ح ج
چ‎	چـ ـچـ ـچ ‎			Che, used to represent /t͡ʃ/ ("ch"). It is used in Persian, Pashto, Punjabi, Urdu, Kashmiri and Kurdish. /ʒ/ in Egypt.	U+0686	﮹ ‎		none	3 dots	ح ‎	ج
څ‎	څـ ـڅـ ـڅ ‎			Ce, used to represent the phoneme /t͡s/ in Pashto.	U+0685	﮶ ‎		3 dots	none	ح ‎	ج خ ح
ݗ‎	ݗـ ـݗـ ـݗ ‎			represents the "ђ" voiced alveolo-palatal affricate /d͡ʑ/ phoneme in Bosnian.	U+0757	﮴ ‎		2 dots	none	ح ‎	ح
ځ‎	ځـ ـځـ ـځ ‎			Źim, used to represent the phoneme /d͡z/ in Pashto.	U+0681	◌ٔ ‎		Hamza	none	ح ‎	ج خ ح
ݙ‎	ݙ ـݙ ‎			used in Saraiki to represent a Voiced alveolar implosive /ɗ̢/.	U+0759	﯀ ‎	﮾ ‎	small ط ‎	2 dots (vertically)	د ‎	د
ڊ‎	ڊ ـڊ ‎			used in Saraiki to represent a voiced retroflex implosive /ᶑ/.	U+068A	﮳ ‎		none	1 dot	د ‎	د
ڈ‎	ڈ ـڈ ‎			Ḍal, used to represent a Ḍ (a voiced retroflex plosive /ɖ/) in Punjabi, Kashmiri and Urdu.	U+0688	◌ؕ ‎		small ط ‎	none	د ‎	د
ڌ‎	ڌ ـڌ ‎			Dhal, used to represent the phoneme /d̪ʱ/ in Sindhi	U+068C	﮴ ‎		2 dots	none	د ‎	د
ډ‎	ډ ـډ ‎			Ḍal, used to represent the phoneme /ɖ/ in Pashto.	U+0689	﮿ ‎		none	ring	د ‎	د
ڑ‎	ڑ ـڑ ‎			Ṛe, represents a retroflex flap /ɽ/ in Punjabi and Urdu.	U+0691	◌ؕ ‎		small ط ‎	none	ر ‎	ر
ړ‎	ړ ـړ ‎			Ṛe, used to represent a retroflex lateral flap in Pashto.	U+0693	﮿ ‎		none	ring	ر ‎	_
ݫ‎	ݫ ـݫ ‎			used in Ormuri to represent a voiced alveolo-palatal fricative /ʑ/, as well as in Torwali.	U+076B	﮽ ‎		2 dots (vertically)	none	ر ‎	_
ژ‎	ژ ـژ ‎			Že / zhe, used to represent the voiced postalveolar fricative /ʒ/ in, Persian, Pashto, Kurdish, Urdu, Punjabi and Uyghur.	U+0698	﮶ ‎		3 dots	none	ر ‎	ز
ږ‎	ږ ـږ ‎			Ǵe / ẓ̌e, used to represent the phoneme /ʐ/ /ɡ/ /ʝ/ in Pashto.	U+0696	﮲ ‎	﮳ ‎	1 dot	1 dot	ر ‎	ز
ڕ‎	ڕ ـڕ ‎			used in Kurdish to represent rr /r/ in Soranî dialect.	U+0695	ٚ ‎		none	V pointing down	ر ‎	ر
ݭ‎	ݭـ ـݭـ ـݭ ‎			used in Kalami to represent a voiceless retroflex fricative /ʂ/, and in Ormuri to represent a voiceless alveolo-palatal fricative /ɕ/.	U+076D	﮽ ‎		2 dots vertically	none	س ‎	س
ݜ‎	ݜـ ـݜـ ـݜ ‎			used in Shina to represent a voiceless retroflex fricative /ʂ/.	U+075C	﮺ ‎		4 dots	none	س ‎	ش س
ښ‎	ښـ ـښـ ـښ ‎			X̌īn / ṣ̌īn, used to represent the phoneme /x/ /ʂ/ /ç/ in Pashto.	U+069A	﮲ ‎	﮳ ‎	1 dot	1 dot	س ‎	ش س
ڜ‎	ڜـ ـڜـ ـڜ ‎			used to represent Spanish words with /t͡ʃ/ in Morocco.	U+069C	﮶ ‎	﮹ ‎	3 dots	3 dots	س ‎	ش س
ڨ‎	ڨـ ـڨـ ـڨ ‎			Ga, used to represent the voiced velar plosive /ɡ/ in Algerian and Tunisian.	U+06A8	﮶ ‎		3 dots	none	ٯ ‎	ق
گ‎	گـ ـگـ ـگ ‎			Gaf, represents a voiced velar plosive /ɡ/ in Persian, Pashto, Punjabi, Kyrgyz, Kazakh, Kurdish, Uyghur, , Urdu and Ottoman Turkish.	U+06AF	line		horizontal line	none	گ ‎	ك
ګ‎	ګـ ـګـ ـګ ‎			Gaf, used to represent the phoneme /ɡ/ in Pashto.	U+06AB	﮿ ‎		ring	none	ک ‎	ك
ݢ‎	ݢـ ـݢـ ـݢ ‎			Gaf, represents a voiced velar plosive /ɡ/ in the Jawi script of Malay.	U+0762	﮲ ‎		1 dot	none	ک ‎	ك
ڬ‎	ڬـ ـڬـ ـڬ ‎				U+06AC	﮲ ‎		1 dot	none	ك ‎	ك
ࢴ‎	ࢴـ ـࢴـ ـࢴ ‎			Gaf, represents a voiced velar plosive /ɡ/ in the Pegon script of Indonesian.	U+08B4	﮳ ‎		none	1 dot	ك ‎	ك
ڭ‎	ڭـ ـڭـ ـڭ ‎			Ng, used to represent the /ŋ/ phone in Ottoman Turkish, Kazakh, Kyrgyz, and Uyghur, and to represent the /ɡ/ in Morocco and in many dialects of Algerian.	U+06AD	﮶ ‎		3 dots	none	ك ‎	ك
أي ‎	أيـ ـأيـ ـأي ‎			Ee, used to represent the phoneme /eː/ in Somali.	U+0623 U+064A	◌ٔ ‎	﮵ ‎	Hamza	2 dots	اى ‎	أ + ي
ئ‎	ئـ ـئـ ـئ ‎			E, used to represent the phoneme /e/ in Somali.	U+0626	◌ٔ ‎		Hamza	none	ى ‎	ي ی
ىٓ ‎	ىٓـ ـىٓـ ـىٓ ‎			Ii, used to represent the phoneme /iː/ in Somali and Saraiki.	U+0649 U+0653	◌ٓ ‎		Madda	none	ى ‎	ي
ؤ ‎	ؤ ـؤ ‎			O, used to represent the phoneme /o/ in Somali.	U+0624	◌ٔ ‎		Hamza	none	و ‎	ؤ
ۅ‎	ۅ ـۅ ‎			Ö, used to represent the phoneme /ø/ in Kyrgyz.	U+0624	◌̵ ‎		Strikethrough[D]	none	و ‎	و
ې‎	ېـ ـېـ ـې ‎			Pasta Ye, used to represent the phoneme /e/ in Pashto and Uyghur.	U+06D0	﮾ ‎		none	2 dots vertical	ى ‎	ي
ی‎	یـ ـیـ ـی ‎			Nārīna Ye, used to represent the phoneme [ɑj] and phoneme /j/ in Pashto.	U+06CC	﮵ ‎		2 dots (start + mid)	none	ى ‎	ي
ۍ‎	ـۍ ‎	end only		X̌əźīna ye Ye, used to represent the phoneme [əi] in Pashto.	U+06CD	line		horizontal line	none	ى ‎	ي
ئ‎	ئـ ـئـ ـئ ‎			Fāiliya Ye, used to represent the phoneme [əi] and /j/ in Pashto, Punjabi, Saraiki and Urdu	U+0626	◌ٔ ‎		Hamza	none	ى ‎	ي ى
أو ‎	أو ـأو ‎			Oo, used to represent the phoneme /oː/ in Somali.	U+0623 U+0648	◌ٔ ‎		Hamza	none	او ‎	أ + و
ﻭٓ ‎	ﻭٓ ـﻭٓ ‎			Uu, used to represent the phoneme /uː/ in Somali.	ﻭ‎ + ◌ٓ‎ U+0648 U+0653	◌ٓ ‎		Madda	none	و ‎	ﻭ + ◌ٓ‎
ڳ‎	ڳـ ـڳـ ـڳ ‎			represents a voiced velar implosive /ɠ/ in Sindhi and Saraiki	U+06B1	﮾ ‎		horizontal line	2 dots	گ ‎	ك
ڱ‎	ڱـ ـڱـ ـڱ ‎			represents the Velar nasal /ŋ/ phoneme in Sindhi.	U+06B1	﮴ ‎		2 dots + horizontal line	none	گ ‎	ك
ک‎	کـ ـکـ ـک ‎			Khē, represents /kʰ/ in Sindhi.	U+06A9	none		none	none	ک ‎	ك
ڪ‎	ڪـ ـڪـ ـڪ ‎			"Swash kāf" is a stylistic variant of ك in Arabic, but represents un- aspirated /k/ in Sindhi.	U+06AA	none		none	none	ڪ ‎	ك or ڪ
ݣ‎	ݣـ ـݣـ ـݣ ‎			used to represent the phoneme /ŋ/ (pinyin ng) in Chinese.	U+0763	﮹ ‎		none	3 dots	ک ‎	ك
ڼ‎	ڼـ ـڼـ ـڼ ‎			represents the retroflex nasal /ɳ/ phoneme in Pashto.	U+06BC	ں ‎	﮿ ‎	﮲ ‎	1 dot	ring	ن
ڻ‎	ڻـ ـڻـ ـڻ ‎			represents the retroflex nasal /ɳ/ phoneme in Sindhi.	U+06BB	◌ؕ ‎		small ط ‎	none	ں ‎	ن
ݨ‎	ݨـ ـݨـ ـݨ ‎			used in Punjabi to represent /ɳ/ and Saraiki to represent /ɲ/.	U+0768	﮲ ‎	﯀ ‎	1 dot + small ط ‎	none	ں ‎	ن
ڽ‎	ڽـ ـڽـ ـڽ ‎			Nya /ɲ/ in the Jawi script.	U+06BD	﮶ ‎		3 dots	none	ں ‎	ن
ۑ‎	ۑـ ـۑـ ـۑ ‎			Nya /ɲ/ in the Pegon script.	U+06D1	﮹ ‎		none	3 dots	ى ‎	_
ڠ‎	ڠـ ـڠـ ـڠ ‎			Nga /ŋ/ in the Jawi script and Pegon script.	U+06A0	﮶ ‎		3 dots	none	ع ‎	غ
ݪ‎	ݪـ ـݪـ ـݪ ‎			used in Marwari to represent a retroflex lateral flap /ɺ̢/, and in Kalami to represent a voiceless lateral fricative /ɬ/.	U+076A	line		horizontal line	none	ل ‎	ل
ࣇ	ࣇ‍ ‍ࣇ‍ ‍ࣇ			ࣇ‎ - or alternately typeset as لؕ ‎ - is used in Punjabi to represent voiced retroflex lateral approximant /ɭ/[43]	U+08C7	◌ؕ ‎		small ط ‎	none	ل ‎	ل
لؕ ‎	لؕـ ـلؕـ ـلؕ ‎				U+0644 U+0615
ڥ‎	ڥـ ـڥـ ـڥ ‎			Vi, used in Algerian and Tunisian when written in Arabic script to represent the sound /v/.	U+06A5	﮹ ‎		none	3 dots	ڡ ‎	ف
ڤ‎	ڤـ ـڤـ ـڤ ‎			Ve, used in by some Arabic speakers to represent the phoneme /v/ in loanwords, and in the Kurdish language when written in Arabic script to represent the sound /v/. Also used as pa /p/ in the Jawi script and Pegon script.	U+06A4	﮶ ‎		3 dots	none	ڡ ‎	ف
ۏ‎	ۏ ـۏ ‎			Va in the Jawi script.	U+06CF	﮲ ‎		1 dot	none	و ‎	و
ۋ‎	ۋ ـۋ ‎			represents a voiced labiodental fricative /v/ in Kyrgyz, Uyghur, and Old Tatar; and /w, ʊw, ʉw/ in Kazakh; also formerly used in Nogai.	U+06CB	﮶ ‎		3 dots	none	و ‎	و
ۆ‎	ۆ ـۆ ‎			represents "O" /o/ in Kurdish, and in Uyghur it represents the sound similar to the French eu and œu /ø/ sound. It represents the "у" close back rounded vowel /u/ phoneme in Bosnian.	U+06C6	◌ٚ ‎		V pointing down	none	و ‎	و
ۇ‎	ۇ ـۇ ‎			U, used to represents the Close back rounded vowel /u/ phoneme in Azerbaijani, Kazakh, Kyrgyz and Uyghur.	U+06C7	◌ُ ‎		Damma[E]	none	و ‎	و
ێ‎	ێـ ـێـ ـێ ‎			represents Ê or É /e/ in Kurdish.	U+06CE	◌ٚ ‎		V pointing down	2 dots (start + mid)	ى ‎	ي
ھ‎ ھ	ھـ ـھـ ـھ ‎ ھھھ			Do-chashmi he (two-eyed hāʼ), used in digraphs for aspiration /ʰ/ and breathy voice /ʱ/ in Punjabi and Urdu. Also used to represent /h/ in Kazakh, Sorani and Uyghur.[F]	U+06BE	none		none	none	ھ ‎	ه
ە‎	ە ـە ‎			Ae, used represent /æ/ and /ɛ/ in Kazakh, Sorani and Uyghur.	U+06D5	none		none	none	ھ ‎	إ
ے‎	ـے ‎	end only		Baṛī ye ('big yāʼ'), is a stylistic variant of ي in Arabic, but represents "ai" or "e" /ɛː/, /eː/ in Urdu and Punjabi.	U+06D2	none		none	none	ے ‎	ي
ڞ‎	ڞـ ـڞـ ـڞ ‎			used to represent the phoneme /tsʰ/ (pinyin c) in Chinese.	U+069E	﮶ ‎		3 dots	none	ص ‎	ص ض
ط ‎	طـ ـطـ ـط ‎			used to represent the phoneme /t͡s/ (pinyin z) in Chinese.	U+0637					ط ‎	ط
ۉ‎	ۉ ـۉ ‎			represents the "o" open-mid back rounded vowel /ɔ/ phoneme in Bosnian.	U+06C9	◌ٛ ‎		V pointing up	none	و ‎	و
ݩ‎	ݩـ ـݩـ ـݩ ‎			represents the "њ" palatal nasal /ɲ/ phoneme in Bosnian.	U+0769	﮲ ‎	◌ٚ ‎	1 dot V pointing down	none	ں ‎	ن
ڵ‎	ڵـ ـڵـ ـڵ ‎			used in Kurdish to represent ll /ɫ/ in Soranî dialect.	U+06B5	◌ٚ ‎		V pointing down	none	ل ‎	ل
ڵ‎	ڵـ ـڵـ ـڵ ‎			represents the "љ" palatal lateral approximant /ʎ/ phoneme in Bosnian.	U+06B5	◌ٚ ‎		V pointing down	none	ل ‎	ل
اٖى ‎	اٖىـ ـاٖىـ ـاٖى ‎			represents the "и" close front unrounded vowel /i/ phoneme in Bosnian.	U+0627 U+0656 U+0649	◌ٖ ‎		Alef	none	اى ‎	اٖ + ى

Footnotes:

Letter construction[]

Most languages that use alphabets based on the Arabic alphabet use the same base shapes. Most additional letters in languages that use alphabets based on the Arabic alphabet are built by adding (or removing) diacritics to existing Arabic letters. Some stylistic variants in Arabic have distinct meanings in other languages. For example, variant forms of kāf ك ک ڪ are used in some languages and sometimes have specific usages. In Urdu and some neighbouring languages the letter Hā has diverged into two forms ھ dō-čašmī hē and ہ ہـ ـہـ ـہ gōl hē.^[44] while a variant form of ي yā referred to as baṛī yē ے is used at the end of some words.^[44]

Table of Letter Components[]

Abbreviations used below[]

A = The letter is used for most languages and dialects with writing systems based on Arabic.

MSA = Letters used in Modern Standard Arabic.

CA = Letters used in Classical Arabic.

AD = Letters used in some regional Arabic Dialects.

"Arabic" = Letters used in Classical Arabic, Modern Standard Arabic, and most regional dialects.

"Farsi" = Letters used in modern Persian.

FW = Foreign words: the letter is sometimes used to spell foreign words.

SV = Stylistic variant: the letter is used interchangeably with at least one other letter depending on the calligraphic style.

AW = Arabic words: the letter is used in additional languages to spell Arabic words.

Table[]

No additions[]

Letter Line Shapes (ii)					ء	ا	ے	ى	ں	ٮ	ح	س	ص	ط	ع	ڡ		ٯ		ڪ	ك	ک	گ	ل	م	د	ر	و	ھ	ہ	ه	لا
positional forms			isolated		ء	ا	ے	ى	ں	ٮ	ح	س	ص	ط	ع	ڡ		ٯ		ڪ	ك	ک	گ	ل	م	د	ر	و	ھ	ہ	ه	لا
			start		ء	ا	none	ىـ	(YNB)	ٮـ	حـ	سـ	صـ	طـ	عـ	ڡـ	(QF)		ٯـ	ڪـ	كـ	کـ	گـ	لـ	مـ	د	ر	و	ھـ	ہـ	هـ	لا
			middle		ء	ـا	none	ـىـ	(YNB)	ـٮـ	ـحـ	ـسـ	ـصـ	ـطـ	ـعـ	ـڡـ	(QF)		ـٯـ	ـڪـ	ـكـ	ـکـ	ـگـ	ـلـ	ـمـ	ـد	ـر	ـو	ـھـ	ـہـ	ـهـ	ـلا
			end		ء	ـا	ـے	ـى	ـں	ـٮ	ـح	ـس	ـص	ـط	ـع	ـڡ		ـٯ		ـڪ	ـك	ـک	ـگ	ـل	ـم	ـد	ـر	ـو	ـھ	ـہ	ـه	ـلا
image of forms			isolated start middle end		ء	ا	ے	ى	ں	ٮ	ح	س	ص	ط	ع	ڡ		ٯ		ڪ	ك	ک	گ	ل	م	د	ر	و	ھ	ہ	ه	لا
Unicode for above					U+0621	U+0627	U+06D2	U+0649	U+06BA	U+066E	U+062D	U+0633	U+0635	U+0637	U+0639	U+06A1		U+066F		U+06AA	U+0643	U+06A9	U+06AF	U+0644	U+0645	U+062F	U+0631	U+0648	U+06BE	U+06C1	U+0647	ا + ل
Languages that use the letter shape with or without i'jam					Arabic	Arabic	Urdu	Arabic	Arabic	Arabic	Arabic	Arabic	Arabic	Arabic	Arabic	Arabic		Arabic		Sindhi, Arabic SV	Arabic	Farsi, Urdu, Arabic SV	Farsi, Urdu	Arabic	Arabic	Arabic	Arabic	Arabic	Urdu, Arabic SV	Urdu, Arabic SV	Arabic, Farsi	Arabic
diacritics (i)				isolated	ء	ا	ے	ى	ں	ٮ	ح	س	ص	ط	ع	ڡ		ٯ		ڪ	ك	ک	گ	ل	م	د	ر	و	ھ	ہ	ه	لا
none				start mid end	ء	ـا ا	ـــے ے	ىـ ـىـ ـى	ـں ں	ٮـ ـٮـ ـٮ	حـ ـحـ ـح	سـ ـسـ ـس	صـ ـصـ ـص	طـ ـطـ ـط	عـ ـعـ ـع	ڡـ ـڡـ ـڡ		ٯـ ـٯـ ـٯ		ڪــ ـڪــ ـڪ	كـ ـكـ ـك	کـ ـکـ ـک	گـ ـگـ ـگ	لـ ـلـ ـل	مـ ـمـ ـم	ـد د	ـر ر	ـو و	ھـ ـھـ ـھ	ہـ ـہـ ـہ	هـ ـهـ ـه	ـلا لا
Languages using the bare shape with no additions					Arabic	Arabic, Farsi, Urdu	Urdu	MSA	Urdu, Arabic SV	Arabic SV Rasm	Arabic, Farsi, Urdu	Arabic, Farsi, Urdu	Arabic, Farsi, Urdu	Arabic, Farsi, Urdu	Arabic, Farsi, Urdu	Arabic SV in Rasm		Arabic SV in Rasm		Sindhi, Arabic SV	Arabic	Farsi, Urdu, Arabic SV	Farsi, Urdu	Arabic, Farsi, Urdu	Arabic, Farsi, Urdu	Arabic, Farsi, Urdu	Arabic, Farsi, Urdu	Arabic, Farsi, Urdu	Urdu, Arabic SV	Urdu, Arabic SV	Arabic, Farsi	MSA
Unicode for above					U+0621	U+0627	U+06D2	U+0649	U+06BA	U+066E	U+062D	U+0633	U+0635	U+0637	U+0639	U+06A1		U+066F		U+06AA	U+0643	U+06A9	U+06AF	U+0644	U+0645	U+062F	U+0631	U+0648	U+06BE	U+06C1	U+0647	ل + ا
Bare line in isolated and end forms only				isolated	ء	ا	ے	ی	ࢽ	ٮ	ح	س	ص	ط	ع	ࢼ		ࢻ		ڪ	ك	ک	گ	ل	م	د	ر	و	ھ	ہ	ه	لا
				start mid end				یـ ـیـ ـی	ࢽـ ـࢽـ ـࢽ							ࢻـ ـࢻـ ـࢻ		ࢼـ ـࢼـ ـࢼ
				image
			Languages
				Unicode					U+08BD							U+08BB		U+08BC

dots[]

1 dot[]

Diacritics (i)				Letter Shapes: (ii)	ء	ا	ے	ى	ں	ٮ	ح	س	ص	ط	ع	ڡ		ٯ		ڪ	ك	ک	گ	ل	م	د	ر	و	ھ	ہ	ه	لا
1 dot below	◌࣭  ◌ٜ  ــٜـ   ﮳ ‎			isolated	ء	ا	ے	ى	ں	ب	ج	س	ص	ط	ع	ڡ		ٯ		ڪ	ك	ک	گ	ل	م	د	ر	و	ھ	ہ	ه	لا
				connected						بـ ـبـ ـب	جـ ـجـ ـج
				image
				Languages
U+FBB3 U+065C				Unicode						U+0628	U+062C
1 dot above + 1 dot below			﮲﮳	isolated	ء	ا	ے	ى	ڹ	ٮ	ح	ښ	ۻ	ط	ۼ	ڣ		ٯ		ڪ	ك	ک	گ	ل	م	د	ږ	و	ھ	ہ	ه	لا
				connected
				image
				Languages
				Unicode
1 dot above		◌࣪ ﮲		isolated	ء	ا	ے	ى	ن	ٮ	خ	س	ض	ظ	غ	ف		ڧ		ڪ	ك	ک	گ	ل	م	ذ	ز	و	ھ	ہ	ه	لا
				connected
				image
				Languages
U+FBB2				Unicode					U+0646		U+062E		U+0636	U+0638	U+063A	U+0641		U+06A7								U+0630	U+0632

2 dots[]

diacritics (i)				Letter Shapes (ii)	ء	ا	ے	ى	ں	ٮ	ح	س	ص	ط	ع	ڡ		ٯ		ڪ	ك	ک	گ	ل	م	د	ر	و	ھ	ہ	ه	لا
2 dots below start and mid (iii)		﮵		isolated form	ء	ا	ے	یـ ـیـ ـی ی			ح	س	ص	ط	ع	ڡ		ٯ		ڪ	ك	ک	گ	ل	م	د	ر	و	ھ	ہ	ه	لا
				image
			Languages					Farsi, Urdu, AD
U+FBB5 U+FBB5				Unicode				U+06CC
2 dots below all positions		﮵		isolated form	ء	ا	ے	يـ ـيـ ـي ي			ح	س	ص	ط	ع	ڡ		ٯ		ڪ	ك	ک	گ	ل	م	د	ر	و	ھ	ہ	ه	لا
				image
			Languages					Arabic (iv)
U+FBB5 U+FBB5				Unicode				U+064A
2 vertical dots below			﮾	isolated form	ء	ا	ے	ى	ں	ٮ	ح	س	ص	ط	ع	ڡ		ٯ		ڪ	ك	ک	گ	ل	م	د	ر	و	ھ	ہ	ه	لا
				image
			Languages
U+FBBE				Unicode
2 vertical dots above			﮽	isolated form	ء	ا	ے	ى	ں	ٮ	ح	س	ص	ط	ع	ڡ		ٯ		ڪ	ك	ک	گ	ل	م	د	ر	و	ھ	ہ	ه	لا
				image
			Languages
U+FBBD				Unicode
2 horizontal dots above		﮴		isolated form	ء	ا	ے	ى	ں	ت	ح	س	ص	ط	ع	ڡ		ق		ڪ	ك	ک	گ	ل	م	د	ر	و	ھ	ـۃ	ـة	لا
				image
			Languages
FBB4				Unicode						U+062A								U+0642												U+06C3	U+0629
diacritics (i)				Letter Shapes (ii)	ء	ا	ے	ى	ں	ٮ	ح	س	ص	ط	ع	ڡ		ٯ		ڪ	ك	ک	گ	ل	م	د	ر	و	ھ	ہ	ه	لا

﮴ ‎	above: 2 dots
﮵ ‎	below: 2 dots
﮽ ‎	above: 2 dots (vertically)
﮾ ‎	below: 2 dots (vertically)

U+08EB (2283)	◌࣫	TWO DOTS ABOVE
U+08EE (2286)	◌࣮	TWO DOTS BELOW

3 dots[]

ث پ چ ژ ش ‎	Arabic & Persian
ݑ ڥ ڤ ڨ ڠ ڟ ڞ ۺ ڜ ڛ څ ڿ ۑ ۋ ڮ ڴ ڷ ڸ ‎	other pointing out
ݤ ڏ ݓ ݒ ݡ ݘ ݞ ‎	inverted

3 dots below (horizontal)		﮳ ﮳ ﮳		character	ء	ا	ے	ى	ں	ݐ	ح	س	ص	ط	ع	ڡ		ٯ		ڪ	ك	ک	گ	ل	م	د	ر	و	ھ	ہ	ه	لا
				image
				Languages						Fula
				Unicode						U+0750
3 dots below (inverted)		﮷		character	ء	ا	ے	ى	ں	ٮ	ح	س	ص	ط	ع	ڡ		ٯ		ڪ	ك	ک	گ	ل	م	د	ر	و	ھ	ہ	ه	لا
				image
				Languages
U+FBB7				Unicode
3 dots below		﮹		isolated form	ء	ا	ے	ى	ں	پ	چ	س	ص	ط	ع	ڡ		ٯ		ڪ	ك	ک	گ	ل	م	د	ر	و	ھ	ہ	ه	لا
				image
				Languages
U+FBB9				Unicode						U+067E	U+0686
3 dots above + 3 dots below		﮹﮶		isolated form	ء	ا	ے	ى	ں	ٮ	ح	ڜ	ص	ط	ع	ڡ		ٯ		ڪ	ك	ک	گ	ل	م	د	ر	و	ھ	ہ	ه	لا
				image
				Languages
U+FBB6 + U+FBB9				Unicode
3 dots above		﮶		isolated form						ث		ش															ژ
				image
				Languages
U+FBB6				Unicode						U+062B		U+0634															U+0698
3 dots above (inverted)		﮸		character	ء	ا	ے	ى	ں	ٮ	ح	س	ص	ط	ع	ڡ		ٯ		ڪ	ك	ک	گ	ل	م	د	ر	و	ھ	ہ	ه	لا
				image
U+FBB8				Languages
				Unicode

4 dots[]

4 dots below		﮻		isolated form	ء	ا	ے	ى	ں	ڀ	ڇ	س	ص	ط	ع	ڡ		ٯ		ڪ	ك	ک	گ	ل	م	د	ر	و	ھ	ہ	ه	لا
				image
			Languages
U+FBBB				Unicode
4 dots above		﮺		isolated form	ء	ا	ے	ى	ں	ٿ	ح	ݜ	ص	ط	ع	ڦ		ٯ		ڪ	ك	ک	گ	ل	م	ڐ	ڙ	و	ھ	ہ	ه	لا
				image
			Languages									Shina, Torwali															Sindhi, Shina, Torwali
U+FBBA				Unicode						U+067F		U+075C														U+0690	U+0699

different dots above and below[]

• ݓ U+0753, ݓ ARABIC LETTER BEH WITH THREE DOTS POINTING UPWARDS BELOW AND TWO DOTS ABOVE. Hausa https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/%DD%93
• ݑ U+0751, ݑ ARABIC LETTER BEH WITH DOT BELOW AND THREE DOTS ABOVE. Wolof https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/%DD%91

mixed dots above + below				isolated form	ء	ا	ے	ى	ں	ٮ	ڿ	ۺ	ص	ط	ع	ڡ		ٯ		ڪ	ك	ک	گ	ل	م	د	ر	و	ھ	ہ	ه	لا
				image
				Languages
				Unicode
diacritics (i)				Letter Shapes (ii)	ء	ا	ے	ى	ں	ٮ	ح	س	ص	ط	ع	ڡ		ٯ		ڪ	ك	ک	گ	ل	م	د	ر	و	ھ	ہ	ه	لا

tōē[]

small tōē below		﯁		isolated form	ء	ا	ے	ى	ں	ٮ	ݮ	س	ص	ط	ع	ڡ		ٯ		ڪ	ك	ک	گ	ل	م	د	ر	و	ھ	ہ	ه	لا
		connected form(s)									ݮـ ـݮـ ـݮ
				image
				Unicode							U+076E
				Languages							Khowar
small tōē above	ـــؕــ   ﯀   ◌ؕ			isolated form	ء	ا	ے	ى	ڻ	ٹ	ݲ	س	ص	ط	ع	ڡ		ٯ		ڪ	ك	ک	گ	ࣇ   لؕ‎	م	ڈ	ڑ	و	ھ	ہ	ه	لا
	connected form(s)
				image
Urdu Punjabi Torwali				Languages					Punjabi	Urdu	Torwali													Punjabi[43]		Urdu	Urdu
U+0615 U+FBC0				Unicode					U+06BB	U+0679	U+0772															U+0688	U+0691
small tōē + dot(s)				isolated form	ء	ا	ے	ى	ݨ	ٮ	ح	ݰ	ص	ط	ع	ڡ		ٯ		ڪ	ك	ک	گ	ل	م	د	ݱ	و	ھ	ہ	ه	لا
		connected form(s)
				image
				Languages					Punjabi, Seraiki, Shina			Torwali															Torwali
				Unicode
diacritics (i)				Letter Shapes (ii)	ء	ا	ے	ى	ں	ٮ	ح	س	ص	ط	ع	ڡ		ٯ		ڪ	ك	ک	گ	ل	م	د	ر	و	ھ	ہ	ه	لا

ring[]

ring				isolated form	ء	ا	ے	ؠ	ں	ٮ	ح	س	ص	ط	ع	ڡ		ٯ		ڪ	ك	ګ	گ	ل	م	ډ	ړ	ۄ	ھ	ہ	ه	لا
				image
			Languages
FBBF				Unicode
ring and dots				isolated form	ء	ا	ے	ى	ڼ	ټ	ح	س	ص	ط	ع	ڡ		ٯ		ڪ	ك	ک	گ	ل	م	د	ر	و	ھ	ہ	ه	لا
				image
			Languages
				Unicode
diacritics (i)				Letter Shapes (ii)	ء	ا	ے	ى	ں	ٮ	ح	س	ص	ط	ع	ڡ		ٯ		ڪ	ك	ک	گ	ل	م	د	ر	و	ھ	ہ	ه	لا

line[]

horizontal line		—		isolated form	ء	ا	ے	ۍ ـۍ	ں	ٮ	ح	س	ص	ط	ع	ڡ		؈		ڪ	ك	گ		ݪ	م	د	ݛ	ۅ	ھ	ہ	ه	لا
				image
			Languages																					Punjabi, Marwari, Kalami				Kirghiz[citation needed]
				Unicode																							U+075B
multiple lines		﮼		isolated form	۽	ا	ے	ى	ں	ٮ	ح	س	ص	ط	ع	ڡ		ٯ		ڪ	ك	ک	گ	ࢦ	۾	د	ر	و	ھ	ہ	ه	لا
				image
			Languages
U+FBBC				Unicode																				U+08A6
vertical line				isolated form	ء	ا	ے	ى	ں	ٮ	ح	س	ص	ط	ع	ڡ		ٯ		ڪ	ك	ک	گ	ل	م	د	ر	ۈ	ھ	ہ	ه	لا
				image
			Languages
				Unicode

numeral[]

• Burushaski ݸ
• Burushaski ݹ
• Burushaski ݳ
• Burushaski ݴ
• Burushaski ݶ
• Burushaski ݷ
• Burushaski ݻ

https://hisamullahbeg.blogspot.com/2010/04/burushaski-primer.html

diacritics (i)				Letter Shapes (ii)	ء	ا	ے	ى	ں	ٮ	ح	س	ص	ط	ع	ڡ		ٯ		ك	ڪ	ک	گ	ل	م	د	ر	و	ھ	ہ	ه	لا
Persian numeral 2 above		٢	٢	isolated form	ء	ا	ݺ	ى	ں	ٮ	ح	س	ص	ط	ع	ڡ		ٯ		ڪ	ك	ک	گ	ل	م	د	ر	ݸ	ھ	ہ	ه	لا
				image
Burushaski				Languages			Burushaski																					Burushaski
				Unicode			U+077A
Persian numeral 3 above		٣	٣	isolated form	ء	ا	ݻ	ݶ	ں	ٮ	ح	س	ص	ط	ع	ڡ		ٯ		ڪ	ك	ک	گ	ل	م	د	ر	و	ھ	ہ	ه	لا
				image
Burushaski		Languages					Burushaski
				Unicode			U+077B
Persian numeral 4 above		۴	۴	isolated form	ء	ا	ے	ى	ں	ٮ	ح	ݽ	ص	ط	ع	ڡ		ٯ		ڪ	ك	ک	گ	ل	م	د	ر	و	ھ	ہ	ه	لا
				image
Burushaski		Languages										Burushaski
				Unicode								U+077D
Persian numeral 4 below		۴	۴	isolated form	ء	ا	ے	ݷ	ں	ٮ	ݼ	س	ص	ط	ع	ڡ		ٯ		ڪ	ك	ک	گ	ل	م	د	ر	و	ھ	ہ	ه	لا
				image
Burushaski		Languages									Burushaski
				Unicode							U+077C
diacritics (i)				Letter Shapes (ii)	ء	ا	ے	ى	ں	ٮ	ح	س	ص	ط	ع	ڡ		ٯ		ڪ	ك	ک	گ	ل	م	د	ر	و	ھ	ہ	ه	لا

arrows[]

V below		ٚ	ٛ	isolated form	ء	ا	ے	ى	ں	ݕ	ح	س	ص	ط	ع	ڡ		ٯ		ڪ	ك	ک	گ	ل	م	د	ڕ	و	ھ	ہ	ه	لا
				image
			Languages							Wolof
U+065B U+065A				Unicode
small V above		ــٚـ	◌ٚ	isolated form	ء	ا	ے	ێ	ں	ݖ	ح	س	ص	ط	ع	ڡ		ٯ		ڪ	ك	ک	گ	ڵ	م	د	ڒ	ۆ	ھ	ہ	ه	لا
				image
			Languages							Wolof
U+065A				Unicode						U+0756
inverted V above		ــٛـ	◌ٛ	isolated form	ء	ا	ے	ؽ	ں	ٮ	ح	س	ص	ط	ع	ڡ		ٯ		ڪ	ك	ک	گ	ل	م	ۮ	ۯ	ۉ	ۿ	ہ	ه	لا
				image
U+065B				Unicode
		Languages
arrow and dots				isolated form	ء	ا	ے	ى	ں	ٮ	ح	س	ص	ط	ع	ڡ		ٯ		ڪ	ك	ک	گ	ل	م	د	ر	و	ھ	ہ	ه	لا
				image
				Unicode
		Languages

Hamza[]

diacritics (i)				Letter Shapes (ii)	ء	ا	ے	ى	ں	ٮ	ح	س	ص	ط	ع	ڡ		ٯ		ڪ	ك	ک	گ	ل	م	د	ر	و	ھ	ہ	ه	لا
Hamza below		ــٕـ	◌ٕ	isolated form	ء	إ	ے	ى	ں	ٮ	ح	س	ص	ط	ع	ڡ		ٯ		ڪ	ك	ک	گ	ل	م	د	ر	و	ھ	ہ	ه	لإ
				image
sometimes omitted in contexts where short vowel diacritics are omitted				Languages
U+0655				Unicode		U+0625																										U+0644 + U+0625
Hamza above		ــٔـ	◌ٔ	isolated form	ء	أ	ۓ	ئ	ں	ٮ	ح	س	ص	ط	ع	ڡ		ٯ		ڪ	ك	ک	گ	ل	م	د	ر	ؤ	ھ	ۂ	ۀ	لأ
				image
sometimes omitted in contexts where short vowel diacritics are omitted				Languages
U+0674 U+0654				Unicode		U+0623	U+06D3	U+0626																				U+0624		U+06C2	U+06C0	U+0644 + U+0623
Hamza and dots				isolated form	ء	ا	ے	ى	ں	ٮ	ح	س	ص	ط	ع	ڡ		ٯ		ڪ	ك	ک	گ	ل	م	د	ر	و	ھ	ہ	ه	لا
				image
				Unicode
		Languages

other semi-optional vowels[]

maddah above	ــۤـ ــٓـ ◌ٓ ◌ۤ			isolated form	ء	آ	ے	ى	ں	ٮ	ح	س	ص	ط	ع	ڡ		ٯ		ڪ	ك	ک	گ	ل	م	د	ر	و	ھ	ہ	ه	لآ
			image
doesn't strictly count as i'jam, but included in a lot of situations where other diacritics are left out.				Languages		Arabic, Urdu
U+06E4 U+0653				Unicode		U+0622
Wasala above				isolated form	ء	ٱ	ے	ى	ں	ٮ	ح	س	ص	ط	ع	ڡ		ٯ		ڪ	ك	ک	گ	ل	م	د	ر	و	ھ	ہ	ه	لا
				image
			Languages			CA
none (v)				Unicode		U+0671
diacritics (i)				Letter Shapes (ii)	ء	ا	ے	ى	ں	ٮ	ح	س	ص	ط	ع	ڡ		ٯ		ڪ	ك	ک	گ	ل	م	د	ر	و	ھ	ہ	ه	لا

blank line for new entries[]

header[]

diacritics (i)				Letter Shapes (ii)		ء	ا	ے	ى	ں	ٮ	ح	س	ص	ط	ع	ڡ		ٯ		ك	ڪ	ک	گ	ل	م	د	ر	و	ھ	ہ	ه	لا

References[]

• ^[45]
• ^[46]

Footnotes[]

^i. The i'jam diacritic characters are illustrative only, in most typesetting the combined characters in the middle of the table are used. The characters used to illustrate the consonant diacritics are from Unicode set "Arabic pedagogical symbols".^[47] The "Arabic Tatweel Modifier Letter" U+0640 character used to show the positional forms doesn't work in some Nastaliq fonts.

^ii. For most letters the isolated form is shown, for select letters all forms (isolated, start, middle, and end) are shown.

^iii. Urdu Choti Yē has 2 dots below in the initial and middle positions only. The standard Arabic version ي يـ ـيـ ـي always has 2 dots below.

^iv. These characters are used by most languages that use writing systems based on Arabic, though sometimes only in foreign words.

^v. A Wasala diacritic Unicode character has been proposed but not yet released.^{[citation needed]}

See also[]

• Arabic (Unicode block)
• Eastern Arabic numerals (digit shapes commonly used with Arabic script)
• History of the Arabic alphabet
• Transliteration of Arabic
• Xiao'erjing

References[]

External links[]

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Arabic writing.

• Unicode collation charts—including Arabic letters, sorted by shape
• Why the right side of your brain doesn't like Arabic
• Arabic fonts by SIL's Non-Roman Script Initiative
• Alexis Neme and Sébastien Paumier (2019), "Restoring Arabic vowels through omission-tolerant dictionary lookup", Lang Resources & Evaluation, Vol. 53, pp. 1–65. arXiv:1905.04051; doi:10.1007/s10579-019-09464-6