Arabic
الأبجدية العربية
Abjad · 28 letters
Only consonants are written; short vowels are guessed from the word. Reading therefore means recognising the word, which makes transliterating an unknown name uncertain — and worth it anyway, since the aim is to place, not to translate. Arabic and Hebrew.
What pays off on the road
- On its own, Arabic places nothing: the language beside it decides — usually French in the Maghreb, English in Egypt, Jordan and the Gulf.
- شارع street, طريق road, مدينة city, وسط centre: four words that cut up a sign.
- Reading a name: the six that break the word. ا د ذ ر ز و never join to the left, and you think you see two words where there is one.
How it works
Short vowels are not written
مصر carries m-s-r and reads "Misr", Egypt. Between the consonants, nothing: short vowels are guessed from the word, and only if you already know it.
They do exist, and they have their marks — fatha, damma, kasra. They are written only in the Quran and in textbooks. No road sign carries them, and that is why an unknown name stays impossible to pronounce with certainty.
Three letters do write the long vowels: ا (alif), و (waw) and ي (ya). They are therefore everywhere in place names, and they give a word its skeleton.
Four shapes, but only one rule
An Arabic letter is drawn differently depending on whether it opens a word, sits in the middle, ends it, or stands alone. People conclude there are a hundred and twelve shapes to learn, and that is wrong.
The four shapes are the same letter with or without a joining stroke on each side. The body does not change; what changes is what hooks it to its neighbours. The table shows all four every time, which makes the rule obvious within two letters.
What really has to be remembered comes to six letters: ا د ذ ر ز و never join to the left. A word containing them breaks into pieces, and you think you see two words where there is only one.
It all hangs on the dots
ب ت ث are the same stroke: one dot below, two above, three above. Likewise ج ح خ, and س ش, and ص ض, and ط ظ, and ع غ, and ف ق. Sixteen letters out of twenty-eight.
This is where the learning actually goes, and the good news is that it goes by families: you learn six bodies instead of sixteen letters, then you count the dots.
The article stuck to everything
ال — alif then lam — is the definite article, and it is written stuck to the word that follows. القاهرة is "Al-Qahira", Cairo; المغرب is "Al-Maghrib", Morocco.
Two letters that keep coming back at the head of place names: recognising them cuts the word in the right place, and that is often all you need to identify a name you already know by another route.
What places you: the language alongside
Arabic is written from Morocco to Oman: on its own, it places almost nothing. What decides is the language that goes with it on the sign.
As a rule, it is French in the Maghreb — and Morocco often adds Berber Tifinagh —, English in Egypt, Jordan and the Gulf states. An Arabic name doubled as "Rue" or "Avenue" is not in Doha.
Cheat sheet
The six that break the word
They never join the letter that follows. A word containing one splits into pieces at that point — the alphabet's only joining irregularity, and the only thing to learn by heart.
| ا | alif | a | a long a, or a support with no sound of its own |
| د | dal | d | the sound d |
| ذ | dhal | dh | the voiced th of "this" |
| ر | ra | r | a rolled r |
| ز | zay | z | the sound z |
| و | waw | w | the sound w, and often u or o |
The dotted families
Sixteen letters over six bodies. Learn the stroke, then count the dots — half the work it looks like, provided you see them by family.
| ب | ba | b | the sound b |
| ت | ta | t | the sound t |
| ث | tha | th | the voiceless th of "think" |
| ج | jim | j | the j of French "jour" |
| ح | ha | h | an h breathed from deep in the throat |
| خ | kha | kh | the rasped kh of "Bach" |
| س | sin | s | the sound s |
| ش | chin | sh | the sh of "ship" |
| ص | sad | s | an emphatic s, said with a hollowed mouth |
| ض | dad | d | an emphatic d |
| ط | ta emphatique | t | an emphatic t |
| ظ | za emphatique | z | an emphatic z |
| ع | ayn | ' | a throat sound Europe does not have |
| غ | ghayn | gh | a throaty r, close to the Parisian r |
| ف | fa | f | the sound f |
| ق | qaf | q | a k made far back in the throat |
The rest of the alphabet
Six letters with no twin. ي doubles as a long vowel, and ه changes shape more than any other.
| ك | kaf | k | the sound k |
| ل | lam | l | the sound l |
| م | mim | m | the sound m |
| ن | noun | n | the sound n |
| ه | ha | h | an aspirated h |
| ي | ya | y | the sound y, and often i |
What is not a letter
Three signs read on every road sign without counting among the twenty-eight. ة ends nearly every feminine city name.
| ة | ta marbouta | a | Ends nearly every feminine word and reads "a". |
| ء | hamza | ' | A catch of the glottis, as between the two o's of "co-operate". |
| ى | alif maqsoura | a | A long a at the end of a word, drawn like a ي without its dots. |
The vowels nobody writes
They exist, they have their marks, and no road sign carries them. Showing them here has one purpose: to understand what is missing when you look at an Arabic word, and stop looking for it.
| َ | fatha | a | the short a |
| ُ | damma | u | the short u |
| ِ | kasra | i | the short i |
| ْ | soukoun | the absence of a vowel | |
| ّ | chadda | doubles the consonant |
The words on signs
| شارع | sharia | street |
| طريق | tariq | road |
| مدينة | madina | city |
| وسط | wasat | centre |
| شمال | shamal | north |
| جنوب | janub | south |
| شرق | sharq | east |
| غرب | gharb | west |
| مطار | matar | airport |
| محطة | mahatta | station |
| مسجد | masjid | mosque |
| ميدان | maydan | square |
| قرية | qarya | village |
| جسر | jisr | bridge |
| مدخل | madkhal | entrance |
| خروج | khuruj | exit |
| ممنوع | mamnu | forbidden |
| مستشفى | mustashfa | hospital |
| مصر | misr | Egypt |
| المغرب | almaghrib | Morocco |
Countries
Egypt · India · Jordan · Kazakhstan · Kyrgyzstan · Lebanon · Malaysia · Oman · Qatar · Singapore · Sri Lanka · Tunisia · United Arab Emirates