Home › Multilingual Archive Index › DIN 31635

DIN 31635

DIN 31635 is a DIN standard for the transliteration of the Arabic alphabet adopted in 1982. It is based on the rules of the DMG as modified by the International Orientalist Congress 1936 in Rome. (The most important change was doing away with "j", because it stood for ǧ in the English speaking world and for y in the German speaking world.) Its acceptance relies less on its official status than on its elegance (one sign for each Arabic letter) and the Geschichte der arabischen Litteratur manuscript catalogue of Carl Brockelmann and the dictionary of Hans Wehr.

The 28 ḥurūf:

The Harakat, fatḥa, kasra and ḍamma are transliterated as a, i, u. A šadda results in a geminate (consonant written twice), except in the case of the article, which is written with "solar letters" assimilated (aš-šamsu). An alif marking [a:] is transliterated as ā. tāʼ marbūṭa (ﺓ) as word-final -h or -t. ʾalif maqṣūra (ﻯ) appears as ā, rendering it indistinguishable from alif. Long vowels [i:] and [u:] are transliterated as ī and ū. The Nisba suffix appears as -iyy-, nunation is written as simple -un, -an, -in. A hyphen - is used to separate morphological elements, notably the article and prepositions.

The "Arabic-Indic numerals" in use with the Arabic alphabet (٠١٢٣٤٥٦٧٨٩) are rendered as western "Arabic numerals" (0123456789).

See also

• Arabic transliteration
• ISO 233

External links

• Chart of Arabic transliteration systems, including DIN 31635
• Deutsches Institut für Normung