Arabic based scripts

Jawi is the orthography in which Malay has been written since the Middle Ages, when it was adapted from the Arabic script. Introduced by Muslim traders, it was adapted to Malay phonology using diacritics that modified six letters. It was used until the Roman script (Rumi) brought in by European traders and colonisers began to supplant it in the nineteenth century. In spite of that, Jawi still appears in the linguistic landscape of Malaysia, Brunei, Indonesia and Pattani (Thailand). For this article snapshots have been taken of different shop signs using Jawi in Kuala Lumpur, Malacca and Kota Bharu (Malaysia). After an introduction to the structure and use of Jawi and the multilingual and ‘multiscriptal’ linguistic landscape in Malaysia, the significance of Jawi in the Malay Archipelago and its mainly symbolic use in the linguistic landscape are discussed. To complement the analysis, a quantitative survey carried out among a sample of Malaysian undergraduate students and a qualitative one among a small sample of teachers and lecturers in one Malaysian university on their attitudes towards the use of Jawi are also discussed. The article closes with some considerations and suggestions for the possible revival of Jawi.

The histories and practices of Arabic calligraphy and Arabic typography are richly intertwined, and this paper explores the narratives in which Arabic letter designers situate their work. It highlights two sites of Arabic lettering practice: the design firm of Syntax Digital in Amman, Jordan and the Institute of Traditional Islamic Arts at ai-Balqa' Applied University in Salt, Jordan. In dialogue with site representatives, the presentation explores the relationships connecting practices of letter design with wider structures of information architecture and textual application. The increasing flexibility of design remains a key site of textual, material and communicative negotiation. As practices of writing continue to shift both in the Middle East and globally, the variety of visual conventions surrounding Arabic script ask us to reimagine written design.

To cite this article: J.R. Osborn (2009) Narratives of Arabic Script: Calligraphic Design and Modern Spaces, Design and Culture, 1:3, 289-306, DOI: 10.1080/17547075.2009.11643292

To link to this article: http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/17547075.2009.11643292

A stretch of the Sahel between the Mossi and Jula in the west and the Sango and Maba in the east is home to the highest concentration of distinct linguistic communities in Africa, dominated however by three major regional languages-Hausa, Fulfulde and Chadian Arabic. 1 These three languages share geography, having overlapping spheres of influence; but they differ in genetics, coming as they do from three different linguistic families (Chadic, Niger-Congo and Semitic respectively). They share certain features of distribution, all having a high proportion of second-language to first-language speakers (Hausa 18:25 million centred in Nigeria, Fulfulde 2:2 million in Cameroon, Chadian Arabic 2:1 million centred in Chad), 2 and national status, being spoken by large proportions of their host countries' populations (Hausa 25% in Nigeria and 80% in Niger, Fulfulde 20% in Cameroon and 8 % in Nigeria, Chadian Arabic 50% in Chad), but they differ greatly in demographics from the massive Hausa urban centres to the Mbororo or 'cattle Fulani' and Shuwa Arab nomads. They share strong historic, cultural and linguistic associations with Islam, but have distinctive histories of engagement with the internal (Sufi/Sunni) and external (Westernization/Arabization) dynamics of this association. Most importantly for this paper, and closely related to all the above other factors, they have in common strong centuries-old traditions of Arabic-script writing which have gradually given way since the early 20th century to Roman-script traditions promoted by Western educational systems and Christian missionaries (so much so, in fact, that in Nigeria and Cameroon today, official literacy statistics relate only to Roman-script literacy, completely disregarding competence with Arabic script), but they each have distinctive sociolinguistic and technical challenges in the 21st century. 1 ISO language codes [hau]; [fuv], [fub] etc. (Fulfulde is considered for our purposes here as one language); and [shu]. 2 Figures are approximations. Second-language speakers' varieties may be deprecated (e.g. 'Middle-belt Hausa' , 'Bongor Arabic').

This dissertation examines multiple applications of Arabic script and the relationship linking visual design with written communication. It presents typography and calligraphy as distinct communicative practices and explores the importance of print culture and printed material in relation to the rise of the modern bureaucratic state. The work is arranged in seven chapters, each illustrating how changes in the visual appearance of Arabic letters connote distinct channels of textual authority and knowledge. Chapter 1 opens a comparative framework with three models of writing in relation to religious  tradition, and Chapter 2 explores written communication through the lens of grammatology. Chapter 3 delves into the Arabic calligraphic tradition, the symbolic interpretation of letters, and the meanings of multiple scripts. With the arrival of print, Arabic writing practices shifted in response to a new communication technology, and Chapter 4 outlines the Ottoman adoption of print technology. This section examines historical and archival material, which chronicles early Ottoman printing as well as post-print developments of Ottoman calligraphic art. The symbolic, visual, and textual changes that accompanied the new medium are addressed in Chapter 5, and Chapter 6 introduces a comparative study of Arabic letter design in modern Jordan. A series of interviews with practicing calligraphers, graphic designers, and contemporary artists highlight diverse applications of Arabic script and the flexibility of written communication and. Finally, Chapter 7 reflects upon the historical trajectory of previous chapters to ask what the story of Arabic script might teach us about the future of writing. This chapter traces the continuity of calligraphy and digital design and suggests a more nuanced concept of writing for digital practice. As practices of writing continue to shift both in the Middle East and globally, visual conventions surrounding Arabic script provide a wealth of strategies worthy of preservation and exploration.

The Arabic script in Africa contains sixteen papers on the past and present use of Arabic script to write African languages. These writing traditions, which are sometimes collectively referred to as Ajami, are discussed for single or multiple languages, with examples from all major linguistic phyla of Africa but one (Khoisan), and from all geographic areas of Africa (North, West, Central, East, and South Africa), as well as a paper on the Ajami heritage in the Americas. The papers analyze (ethno-) historical, literary, (socio-) linguistic, and in particular grammatological aspects of these previously understudied writing traditions and exemplify their range and scope, providing new data for the comparative study of writing systems, literacy in Africa, and the history of (Islam in) Africa.

Argues that the Arabic scripts of the "Central Sudan" (roughly corresponding to today's Nigeria, Chad, Niger, northern Cameroon) constitute a typology of their own, with little in common with other West African scripts. Focuses on the script popularized by the calligraphers of Kano (Nigeria), arguing that this is probably a recent development of the older calligraphic tradition of Borno.

The reflow from Arabic document image collections is a challenging task. This is partly due to the insolubility of the Arabic script. Because of the peculiarity of the whole body of the Arabic words, namely connectivity between the characters, thereby the segmentation of An Arabic word is very arduous and also the variability of the handwritten styles and shapes as well as deceleratation in the print therefore Arabic document repositories are not liable to indexation and reflow. In this paper, we are proposing an idea for reflow coherent Arabic document in response to an appropriate Arabic query word. We present a novel approach at reflow on an Arabic document image, using a Bidirectional Long-Short-Term Memory Neural Network. The designed to take relating to information into account, these networks can maintain Arabic word images that cannot be durable segmented into individual Arabic characters. The partitioning Arabic word, we easier the problem and receive elevated reflow rates. The proposed capable reflow scheme avoids unambiguous recognition of Arabic characters. An experimental evaluation on a dataset of Arabic word images conjunct from handwritten notebook show good precision even in the impendence of printing transformation and deceleratation. The reflow Arabic word performance is comparison with baseline methods. These results encourage the development of real world systems for word reflow for Arabic documents.

The past few decades have witnessed an aesthetic trend in the Arabic Writing System and its well-known
calligraphic arts, which have exploited features of other writing systems, including Latin and Chinese scripts.
Although there are great differences between almost every aspect of the Arabic and Latin scripts, this trend has
blended certain characteristics of Arabic script with some features of Latin script.
This study examines this trend and its experiments and transitions, from the moment it first emerged until the
present day. It investigates the motivations underpinning the trend and analyzes its artistic and linguistic
characteristics, in which the researcher visually analyzes all possible details and disassembles both orthographic
items and calligraphic features into their basic essential scripts. The findings reveal an aesthetic and linguistic
trend that is substantial and significant, based on linguistic, cultural, and sociocultural factors, including
increased levels of communication, culturalism, advances in technology, transportation, migration, and
globalization. Script tools and features are used to divide the main trend into three sub-trends: 1) Script
switching, where scripts are interchanged at word-level; 2) Script fusion, where scripts are altered at letter-level;
and 3) Faux fonts, which dissolve certain features of Arabic script to mirror Latin script. All of the techniques
used to make Arabic script match Latin script have been shown to be culturally-induced and linguistically
informative, rather than merely aesthetic. The findings of this study also indicate that this new phenomenon is
likely to be in the early stages, with further developments expected to unfold in future.

Continuing the dialogue between ‘comparative standardology’ and variation studies, this volume offers comparative data which allows us to delineate large groups of factors behind the standardisation process in manuscript cultures. The discussion in this chapter draws on the assumption that standardisation can be understood better if it is considered a non-unidirectional process. The groups of factors can thus be seen as channels or pathways of (de)standardisation. A comparative analysis of such pathways in the twelve manuscript cultures addressed in this volume permits us to postulate some generalisations, as follows.
Contact situations do not necessarily lead to the exchange of standardised orthographic principles. In many cultures, the co-existence of Standard Arabic and non-standardised languages spoken and written in Muslim communities poses a paradox: such languages are profoundly influenced by Arabic, but their orthographies are not modelled on the principle of standardisation. This apparent paradox is resolved by the prediction that standards in orthography – one of the domains of manuscript culture – are conceptually different from standards in other domains, such as format, layout and script. As there is a difference between the standardisation of spoken language and written language, there is also a difference between the standardisation of orthography and other domains of manuscript production. Thus, a general tendency observable at the level of physical features of manuscript production is that layout and script types tend to be unified, irrespective of orthographic norms and, vice versa, orthographic norms develop irrespective of norms applied to physical domains of manuscript production.

Estudio de la política talasocrática del sultanato de Brunéi en el archipiélago filipina y su influencia cultural en la bahía de Manila. La introducción de la cultura islámica supondrá una transformación de la comunidad tagala, sugiriendo e identificando datos que demuestren el uso de la escritura yawi para redactar textos en tagalo a la llegada de los españoles.

This paper studies the letter shape of the final jīm, ḥāʾ, and khāʾ in seven early Quranic manuscripts. Examination of the shape of these letters in these manuscripts reveals a graphemic distinction between the jīm, which lacks the typical curved tail, and the ḥāʾ and the khāʾ, which do have this tail. This distinction is lost in later Quranic manuscripts. I argue that the distinction between jīm and ḥāʾ/khāʾ is a continuation from the Arabic script’s origins in the Nabataean Aramaic script, which had distinct letter shapes for these signs. Contrary to what has been previously thought, the evidence adduced in this article shows that the merger happened in the Islamic period rather than in the pre-Islamic period.

El III curso de especialización Manuscritos en el islam está destinado a estudiantes universitarios, bibliotecarios, archiveros, restauradores, historiadores, historiadores del arte, coleccionistas y amantes del libro en general que deseen conocer de primera mano y profundizar en el mundo de los manuscritos escritos en caracteres árabes, ya sean árabes, persas, turcos o españoles. Dirigido por Nuria Martínez de Castilla (UCM) e impartido por especialistas en manuscritos árabes, codicología, ecdótica e historia del arte, la naturaleza del curso es eminentemente práctica; de este modo, las clases se impartirán siempre con material gráfico, pero también habrá varias sesiones en las que se verán y analizarán los códices originales conservados en diferentes bibliotecas de la Comunidad de Madrid. No se requiere el conocimiento previo de árabe, persa o turco para poder realizar satisfactoriamente el curso.

Abstract: Despite having a large number of speakers, the Kurdish language is among the less-resourced languages. In this work we highlight the challenges and problems in providing the required tools and techniques for processing texts written in Kurdish. From a high-level perspective, the main challenges are: the inherent diversity of the language, standardization and segmentation issues, and the lack of language resources.