Arabic script
Writing system for Arabic and several other languages / From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
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The Arabic script is the writing system used for Arabic and several other languages of Asia and Africa. It is the second-most widely used alphabetic writing system in the world (after the Latin script),[2] the second-most widely used writing system in the world by number of countries using it, and the third-most by number of users (after the Latin and Chinese scripts).[3]
This article may need to be rewritten to comply with Wikipedia's quality standards. (July 2022) |
Arabic script | |
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Script type | primarily, alphabet |
Time period | 4th century CE to the present[1] |
Direction | Right-to-left script |
Official script | 19 sovereign states Co-official script in: |
Languages | See below |
Related scripts | |
Parent systems | |
Child systems | N'Ko Thaana Hanifi script Persian alphabet |
ISO 15924 | |
ISO 15924 | Arab (160), Arabic |
Unicode | |
Unicode alias | Arabic |
| |
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. |
Worldwide use of the Arabic and Perso-Arabic script | ||
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Countries where the Arabic or Perso-Arabic script is: | ||
→ | the sole official script | |
→ | official alongside other scripts | |
→ | official at a provincial level (China, India, Tanzania) or a recognized second script of the official language (Malaysia, Tajikistan) |
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. Such languages still using it are: Persian (Farsi and Dari), Malay (Jawi), Cham (Akhar Srak),[4] Uyghur, Kurdish, Punjabi (Shahmukhi), Sindhi, Balti, Balochi, Pashto, Lurish, Urdu, Kashmiri, Rohingya, Somali, Mandinka, and Mooré, among others.[5] Until the 16th century, it was also used for some Spanish texts, and—prior to the script reform in 1928—it was the writing system of Turkish.[6]
The 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. However, the basic letter form remains unchanged. The script does not have capital letters.[7] In most cases, the letters transcribe consonants, or consonants and a few vowels, so most Arabic alphabets are abjads, with the versions used for some languages, such as Sorani, Uyghur, Mandarin, and Serbo-Croatian, being alphabets. It is also the basis for the tradition of Arabic calligraphy.