Why do Arabic words when written in English have 3 and 7

edifis
By edifis

I have noticed that a lot af Arabic words when written using English Alphabets has a lot of 3 & 7 in them. Sothey use 26+2 alphabets. Why is it so?

By jauntie• 30 Sep 2008 11:01
jauntie

I attended an Arabic course when we lived in Jeddah and the numbers in words were used to indicate a particular Arabic language sound which has no equivalent in English.

i.e. '2' would sound like the German 'ch' in 'ich'. Or like in a Scottish 'loch'. "SabaaH el2eyr" = Good morning.

'4' is like French 'r' (a sort of gargling sound). "tib4a" = you want

'9' a voiced construction in the throat. "essalaam 9aleykum", for example.

Anyway, I don't know if different tutors use different digits to indicate a particular vocal 'sound', but the above was how I was taught to pronounce Jeddah Arabic.

By edifis• 30 Sep 2008 10:18
edifis

So 3 is a and 7 is h,

therefore ha ha ha ha in arabic = 73 73 73 73

By infinitl2008• 30 Sep 2008 10:16
infinitl2008

gonewiththewind got the answer right,

I am imprssed, as he says he is a non Arabic speaker

By janeyjaney• 30 Sep 2008 10:08
janeyjaney

I'll go with gonewiththewind's answer. This is true as explained by my Arabic instructor. It's also to know how to pronounce the word properly. It has nothing to do with numbers.

By google_it• 30 Sep 2008 09:41
Rating: 2/5
google_it

Modern numbers we use today (English) are HINDU ARABIC NUMERALS - that's why some are alike, in elementary mathematics we use ROMAN NUMERALS such as X to 10 IX to nine.

By anonymous• 30 Sep 2008 09:09
Rating: 5/5
anonymous

i am not an arabic speaker, but as far as i know 3 and 7 are just used on the internet to denote "ayin" and "ha". these two letters in arabic are kind of hard to articulate. they are very close to two other sounds and they need to be distinguished. they may change the meaning of the word drastically. therefore instead of using glottal "a" they use 3; and instead of glottal "h" they use 7.

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