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From: crythene@aol.com (Crythene)
Newsgroups: rec.arts.ascii
Subject: TALK/LINE/FONT - Revised Arabic Script (1 of 4)
Date: 3 Jul 1994 17:36:39 -0500
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      A LITTLE BACKGROUND INFO ON THIS FONT AND ARABIC IN GENERAL
      ~ ~~~~~~ ~~~~~~~~~~ ~~~~ ~~ ~~~~ ~~~~ ~~~ ~~~~~~ ~~ ~~~~~~~   

The following post is my second draft of the arabic alphabet.  I've 
filled in Jim, Ha and Kha, not to mention the Ta Marbuta and the Hamza.  
I also cleaned up one or two of the letters, notably the capital Kaf.

Note that Arabic is written "backwards" from an English perspectve. 
In Arabic script, letters can change form slightly depending on whether 
they are connected to preceeding or following letters or not.  The first 
column below is how the letter appears standing alone, the next is as the 
letter appears connected only to a preceeding letter, the next is as the 
letter appears connected to both a preceeding and a following letter, and 
the last is as the letter appears connected only to a following letter.  
The last two columns are blank for some letters as those letters are never 
written connected to a following letter.

This is a pretty tall (and wide) font, and probably useless for more 
than one word or a name at a time.  However, if anyone would like me to 
attempt to transliterate something (something *short*) or some such, you
can email me at crythene@aol.com.  I've transliterated my name (Sylvia) 
at the bottom of the list.

I have just recieved email from some poor suck-, err, a kind soul who
has offered to figletize all this.  Should be interesting.

I've found Arabic to be a rich and fascinating language with a truly
beautiful script (not to mention really hard to pronounce...:) ) and
I hope this alphabet will be of use to somebody (aside from impressing
my professor with how much spare time I apparently have).

There isn't really room to put the letter names and sounds next to the
letters, so here's a quick list in the same orders as the letter.
'aleph (long a) | Ba (b) | Ta (t) | Ta Marbuta (same as Ta - this 
letter is sometimes used at the end of a word to make a feminine 
ending) | Tha (th as in think) | Jim (j) | Ha (aspirated h) | 
Kha (kh, like german or hebrew ch) | Dal (d) | Dhal (dh/th as in
that) | Ra (r strongly rolled) | Zay (z) | Sin (s) | Shin (sh) |
Sad (no english equiv. like an s said while dropping jaw) | Dad
(same as Sad, like d) | Tah (same, like t) | Za (same, like z/th) |
'ayn (no eqivalent, sort of a grunt) | Ghayr (like french r) |
Fa (f) | Qaf (q/k, pronounced as hard g in Egypt dialect) |
Kaf (k) | Lam (l) | Mim (m) | Nun (n) | Ha (h) | Waw (w or long u) |
Ya (y or long i) | Hamza (glottal stop)


::                  ::
::                  ::
::           *      ::
::    .     ...     ::
::.  :::   :''':   .::.  .:. . :.
`::::' `:::`:::':::''``:::::::::'
     * *
           (Sylvia)