From Qasid Institute. “Marhaba, everyone!” Today, we learned a few words of Arabic, the official language of Jordan and the main language spoken in the Middle East. And, I will admit, Arabic is a TOUGH language!

Arabic has 28 letters, 2 more letters than the English alphabet. We learned that some of the Arabic letters and sounds are pronounced just like English ones; however, some have no equivalent in English. This makes writing Arabic words in the English alphabet difficult, because there is no exact spelling to use as a guide. For example, when we were driving in Jordan, we would pass street signs for nearby Wadi Rum. One sign would say Wadi Ram, another would say Wadi Rmm, while another would say Wadi Ru’um. Basically, all of them are correct. Each spelling is derived from sounding out the Arabic word and substituting English letters for specific Arabic sounds, a process called transcription.

[Full Article at Project Explorer Website]

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