Arwi Explained

Arwi
Bodystyle:Which
Type:Abjad
Qid:Q1828555
Region:India, Sri Lanka
Romanised From:al-'arwiyyah
Caption:Arwi written in Arabic Script
Languages:Tamil
Time:Present
Status:Religious Uses
Fam1:Egyptian hieroglyphs
Fam2:Proto-Sinaitic
Fam3:Phoenician
Fam4:Aramaic
Fam5:Syriac
Fam6:Nabataean
Fam7:Arabic
Sisters:Arabi Malayalam
Iso15924:Arab
Sample:Arwi Title.png

Arwi (Tamil: {{naskh|أَرْوِيُّ) or Arabu-Tamil (Tamil: அரபுத்தமிழ், عَرَبُتَّمِۻْ

) is an Arabic-influenced dialect of the Tamil language written with an extension of the Arabic alphabet, with extensive lexical and phonetic influences from the Arabic language. Arwi has been used extensively by the Muslims of the Tamil Nadu state of India and Sri Lanka.

History

Arwi was an outcome of the cultural synthesis between seafaring Arabs and Tamil-speaking Muslims of Tamil Nadu. This language was enriched, promoted and developed in Kayalpattinam. It had a rich body of work in jurisprudence, Sufism, law, medicine and sexology, of which little has been preserved. It was used as a bridge language for Tamil Muslims to learn Arabic.[1] The patrons of Arwi seem to have been the Nawab of the Carnatic, they were Islamic and were part of the Mughal Empire. Many hadith manuscripts have been found. Most of the fiqh books, particularly those of Imaam Abu Hanifa and Imaam Shaafi, have been found in Arwi.

There was also a translation of the Bible into Arwi in 1926.

Arwi still has a place among the more Arwi Muslim and Sri Lankan Moor families.

Script

The Arwi alphabet is the Arabic alphabet, with thirteen additional letters used to represent the Tamil vowels e and o and several Tamil consonants that could not be mapped to Arabic sounds.

Vowels

Arwi vowels arranged according to the Tamil order (right to left)

Consonants

See also

References

External links

Notes and References

  1. 216 th year commemoration today: Remembering His Holiness Bukhary Thangal Sunday Observer – January 5, 2003. Online version accessed on 2009-08-14