| Rohingya Arabic Alphabet | |
| Also Known As: | Ruáingga Arobi leká |
| Type: | Abjad |
| Languages: | Rohingya |
| Time: | c. 19 c. to the present |
| Fam1: | Proto-Sinaitic |
| Fam2: | Phoenician |
| Fam3: | Aramaic |
| Fam4: | Nabataean |
| Fam5: | Arabic |
| Fam6: | Perso-Arabic |
| Fam7: | Urdu |
| Direction: | Right-to-left |
The Rohingya Arabic Alphabet is a modified Arabic script for the Rohingya language. Rohingya today is written in three scripts, Hanifi Rohingya script, Arabic (Rohingya Fonna) Alphabet, and Latin (Rohingyalish). Rohingya was first written in the 19th century with a version of the Perso-Arabic script. In 1975, an orthographic Arabic script was developed and approved by the community leaders, based on the Urdu alphabet but with unique innovations to make the script suitable to Rohingya.[1] [2]
In the 1980s, Mohammad Hanif and his colleagues created the suitable phonetic script based on Arabic letters; the Hanifi Rohingya script; it has been compared to the N’ko script. This script has gained popularity among Rohingya speakers, challenging the position of Arabic script, and presenting itself as a uniquely Rohingya script.
Nevertheless, as most Rohingya children attend Arabic and Quranic classes and are intimately familiar with the Arabic script, Rohingya Arabic script remains suitable and relevant for Rohingya language. Tests that have been conducted suggest that this script can be learned in a matter of hours if the reader has learned Arabic in a madrassa.
One of the most significant advocates of Rohingya Arabic script has been Kyaw Hla Aung, a world-renowned Rohingya lawyer and civil rights activist.[1]
One of the most important features of Rohingya Arabic Alphabet, a feature which makes this script unique among other adaptions of the Arabic script, is tone markers. Another feature of Rohingya Arabic script is that unlike its parent systems, Persian and Urdu, vowel diacritics are essential for writing in Rohingya. Whereas Persian and Urdu use three diacritics (rarely written) as well as three letters to represent their 6 vowel sounds, Rohingya has been modified to eliminate the reliance on such a dual system, instead solely relying on diacritics. In doing so, 3 new diacritics have been introduced to Rohingya, which are "curly" versions of the three existing diacritics.
Rohingya Arabic script consists of 40 letters, of which 36 are from its parent systems, Arabic, Persian, and Urdu alphabets. 4 are new characters unique to Rohingya. These new consonants represent consonants that undergo fusion with a consonant preceding them. 10 of these letters are exclusively used in writing of loanwords from Arabic or from European languages.[3] [4]
Letters in yellow boxes are solely used in loanwords. Letters in green boxes are uniquely Rohingya.
| Forms | Sound represented | Latin equivalent | Hanifi equivalent | Notes | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Isolated | Final | Medial | Initial | ||||||
alif | pronounced as //ʔ// | - | Pronounced as /ʔ/. Acts as a carrier of vowel diacritic in the beginning of words that start with a vowel sound | ||||||
be | pronounced as //b// | b | |||||||
pe | pronounced as //p// | p | |||||||
te | pronounced as //t// | t | |||||||
tha | pronounced as //ʈ// | th | |||||||
tse | pronounced as //ts ~ θ// | ts | Only used in loanwords of Arabic origin | ||||||
jim | pronounced as //ɟ// | j | |||||||
chim | pronounced as //c// | ch | |||||||
he | pronounced as //h// | h | |||||||
khe | pronounced as //h ~ x// | h, kh | |||||||
dal | pronounced as //d// | d | |||||||
dhal | pronounced as //ɖ// | dh | |||||||
zal | pronounced as //z// | z | Only used in loanwords of Arabic origin | ||||||
re | pronounced as //ɾ// | r | |||||||
bottya re | pronounced as //ɽ// | r | Unique to Rohingya. Cannot occur at beginning of words. Inextricably merged as a single sound with the preceding consonant when pronounced. Example: (teligráf,) pronounced as /[t̪ɛ.lɪ.ˈgɾɑf]/ (meaning telegraph) | ||||||
ça | pronounced as //ɽ// | ç | |||||||
ze | pronounced as //z// | z | |||||||
sin | pronounced as //s// | s | |||||||
cin | pronounced as //ʃ// | c | |||||||
sad | pronounced as //s// | s | Only used in loanwords of Arabic origin | ||||||
dad | pronounced as //d// | d | Only used in loanwords of Arabic origin | ||||||
tae | pronounced as //t// | t | Only used in loanwords of Arabic origin | ||||||
zae | pronounced as //t// | z | Only used in loanwords of Arabic origin | ||||||
en | pronounced as //ʔ// | - | Only used in loanwords of Arabic origin | ||||||
gen | pronounced as ///g ~ ɣ// | g | Only used in loanwords of Arabic origin | ||||||
nga | - | pronounced as //ŋ// | ng | Unique to Rohingya. Cannot occur at beginning of words. | |||||
fa | pronounced as //f// | f | |||||||
va | pronounced as //v// | v | Only used in loanwords of European origin | ||||||
kaf | pronounced as //k ~ q// | k | Only used in loanwords of Arabic origin | ||||||
kaf | pronounced as //k// | k | |||||||
gaf | pronounced as //g// | g | |||||||
lam | pronounced as //l// | l | |||||||
mim | pronounced as //m// | m | |||||||
nun | pronounced as //n ~ ɳ// | n | |||||||
cóñzuk naga nun | - | pronounced as //◌̃// | ñ | Cannot occur at beginning of words. Alternatively, postnasalized (double) vowel diacritics can be used. Example: (cíyañ,) pronounced as /[ʃĩ.ˈjã]/ (meaning horn, shofar) | |||||
vav | pronounced as //ʋ, v// | v | |||||||
bottya vav | pronounced as //w// | w | Unique to Rohingya. Inextricably merged as a single sound with the preceding consonant when pronounced. Example: (tollwa,) pronounced as /[ˈt̪ɑl.lu͡ɑ]/ (meaning dependent) | ||||||
he | pronounced as //h// | h | |||||||
ya | /j/ | y | |||||||
bottya ya | pronounced as //j// | y | Unique to Rohingya. Does not come after letters with no medial form (non-joinders, such as د, ر, و) Inextricably merged as a single sound with the preceding consonant when pronounced. Example: (Ruáingga,) pronounced as /[ˈɾo.ɪŋ.ˌgʲa]/ (meaning Rohingya) |
The purpose of vowel diacritics in an Abjad script is to give vowels to each consonants. Unlike parent system, Persian and Urdu, Rohingya cannot be written or read without diacritics. The shape and position of diacritic is very important. There are 7 diacritics in Rohingya Arabic Alphabet, which include the Sukun diacritic (zero-vowel), the 3 diacritics inherited from Arabic, representing sounds /a/, /i/, and /u/, as well as three new diacritics unique to Rohingya, representing vowel sounds /ɔ~ɑ/, /e/, and /o/. All of these diacritics represent short vowel sounds.
6 Tanween (double) diacrictics are also used to represent the post-nasalized versions of the 6 vowel sounds. Alternatively, a "ں, ـں, ـنـ" (dotless "n") can be used as well.
Tashdid (◌ّ) diacritic is used for gemination (doubling of consonant).
| Short Vowels | ||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| -a | -o | -i | -e | -u | -ou | Sukun (Zero-vowel) | Tashdid (Gemination) | |
| Postnasalized Vowels | ||||||||
When a syllable starts with a vowel, be it the first syllable of the word, or a syllable in the middle of the word, the letter alif is used as vowel carrier. Examples include:
Rohingya is a tonal language. Historically Arabic script has been adopted and used by many tonal languages, examples include Xiao'erjing for Mandarin Chinese as well as Ajami script adopted for writing various languages of Western Africa. However, one of the shortcomings of Arabic, especially in comparison to Latin-derived scrips or other indigenous writing systems was that Arabic did not have a way of indicating tones.
However, in the adoption of the Arabic Script for Rohingya language, in a unique modification, tone markers have been introduced to the Arabic script. Three (3) tone markers have been developed and are used in Rohingya.[1] [2]
Tone markers act as "modifiers" of vowel diacritics. In simpler words, they are "diacritics for the diacritics". They are written "outside" of the word, meaning that they are written above the vowel diacritic if the diacritic is written above the word, and they are written below the diacritic if the diacritic is written below the word. They are only ever written where there are vowel diacritics. This is important to note, as without the diacritic present, there is no way to distinguish between tone markers and I‘jām i.e. dots that are used for purpose of phonetic distinctions of consonants.
The Hārbāy (represented with diacritic
in Hanifi script, and with an acute accent ◌́/á in Latin): a single dot that's placed on top of Fatḥah and Ḍammah, or curly Fatḥah and curly Ḍammah (vowel diacritics unique to Rohinghya), or their respective Fatḥatan and Ḍammatan versions, and it's placed underneath Kasrah or curly Kasrah, or their respective Kasratan version. (e.g. ) This tone marker indicates a short high tone (pronounced as //˥//).[1] [2]The Ṭelā (represented with diacritic
in Hanifi script, and with double vowels with acute accent on the first; ◌́◌/áa in Latin):, is two dots that are placed on top of Fatḥah and Ḍammah, or curly Fatḥah and curly Ḍammah, or their respective Fatḥatan and Ḍammatan versions, and it's placed underneath Kasrah or curly Kasrah, or their respective Kasratan version. (e.g. ) This tone marker indicates a long falling tone (pronounced as //˥˩//).[1] [2]The Ṭāna (represented with diacritic
in Hanifi script, and with double vowels with acute accent on the first; ◌◌́/aá in Latin), is a fish-like looping line that is placed on top of Fatḥah and Ḍammah, or curly Fatḥah and curly Ḍammah, or their respective Fatḥatan and Ḍammatan versions, and it's placed underneath Kasrah or curly Kasrah, or their respective Kasratan version. (e.g. ) This tone marker indicates a long rising tone (pronounced as //˨˦//).[1] [2]| Vowel at the beginning of syllable | ||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| A | O | I | E | U | Ou | |
| Vowel following a consonant, no tone | ||||||
| Sa | So | Si | Se | Su | Sou | |
| Vowel following a consonant, Short high tone pronounced as /link/ | ||||||
| Sá | Sό | Sí | Sé | Sú | Sόu | |
| Vowel following a consonant, Long falling tone pronounced as /link/ | ||||||
| Sáa | Sόo | Síi | Sée | Súu | Sόou | |
| Vowel following a consonant, Long rising tone pronounced as /link/ | ||||||
| Saá | Soό | Sií | Seé | Suú | Soόu | |
The following is a sample text in Rohingya of Article 1 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights with English, contrasted with versions of the text in Bengali and Assamese.
| Rohingya in Rohingya Arabic Script | ||
|---|---|---|
| Rohingya in Hanifi Script | . | |
| Rohingya in Rohingya Latin alphabet | Manúic beggún azad hísafe, ar izzot arde hók ókkol ót, fúainna hísafe foida óiye. Fottí insán óttu honó forók sára elan ot aséde tamám hók ókkol arde azadi ókkol loi fáaida goróon ór hók asé. Ar, taráre dil arde demak diyé. Ótolla, taráttu ekzon loi arekzon bái hísafe maamela goróon saá. | |
| English original: | "All human beings are born free and equal in dignity and rights. They are endowed with reason and conscience and should act towards one another in a spirit of brotherhood." |