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> No I'm saying that sms arabic is a transliteration or arabic into latin script... I see your point. Though that still does not advance Luxemberg's claim. >

by azth 13y ago

> No I'm saying that sms arabic is a transliteration or arabic into latin script... I see your point. Though that still does not advance Luxemberg's claim. > In modern arabic, sort-of (spoken, yes, written, not really, same as in hebrew really, which is to say, not at all... I really don't understand this claim. What about the following letters since you say you can read Arabic: (و، ا، ي) Aren't they vowels? Did you take a look at the Kufic manuscript I linked in my previous post? Those letters exist there as well. Hebrew and Aramaic both have corresponding letters to those too. > Obviously the arabs living in the 8th century still used vowels, just not in writing... The Kufic script image I linked to proves otherwise. I take it I got the point across with the root of the word Qur'aan (Qa-Ra-'a) :-) > It's "unique", is that perhaps a polite way of saying that it's very different from anything else you've ever read, with "weird" verb forms, words with wrong roots and the like ? Speculation on your part (when you say "perhaps"). I will try to go more into details about this topic in another post (if this thread remains open!)

waps 13y ago
Those letters are not vowels, no. Like in Hebrew, they're more akin to separation characters. Like, in latin languages you write 2 letters and you have the difference between open and closed vowels. Certain rules then dictate when you have 2 open vowels after one another, you're supposed to introduce a word boundary, and abrupt fall-of of the first vowel immediately followed by the second, also long (fun thing is that, of course the rules started changing. So in latin ae the a and e are short vowels, like 'ai', but in English you'd say 'a-e'), which is sort-of the same in latin. It's just in latin you write the vowel before and after the split, in semitic languages you write that there is a split. These letters make the difference between, say, kaba and ka-aba. Or agan and haganah ('haganaa'). But you'd still use the same letters for keaba, kuoba, and other words (if they existed).

by azth 13y ago

waps 13y ago

Those letters are not vowels, no. Like in Hebrew, they're more akin to separation characters. Like, in latin languages you write 2 letters and you have the difference between open and closed vowels. Certain rules then dictate when you have 2 open vowels after one another, you're supposed to introduce a word boundary, and abrupt fall-of of the first vowel immediately followed by the second, also long (fun thing is that, of course the rules started changing. So in latin ae the a and e are short vowels, like 'ai', but in English you'd say 'a-e'), which is sort-of the same in latin. It's just in latin you write the vowel before and after the split, in semitic languages you write that there is a split. These letters make the difference between, say, kaba and ka-aba. Or agan and haganah ('haganaa'). But you'd still use the same letters for keaba, kuoba, and other words (if they existed).