Hans Wehr transliteration

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The Hans Wehr transliteration system is used in the Hans Wehr dictionary. There was a change in the transliteration system between two editions of the dictionary. The transliteration system uses no digraphs. It is always displayed in the italic style of Latin-alphabet font. It uses two types of diacritics. It uses a dot underneath or upside for some letters. It also uses a line underneath for other letters. For long vowels a macron is used (a line on top of the letter). No capital letters are used (they were in previous editions).

• . dot underneath the letter
• _ line underneath the letter
• - line on top of the letter

The transliteration of the Arabic alphabet.

Letter	Name	Transliteration	4th English Edition
ا	Alif	ā or ʾ
ب	Bāʾ	b
ت	Tāʾ	t
ث	Ṯāʾ	ṯ
ج	Ğīm	ğ	j
ح	Ḥāʾ	ḥ
خ	Ḫāʾ	ḫ	ḵ
د	Dāl	d
ذ	Ḏāl	ḏ
ر	Rāʾ	r
ز	Zāy	z
س	Sīn	s
ش	Šīn	š
ص	Ṣād	ṣ
ض	Ḍād	ḍ
ط	Ṭāʾ	ṭ
ظ	Ẓāʾ	ẓ
ع	ʿAin	ʿ
غ	Ġain	ġ	ḡ
ف	Fāʾ	f
ق	Qāf	q
ك	Kāf	k
ل	Lām	l
م	Mīm	m
ن	Nūn	n
ه	Hāʾ	h
و	Wāw	w or ū
ي	Yāʾ	y or ī

• Hamza (ء): Transliterated as ʾ. Never transliterated at the beginning of a word.
• No special letter for the tāʾ marbūṭa (ة). Either the letter "t" or the letter "h" depending on context. When a word with a tāʾ marbūṭa is written alone a normal letter "h" (or just as an "a") is used to transcribe it. This depends on pronunciation.
• Native Arabic long vowels: ā ī ū
• Long vowels in borrowed words: ē ō
• Diphthongs: ai, au
• Short vowels: Fatḥa should be transcribed as "a", kasra as "i" and ḍamma as "u".
• Non-Standard Arabic consonants: p (پ), ž (ژ), g (گ)
• Alif maqsūra (ى): ā
• Madda (آ): ʾā
• Words that end in a letter yāʾ (يّ) that could be written with a šadda (consonant gemination symbol): This nisba ending is transliterated as īy.
• Capitalization: in the current Hans Wehr transliteration system (the fourth edition) no capital letters are used whatsoever, even in proper nouns; the reason given for this is that the upper-case /lower-case contrast does not exist in Arabic writing, so deciding whether a word should begin with a capital letter would be pointless guess work (it is pointless because the definition of the word given beside the word in the dictionary).
• Arabic definite Article: The Arabic definite article ال is always rendered as "al-" except where assimilation occurs (al + šams BECOMES aš-šams). Never does the "a" in "al-" change.