Arablish, a portmanteau combining the words "Arabic" and "English", is a slang term for an interlanguage and refers to the phenomenon of code-switching between the two languages. It is alternatively termed Arablizi, a portmanteau combining the words Arabic and Inglizi (the word for English in Arabic).
Usage of Arablish/Arablizi particularly among the youth may be as a result of poor knowledge of one language or the other or both, or may be usage for introducing a humorous effect. Arablish/Arablizi is being increasingly used in ordinary conversations and online.[1]
Arablish usually consists of either filling in gaps in one's knowledge of Arabic with English words, speaking Arabic in such a manner that (although ostensibly "Arabic") would be incomprehensible to a Arab language speaker who does not also have a working knowledge of English.
Arablish should not be confused with Arabish / Arabic chat alphabet[2]), which is an alphabet used to communicate in the Arabic language over the Internet or for sending messages via cellular phones when the actual Arabic alphabet is unavailable for technical reasons. It is a character encoding of Arabic to the Roman alphabet and the Hindu-Arabic numerals. The numerals used are:
| Arabic | Arabish | English |
|---|---|---|
| ع | 3 | A |
| ح | 7 | H |
| ط | 6 | T |
| ص | 9 | S |
| ء | 2 | A |
| خ | 5 | KH |
| ق | 8 | Q |
Examples of Arabish include: keef sa7tak, chou/shu 3am ta3mil (how is your health, what are you doing?)
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