Sim-Arabic    

 

A simplified, regularized, romanized language based on written Arabic

 

 

Introduction

Sim-Arabic is a simplified form of Arabic created to make texts in the Arabic language more accessible to speakers of European languages who do not know Arabic or any Semitic language. There are two parts of Sim-Arabic:

*       A Romanized alphabet is used. Each single character in this alphabet corresponds to a single character, or other orthographic mark, in the Arabic (or Persian) alphabet. Because there are more characters in the Arabic alphabet than the Roman alphabet, this leads, unfortunately, to the use of a few non-standard characters and a few which do not match phonetically. Note that there are no capital letters in Arabic or Persian. Capital letters in Sim-Arabic represent different characters than the lower-case letters.

*       The grammar is relentlessly regularized. All exceptions have been removed. Variant forms have been standardized. Moreover, the grammar has been ruthlessly simplified (to the chagrin, I’m afraid, of native speakers), and rare verbal conjugations, aspects and moods have been eliminated, with the belief that these nuances can be understood from the context.

These two parts are separable. That is, either the alphabet or the grammar could be adopted without the other; the two parts do not depend on each other.

The anticipated usage of this language is this: With the study of this grammar, and a Sim-Arabic/English dictionary, a text in Sim-Arabic will be easily accessible, thereby allowing the reader to come closer to the original language than a standard translation. Texts in Sim-Arabic must be prepared by “translators” who know Arabic and Sim-Arabic, but this process is trivial, almost rote, and much of it should be accomplishable, in theory, by automated means.

Sim-Arabic is not meant to be an International Auxiliary Language, but rather a means by which non-Arabic speakers may better appreciate the beauty of the original Writings.

Refer to the following PDF files for more details or if you would like to learn the Sim-Arabic language. (It may be easiest for the non-linguist/non-conlanger to start with the “Primer.”) Thank you for your consideration.