Arabizi

Arabizi, also spelled Arabeezi or Arabish, is a family of informal writing systems used to render Arabic dialects and Modern Standard Arabic in digital contexts. It employs the Latin alphabet with numeral characters to stand in for Arabic phonemes that lack direct Latin equivalents. There is no single standard; conventions vary by region, dialect, and platform. The system emerged with mobile texting and the Internet, gaining popularity among Arabic-speaking youth in North Africa and the Levant and among diaspora communities. It is primarily used for informal communication on social media, messaging apps, and forums where Arabic script keyboards may be less accessible.

In practice, Arabizi represents words using Latin letters for consonants and uses digits to stand in for certain Arabic consonants. Short vowels are usually omitted, similar to Arabic orthography; occasionally vowels may be indicated with a, e, i, or u to aid readability.

The approach supports dialectal writing, so Egyptian, Levantine, Tunisian, and other varieties may have distinct conventions. Some writers also mix French, English, or other languages, reflecting contact with neighboring linguistic communities.

Because of its informal nature and regional variation, Arabizi is not a formal transliteration system. It coexists with Arabic script and is often used in casual contexts where typing in Arabic script is inconvenient.