Arabic Transliteration/Encoding Chart

The Buckwalter Transliteration is a strict transliteration of Modern Standard Arabic orthographical symbols using only 7-bit ASCII characters. It is used for representing exact orthographical strings of Arabic in email and other environments where the display of real Arabic script is impractical or impossible. There is a strict one-to-one mapping back and forth from UNICODE to Buckwalter Transliteration, without gain or loss of ambiguity. Arabic text in ASMO 449 and ISO8859-6 can also be translated into Buckwalter Transliteration (or UNICODE), but the reverse mapping is hindered by the lack of a couple of (rare) characters in the 7-bit and 8-bit encodings.

Name                    UNICODE		Buckwalter	ASMO 449

hamza-on-the-line	\u0621  	'		A	
madda			\u0622          |		B	
hamza-on-'alif		\u0623  	>		C	
hamza-on-waaw		\u0624  	&		D	
hamza-under-'alif	\u0625  	<		E	
hamza-on-yaa'		\u0626  	}		F	
bare 'alif		\u0627  	A		G	
baa'                    \u0628  	b		H	
taa' marbuuTa           \u0629  	p		I	
taa'                    \u062A  	t		J	
thaa'                   \u062B  	v		K	
jiim                    \u062C  	j		L	
Haa'                    \u062D  	H		M	
khaa'                   \u062E  	x		N	
daal                    \u062F  	d		O	
dhaal                   \u0630  	*		P	
raa'                    \u0631  	r		Q	
zaay                    \u0632  	z		R	
siin                    \u0633  	s		S	
shiin                   \u0634  	$		T	
Saad                    \u0635  	S		U	
Daad                    \u0636  	D		V	
Taa'                    \u0637  	T		W	
Zaa' (DHaa')            \u0638  	Z		X	
cayn                    \u0639  	E		Y	
ghayn                   \u063A  	g		Z	
taTwiil                 \u0640          _		0x60	
faa'                    \u0641  	f		a	
qaaf                    \u0642  	q		b	
kaaf                    \u0643  	k		c	
laam                    \u0644  	l		d	
miim                    \u0645  	m		e	
nuun                    \u0646  	n		f	
haa'                    \u0647  	h		g	
waaw                    \u0648  	w		h	
'alif maqSuura          \u0649  	Y		i	
yaa'                    \u064A  	y		j	
fatHatayn               \u064B  	F		k	
Dammatayn               \u064C  	N		l	
kasratayn               \u064D  	K		m	
fatHa                   \u064E  	a		n	
Damma                   \u064F  	u		o	
kasra                   \u0650          i		p	
shaddah                 \u0651  	~		q	
sukuun                  \u0652  	o		r	
dagger 'alif            \u0670  	`		(missing)
waSla                   \u0671  	{		(missing)

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Ken.Beesley@xrce.xerox.com