Back to basics Arabic - a midnight guide

[35east: Pretty much straight after I posted this, Google Ta3reeb upped their ante and released a much better, and worryingly more similar, service to Yamli (which now has a bookmarklet) and in the biggest move on the transliteration scene, Microsoft released Maren, which is a lower level service that works in all windows - it sets itself up as an input language, as if you're changing your keyboard from the language bar in the Windows taskbar. I will try to update this post as soon as possible to reflect these changes.]

It's simple. You and I might read and write Arabic (if that), but nothing has opened up access to the language, especially on the internet, like the tools below. A complete set to get you started, and in order of importance (you only need to read up to the "Alternatives" section):

1 - Yamli
First off, this site is a miracle cure to what's probably been the biggest obstacle facing the proliferation of Arabic on the net. In a nutshell, it's a transliteration service and tool. So "a7innu 2ila khubz 2ummi li Ma7moud Darwish" in shorthand is correctly written in real time as أحن إلى خبز أمي لمحمود درويش

How do you use it? Three ways:

1. Visit yamli.com to search Goolge* in Arabic**


2. Use websites that allow you search them in Arabic, and which utilise the Yamli interface (API), e.g. neelwafurat.com (the Amazon of Arabic books), Annahar.com, Ikbis.com (Arabic youtube), elcinema.com (Arab IMDB), etc. etc.


3. and the best complement to those two is to install the Yamli Firefox Toolbar. If you're not using Firefox, then you should. This add-in allows you to type Arabic into any form on most websites using Yamli's transliteration engine

* searching Yamli is better than and not the same as searching a Google site (e.g. google.co.uk) by typing Arabic in the search box since it searches different combinations of different spellings, e.g. um kalthoum, umm kalthoom etc...
** An official vid of the Yamli site in action


2 - Sakhr lexicons and dictionaries
If you're like me, and have to remind yourself of the Arabic alphabet every time you pick up the mu3jam (Arabic dictionary) :-o, then you'll love these. They're best used with the Yamli Firefox Toolbar add-in installed

Sakhr provides two services: digitised Arabic - Arabic dictionaries and a translation service

Sakhr Lexicons
Allows you to search several key reference dictionaries in the Arab world: (المحيط - محيط المحيط - الوسيط - القاموس المحيط - لسان العرب - نجعة الرائد - الغني- تاج العروس)

Sakhr Dictionaries
Worst comes to worst, you can try translating it to another language (English, French, Turkish and German)


3 - Viewing Arabic
Arabic can sometimes be a b*tch hard to read on screen, so be prepared to zoom into some of the websites you visit. This is easiest done by holding down the CTRL button and using the scroll on your mouse.

Arabic is also best read in Tahoma font (a sans serif font unlike Times New Roman which is usually the default). To set Firefox to use Tahoma:

1. In Firefox, go to Tools | Options


2. Under the Content tab, choose Tahoma in the Fonts & Colors section
   Note, you can choose that Firefox uses Tahoma only when viewing Arabic pages in the Advanced setting. This is somewhat redundant, as Firefox's default is to allow pages to choose their own font if specified, instead of any selection you make

Alternatives

4 - Al Baheth
This is another great site which uses the Yamli API (you don't need to have the Yamli Firefox add-in installed) but I've found the Sakhr Lexicons easier to use / understand

5 - Google Ta3reeb
Google has it's own service of Arabic transliteration, and like all big a$$ corporates has figured out that what Yamli's onto is big. Google also has an API which websites can use to allow users to type in Arabic, but the service is inferior to Yamli's, e.g. doesn't offer a drop down of words, no toolbar etc. Either way, watch this space since you never know what's up Google's sleeve!

For the power users out there, you can purchase Arabic keyboard stickers on Ebay, add an Arabic Keyboard to your input method in Windows XP and learn to touch type Arabic :-)