Transcription is always a problem, especially in the case of an encyclopedia that brings together data from Standard Arabic and dialects. The transcription follows in the main the one adopted by Fischer and Jastrow in the Handbuch der arabischen Dialekte (1980:11–14), but with some adaptations. The editors have decided to use ḏ̣ (not ẓ) throughout, except in proper names (thus ḏ̣uhr, but Ibn Manẓūr).

Table 1. Transcription of the Arabic alphabet

In the transcription of Modern Standard Arabic and Classical Arabic, the following rules have been followed:

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hamza at the beginning of t…