SEI transliteration system

SEI transliteration system

Please note:

  • As the transliteration of Arabic devised by the School of Spanish Arabists is in some way a reference standard, it has been respected as far as possible.
  • Transliteration system with diacritics, so as not to use digraphs.

Consonants

ء           ’

ب             b

پ             p

ت             t

ث             ş

ج             ŷ

چ             č

ح             ḥ

خ             j

د             d

ذ             ẕ

ر             r

ز             z

ژ             ĵ

س             s

ش             š

ص             ṣ

ض             ż

ط             ṭ

ظ             ẓ

ع             ‘

غ             ğ

ف             f

ق             q

ک             k

گ             g

ل             l

م             m

ن             n

و             v

ه             h

ی             y

Vowels

آ                 ā

و                  u, ō

ی                 i

ی (aléf maqsura) à

ــَـ             a

ـــِ             e

ـــُ             o

ﻪ                 ē

Diphthongs

و                 ow/aw

ی                 ey/ay

More about transliteration

  1. Nouns, common names, etc. are accentuated. where applicable: Daqiqí, pahlaví, etc.
  2. When the ی is double, transcribe as “iy”: for example: “adabiyāt”.
  3. The genitive is transcribed -e-, -ye-, that is, with two hyphens, joining the two words it relates.
  4. The خوا and خوﯿ, remainder of a Middle Persian phoneme, transliterate them as jã and jĩ respectively.
  5. Transcribe ابن as Ibn, not Ebn, even though it is pronounced like this in Persian, the justification being that Ibn is deeply rooted in Spanish. However, when it is part of a compound name, it is proposed to transliterate with the abbreviated form b., For example: Moḥammad b. Ḥasan.
  6. About the Arabic article (al-):
    1. Place this article in the names of the Arab or Persian personalities who use it, such as the caliphs: al-Ma’mun; or the wise: al-Jãrazmí.
    2. On ابن Ibn, where it is not possible to abbreviate as b., As it is an inseparable part of the name (such as Ibn Moqaffa ‘), or al-, as is the case, or is put, in which case it is transcribed as Ibn al- (if it is Arabic and mostly known that way).
    3. In compositions where the Arabic article “al” acts as a genitive, in constructions such as Nozhat al-qolub (title of a work), ‘Abd al-Ḥosayn, Nāṣer al-Din (proper names), etc., join the article only to the second word of the composition. It must be taken into account that in Persian the Arabic article is elided in many names that would take it in Arabic, such as the cases of Biruní and Ḥallāŷ.
    4. Ignore the rule of solar and lunar letters, and always transcribe the article as al-. The reason: the phonetic rules of Persian ignore this, in addition to the fact that what matters is to reflect the letters of the original, and not so much the sounds.