Arabic Transliterator

How to Use the Arabic Transliterator

1. 1. Paste the Arabic. Names, titles and whole passages work, and so do words copied from a web page or a PDF. Latin letters, numbers and spacing pass through; Arabic-Indic digits become 0–9 and the Arabic comma, semicolon and question mark become , ; and ?.
2. 2. Check the options. Pausal form leaves out final case vowels and tanwīn, which is what ALA-LC and the DMG both ask for in running text. Turn it off to see every written ending. Capitalization follows English practice, except for the article al-.
3. 3. Read the three results. Each card is one system, with a line on who uses it. Copy the one your library, journal or instructor names.
4. 4. Look at the notice. If words have no vowel marks, the tool says how many. Their short vowels are missing from the output, and that is a limit of the script, not a bug.

ALA-LC, DMG/DIN 31635 or Simple?

The three systems answer different questions. ALA-LC is the Library of Congress table (2012 version) that most North American catalogs, and many English-language bibliographies, follow. It uses digraphs for some sounds (kh, sh, th) and dots under the emphatic consonants. The DMG system applies DIN 31635 and gives every sound exactly one symbol — ḫ, š, ṯ — so a reader can reverse it to the Arabic. The simple form drops all dots and macrons for general readers. Here is the converter's own output for the name of the author of The Compendious Book on Calculation by Completion and Balancing, written with vowel marks:

Notice that ALA-LC writes the final alif maqṣūrah of Mūsā as á, while the DMG always writes it ā. Neither will give you the English spelling Mohammed or Moses — those are traditional forms, not romanizations, and they come out of no system.

Why Unvowelled Arabic Cannot Be Romanized Perfectly

Arabic is normally printed without its short vowels. The three letters k-t-b can be kataba (he wrote), kutub (books) or kutiba (it was written), and only the context tells a reader which. A program has the consonants and nothing else, so it cannot supply the vowels — and no honest converter should guess them.

• What the tool does without vowel marks. It writes the consonants and the long vowels (ā, ū, ī). The sample كتاب becomes ktāb, not kitāb.
• The و and ي problem. Without marks, و and ي are read as the long vowels ū and ī, so بيت comes out as bīt. With a sukūn on the vowel-less letter (بَيْت) it correctly becomes bayt.
• How to fix it. Use a vocalized source — a dictionary entry, a Quran or textbook edition — or add the marks yourself. Common names in catalogs usually have an established romanization worth copying instead.

The Rules the Tool Applies

• The definite article is always al- with a hyphen in ALA-LC, whether or not the next letter is a sun letter (al-Shams). The DMG assimilates it: aš-šams. A prefixed wa- or bi- is hyphenated too when the vowel marks make it clear.
• Hamza. ALA-LC leaves out an initial hamza and writes ʼ in the middle and at the end of a word (mas’alah); the DMG writes ʾ everywhere hamzat al-qaṭʿ occurs.
• Shaddah doubles the consonant — digraphs included (al-Kashshāf) — and gives ūw, aww, īy or ayy for و and ي.
• Tāʾ marbūṭah is h in ALA-LC, a in the DMG and t in the construct state; choose t in the options for phrases such as Wizārat al-Tarbiyah. The tool cannot tell which one a phrase is.
• The prime ʹ separates letters that would otherwise read as a digraph: أدهم is adʹham, not adham.
• Special words such as Allāh, ibn (written ابن or بن), ʻAmr and mi’ah follow the Library of Congress's own examples.

Romanized Names in Citations

Reference lists use romanized author names and titles so that readers who cannot read Arabic script can find the source. Pick one system and keep it for the whole list. How to Cite a Source in Another Language explains how APA, MLA and Chicago each treat a translated title and a non-Latin original, and the Book Citation Generator formats the entry once you have the romanized pieces.

Frequently Asked Questions

What is the difference between Arabic transliteration and translation?

Transliteration converts letters, not meaning: كتاب becomes kitāb, and a reader who knows no Arabic still has no idea it means 'book'. Translation changes the language. In a citation you often need both — the romanized title and an English translation in brackets.

Which Arabic romanization system should I use?

Use the one your style guide, instructor or publisher names. If nothing is specified, ALA-LC is the safest choice for a bibliography, because library catalogs use it and readers can find the book from your spelling. For linguistics, philology or Islamic studies, journals often require the DMG/DIN 31635 system.

Why does my text come out without short vowels?

Because ordinary Arabic is written without them. The tool can only write vowels that are marked in the text; it never guesses the rest. Paste a vocalized version, or add fatḥah, ḍammah and kasrah to the words, and the vowels appear.

Is the Arabic letter ع written ʿ or ʻ?

Both mean ayn. The Library of Congress catalogues it with the modifier letter ʻ (U+02BB), the DMG with ʿ (U+02BF), and the simple form with a plain opening quote. Choose the system whose conventions you need and keep it consistent.

How do I romanize tā’ marbūṭa (ة)?

ALA-LC writes it h normally and t when the word is in the construct state, followed by another noun (Wizārat al-Tarbiyah). The DMG writes it a, or t in the same construct state. The tool writes the default and switches every ة to t if you choose that option.

Why is 'al-' hyphenated and lowercase?

Both ALA-LC and the DMG treat the definite article as a separate element joined by a hyphen. ALA-LC keeps it lowercase in every position, so you write al-Khawārizmī even at the start of a sentence in a name list.

Can I convert the romanization back to Arabic?

Not reliably, and this tool does not try. ALA-LC drops the initial hamza and alif-support letters, and the simple form merges several consonants into one. Even the DMG system, which was designed to be reversible, needs the vowels the original may not have shown.