Arabic alphabet
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The Arabic alphabet (Arabic: الْأَبْجَدِيَّة الْعَرَبِيَّة, al-ʾabǧadiyyah l-ʿarabiyyah [æl.ʔæb.d͡ʒæˈdɪj.jæ l.ʕɑ.rɑˈbɪj.jæ] or الْحُرُوف الْعَرَبِيَّة, al-ḥurūf al-ʿarabiyyah), or Arabic abjad, is the Arabic script as specifically codified for writing the Arabic language. It is written from right-to-left in a cursive style, and includes 28 letters, of which most have contextual letterforms. The Arabic alphabet is considered an abjad, with only consonants required to be written; due to its optional use of diacritics to notate vowels, it is considered an impure abjad.[2]
For the Arabic script as it is used by all languages, see Arabic script.
Quick Facts Arabic alphabet, Script type ...
| Arabic alphabet | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Script type | |
Time period | 4th century CE – present[1] |
| Direction | Right-to-left script  |
| Languages | Arabic |
| Related scripts | |
Parent systems | |
| ISO 15924 | |
| ISO 15924 | Arab (160), Arabic |
| Unicode | |
Unicode alias | Arabic |
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| This article contains phonetic transcriptions in the International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA). For an introductory guide on IPA symbols, see Help:IPA. For the distinction between [ ], / / and ⟨ ⟩, see IPA § Brackets and transcription delimiters. | |
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as the sole official script
as a co-official script