Arabization

Most of the time, translation can be a good thing since it exposes a whole new audience to material that they otherwise would nothave access to.Sometimes translation can be a sure way of losing the true meaning of a certain text.Bad translation can result from:

The following is a list of sites that would be interesting for those who want to read Arabic on the internet, or would want to research the technology behind it further.

Background

People who speak Arabic as a first language were about 181 million in 1997 (according to Times 1997 article), making it the Fifth language in the world.

The following is a table of Arabic letters, with the Latin transliteration equivalent in internet 'slang'.

If you are interested in Linux and live in the Arab world you may be interested in the following web sites:

• An Evaluation of the use of Linux in business, government and education is a white paper by Kefah Eisa, in Arabic, and in PDF format.
• Various articles on Computer Arabization - A collections of articles on computers and Arabization, including a list of issues in dealing with Arabic on the Internet, and various methods of achieving it.