Arab states agree on transcription of Arabic in Latin alphabet

The Arab states agreed in Berlin on the rules of transcription of Arabic alphabet into Latin, on the sidelines of the two-week UN conference on geographic names standardization.

The Arab experts exposed the rules of transcription of Arab alphabet into Latin, adopted for the first time, to the conference.

Researcher and historian Abdelhadi Tazi, head of the Moroccan delegation to the conference, lauded the significant progress which, he said, will enable Arab countries to use unified rules to transcribe Arabic into Latin.

The transcription rules in Morocco date back to 1932, while Morocco was still under the protectorate.

Abdelhadi Tazi, who is member of the Academy of the Kingdom of Morocco, said he suggested to the Arab group a synthesis of two major currents in the field, the Beirut school and the Islamic Encyclopedia. "We have adopted a new approach, because both of the major schools are obsolete. We tried in our approach to remain as faithful as possible to the Arabic letter."