On 5/17/07, Laith Juwaidah <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > I don't think we can use abbreviations in Arabic, imagine yourself saying > ذ.د.خ instead of RAM, using the full form is better.
Contrary to the myth, abbreviations do exist is Arabic for centuries now. Abbreviations in Arabic has different forms, most of them are far from the way English manages the task, but still they are doable and already existed. One of the common ways is نحت i.e. making a new word out of several words by joining them together, famous examples to this include بسملة, حوقلة, حيعلة for بسم الله, لا حول ولا قوة إلا بالله, حي على الصلاة respectively. This is a common practice in علم الحديث, like ثنا for حدثنا as an example. Another way is to use 2 (or more) prominent letters from the word and make the abbreviation out of them, like ا.هـ. for انتهى when quoting someone in a book. In some what recent practice there are things like ص.ب. for صندوق بريد which is very famous and pronounced as it صاد باء. This a quick thing, and I think we need a comprehensive study about that subject, I'm sure we'll find more surprising facts. -- Khaled Hosny Egyptian GNU/Linux user Member of Arabeyes translation team [www.arabeyes.org] My Blog: [www.khaledhosny.org] Support Free Knowledge [ar.wikipedia.org] _______________________________________________ Doc mailing list [email protected] http://lists.arabeyes.org/mailman/listinfo/doc
