Arabic script

Arabic script (plural Arabic scripts)

1. The 28-letter abjad used for writing the Arabic language. Derived from the Phoenician alphabet. The Arabic script has been adapted for use in a wide variety of languages other than Arabic, including Persian, Kurdish, Malay, Urdu and some Punjabi dialects.

Name	ʾálif	bāʾ	tāʾ	ṯāʾ	jīm	ḥāʾ	xāʾ	dāl	ḏāl	rāʾ
Letter
Name	zayn, zāy	sīn	šīn	ṣād	ḍād	ṭāʾ	ẓāʾ	ʿayn	ġayn	fāʾ
Letter
Name	qāf	kāf	lām	mīm	nūn	hāʾ	wāw	yāʾ
Letter
Note: 22 letters have four different forms according to their position: Isolated, initial, medial, final. ز, ر, ذ, د, ا and و have an identical initial and medial form, and cannot connect to the following letter (see Wikipedia: Arabic alphabet) for more information. Arabic and derived scripts partly share this peculiarity with other abjads — see e.g. the Hebrew ts (צ), which becomes ץ at the end of the word (called in that case sofiut: suffixes, endings), like four other letters.

• abjad