DIN 31635


DIN 31635 is a Deutsches Institut für Normung standard for the transliteration of the Arabic alphabet adopted in 1982. It is based on the rules of the Deutsche Morgenländische Gesellschaft as modified by the International Orientalist Congress 1935 in Rome. The most important differences from English-based systems were doing away with j, because it stood for in the English-speaking world and for in the German-speaking world and the entire absence of digraphs like th, dh, kh, gh, sh. Its acceptance relies less on its official status than on its elegance and the Geschichte der arabischen Literatur manuscript catalogue of Carl Brockelmann and the dictionary of Hans Wehr. Today it is used in most German-language publications of Arabic and Islamic studies.

Table

Arabic lettersء‎ / ابتثجحخدذرزسشصضطظعغفقكلمنهوي / ى‎
DIN 31635ʾ / ābtṯǧḥḫdḏrzsšṣḍṭẓʿġfqklmnhw / ūy / ī
ALA-LCʼ / ābtthjḥkhddhrzsshṣḍṭẓʻghfqklmnhw / ūy / ī
IPA ,


, ,

Rules

The ' are transliterated as a, i and u. A ' results in a geminate. The article is written with the sun letters assimilated.
An ' marking is transliterated as ā. The letter tāʾ marbūṭah is transliterated as word-final -h normally, or -t in a word in the construct state.
Hamzah has many variants, أ إ ء ئ ؤ; depending on its position, all of them are transliterated as. The initial ʾalif without a hamzah isn't transliterated using ʾ initially, only the initial vowel is transliterated : i-.
ʾalif maqṣūrah appears as ā, transliterating it indistinguishable from ʾalif.
Long vowels and are transliterated as ī and ū. The ' suffix appears as -iyy, -iyyah although the former is normally transliterated as -ī, and nunation is ignored in transliteration. A hyphen - is used to separate clitics from words to which they are attached.
The Eastern Arabic numerals are rendered as western Arabic numerals.