RT Article
T1 Variation in the Use of Diacritics in Modern Typeset Standard Arabic: A Theoretical and Descriptive Framework
JF Arabica
VO 69
IS 3
SP 279
OP 317
A1 Hallberg, Andreas
LA English
PB Brill
YR 2022
UL https://www.ixtheo.de/Record/1808828992
AB The extent to which the diacritic layer (taškīl) of the Arabic writing system is employed in modern typeset text differs considerably between genres and individual texts, with many in-between forms not aptly captured by the traditional binary categories of “vowelled” and “unvowelled” text. This article is the first to present a theoretical account of this variation applicable to modern typeset Standard Arabic. It is suggested that diacritics serve three basic functions: facilitation of reading comprehension; facilitation of prescriptively correct diction; and to evoke associations with other texts. Six modes of diacritization in modern typeset text are identified and related to data on rates of diacritization from a corpus of electronically published books. Further lines of research based on this framework are suggested.
K1 corpus linguistics
K1 diacritics
K1 taškīl
K1 Orthography
K1 Modern Standard Arabic
DO 10.1163/15700585-12341640