Arabic transcription is the act of transcribing Arabic text into Romanized form. The core of the method is to replace Arabic letters with their equivalent Roman letters where possible. In other cases, combinations of letters can be used to approximate the correct sound. This process focuses on the way the language sounds, rather than trying to make a letter-by-letter match.
There are several challenges associated with Arabic transcription. The only Roman alphabet letters that clearly correspond with letters in the Arabic alphabet are B, F, K, L, M, N, R, and Z. There are also some sounds in the Arabic language that do not have a Roman letter equivalent. The letters S, D, H, and T all have more than one Arabic letter that makes essentially the same sound.
As there are so many variables in Arabic transcription, the results of multiple transcribers can vary widely. This is why words, and names in particular, that have been translated from Arabic to the Roman alphabet can have several variations. For this reason, there have been several attempts to create a standard for this kind of transcription. Historically certain standards have been accepted in limited areas or by specific groups, but there has not been one globally-accepted method.
One of the most challenging aspects of Arabic transcription is the translation of vowel sounds. The vowel is not written out in Arabic languages. In order to correctly pronounce words, the sound must be added by the reader. The same is true of transcription, as the translator must know when to insert vowels in the Romanized version of the text.
A process opposite to transcription is transliteration. This is a translation process where each letter has a counterpart. It is based on how the language looks in print rather than how it sounds. This can be extremely difficult to do with Arabic translation as there are so few letters with a Roman counterpart.
There are several companies that offer Arabic transcription services. In order to properly transcribe the nuances of the language as used in different fields, transcriptionists will often specialize in certain areas of the language, such as legal, financial, and medical fields. These companies are expert in avoiding several of the pitfalls of transcription such as misreading similar symbols, translating without vowel sounds, and compensating for elements of Arabic language that do not have a Roman counterpart.
