Romanization is a way of reproducing the sound of the words according to the orthography rules of the target language "mainly Latin script based language"; uniform results in the Romanization of non-Latin based script languages are difficult to obtain, since vowel points and diacritical marks -if any- are generally omitted from both manual and machine writing. It follows that for correct identification of the words which appear in any particular name, knowledge of its standard Arabic-script spelling including proper pointing, and recognition of dialectal and idiosyncratic deviations are essential. In multilingual applications, the problem of corss-lingual name matching is complicated by the fact that when a name is represented in a script different from its native script there may be several alternative representations for each phoneme, leading to large number of potential variants, this is true for Romanized forms of names in many languages such as Arabic. Romanizer does an orthographic transcription by default, a process that can distinguish between multicultural names and apply a sophisticated algorithm to provide the most likely variations. It is neither a simple name matching algorithm nor a name combination generator engine; it rather goes all the way back creating a new legitimate version of the input name token to decide which legitimate variants to return, thus avoiding the elaborate listing of trivial and never-exist variants mostly output by simple combination processes. It also tracks cultural variations through look-up database of refined set of etymologic database to follow exactly the way used by specific culture to Romanize the name. For Semetic languages such as Arabic which is normally unvocalized, the unvocalized Arabic name does not give sufficient information for accurate romanization, Arabic personal names come without any diacritical marks so a fully accurate vocalized version of the name is necessary for romanization purposes, the system serves as a major pre-processor and provide three optional vocalization modes to chose from as adding vowels to Arabic personal names is critical for any Romanization or transcription process, this module accomplishes the task of disambiguating Arabic personal names; it can be viewed as a front-end processor for the transcription system, this module is name specific, unpredictable output will result if used to vocalize ordinary text Arabic personal name has no more than one way to spell and this is true for most of the names exist in the language vocabulary; variants occur only when romanizing the Arabic name to other languages that have no one-to-one phonetic relationship with Arabic e.g. all romance languages. As a result of this each Arabic name has many romanized variants in other languages too. A major problem challenging Arabic text processing systems is the absence of diacritics and vowels (Fat'ħa, Damma, Kasra, Shadda, Sukuun) in almost all the Arabic writings. The information contained in unvocalized orthography of the Arabic names is not sufficient to most applications supposed to accomplish automatic transliteration of Arabic proper nouns to English For instance the names "أحْمَد" /ʔħ'mad/ and "مُحَمَّد" /muħam'mad/ " have the following different transcription pairs respectively :
"Ahmet" and "Muhemet" in Turkey, The pairs shown above do not actually tell the whole story since the list of variants of such very common names will be really long without enfocing some sort of rules to limit the output within acceptable phonemic forms. The system is designed to deal with such complexities and fully return all romanized versions of any personal name with such minimal nuances been distinguished and clearly manifested |
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Vocalized: vocalized version of the name | DIN: Deutsches Institut für Normung |
UNGEGN: United Nations Group of Experts on Geographical Names | SATTS: Standard Arabic Technical Transliteration System |
ALA-LC: American Library Association-Library of Congress | Common: popular Romanization |
ID | Entry | Vocalized | UNGEGN | ALA-LC | DIN | SATTS | Common |
0001 | أبوبكر | أَبُوبَكْر | Abū Bakr | Abū Bakr | Abu Bakr | AEBWBKR | Abu Bakr |
0002 | حزام | حَزَام | Ḩazām | Ḥazām | Ḥazām | H;AM | Hazam |
0003 | حسام | حُسَام | Ḩusām | Ḥusām | Ḥusām | HSAM | Husam |
0004 | حسان | حَسَّان | Ḩassān | Ḥassān | Ḥassān | HSAN | Hassan |
0005 | خولي | خُولِي | Khūlī | Khūlī | Ḫūliy | OWLI | Khuli |
0006 | خنساء | خَنْسَاء | Khansā’ | Khansā' | Ḫansā | ONSAE | Khansa |
0007 | خضاب | خِضَاب | Khiḑāb | Khiḍāb | Ḫiḍāb | OVAB | Khidab |
0008 | جداول | جَدَاوِل | Jadāwil | Jadāwil | Ğadāwil | JDAWL | Jadawil |
0009 | جيداء | جِيدَاء | Jīdā’ | Jīdā' | Ğīdaā | JIDAE | Jidaa |
0010 | جدوى | جَدْوَى | Jadwā | Jadwā | Ğadwā | JDWa/ | Jadwa |
0011 | ثمينة | ثَمِينَة | Thamīnah | Thamīnah | Ṯamīnah | CMIN? | Thaminah |
0012 | ثمرات | ثَمَرَات | Thamarāt | Thamarāt | Ṯamarāt | CMRAT | Thamarat |
0013 | ثابت | ثَابِت | Thābit | Thābit | Ṯābit | CABT | Thabit |
0014 | برهان | بُرْهَان | Burhān | Burhān | Burhān | BR?AN | Burhan |
0015 | بركات | بَرَكَات | Barakāt | Barakāt | Barakāt | BRKAT | Barakat |
0016 | بركة | بَرَكَة | Barakah | Barakah | Barakah | BRK? | Barakah |
0017 | بسمة | بَسْمَة | Basmah | Basmah | Basmah | BSM? | Basmah |
0018 | إسراء | إِسْرَاء | Isrā’ | Isrā' | Isrā | ESRAE | Israa |
0019 | إشراف | إِشْرَاف | Ishrāf | Ishrāf | Išrāf | E:RAF | Ishraf |
0020 | دعد | دَعْد | Da`d | Da’d | Daʿd | D`D | Daad |
0021 | دعجاء | دَعْجَاء | Da`jā’ | Da’jā' | Daʿǧā | D`JAE | Daja |
0022 | رمضان | رَمَضَان | Ramaḑān | Ramaḍān | Ramaḍān | RMVAN | Ramadan |
0023 | رامية | رَامِيَة | Rāmiyah | Rāmiyah | Rāmiyah | RAMI? | Ramyah |
0024 | سخية | سَخِيَّة | Sakhiyyah | Sakhīyah | Saḫīyah | SOI? | Sakhyah |
0025 | سديد | سَدِيد | Sadīd | Sadīd | Sadīd | SDID | Sadeed |
0026 | سحر | سَحَر | Saḩar | Saḥar | Saḥar | SHR | Sahar |
0027 | أم شادي | أُمُّ شَادِي | Umm Shādī | Umm Shādī | Umm Šādy | AEM :ADI | Um Shady |
0028 | شادن | شَادِن | Shādin | Shādin | Šādin | :ADN | Shadin |
0029 | صقر | صَقْر | Şaqr | Ṣaqr | Ṣaqr | XQR | Saqr |
0030 | ضليع | ضَلِيع | Ḑalī` | Ḍalī’ | Ḍalīʿ | VLI` | Daleea |
0031 | ضمرة | ضَمْرَة | Ḑamrah | Ḍamrah | Ḍamrah | VMR? | Damra |
0032 | ظاهرة | ظَاهِرَة | Z̧āhirah | Ẓāhirah | Ẓāhirah | YA?R? | Dhahira |
0033 | ظريف | ظَرِيف | Z̧arīf | Ẓarīf | Ẓarīf | YRIF | Dhareef |
0034 | عائشة | عَائِشَة | `ā’ishah | ’ā'ishah | ʿāišah | `AE:? | Aishah |
0035 | عاطف | عَاطِف | `āţif | ’āṭif | ʿāṭif | `AUF | Atif |
0036 | عبد المجيب | عَبْدُ الْمَجِيب | `abdul Mujīb | ’abdul Mujīb | ʿabdul Muǧīb | `BD ALMJIB | Abdul Mujeeb |
0037 | عبد المجيد | عَبْدُ الْمَجِيد | `abdul Majīd | ’abdul Majīd | ʿabdul Maǧīd | `BD ALMJID | Abdul Majeed |
0038 | عريق | عَرِيق | `arīq | ’arīq | ʿarīq | `RIQ | Areeq |
0039 | عرفات | عَرَفَات | `arafāt | ’arafāt | ʿrafāt | `RFAT | Arafat |
0040 | غسان | غَسَّان | Ghassān | Ghassān | Ġassān | GSAN | Ghassan |
0041 | غصن | غُصْن | Ghuşn | Ghuṣn | Ġuṣn | GXN | Ghusn |
0042 | غفران | غُفْرَان | Ghufrān | Ghufrān | Ġufrān | GFRAN | Ghufran |
0043 | فيصل | فَيْصَل | Fayşal | Fayṣal | Fayṣal | FIXL | Faisal |
0044 | فراس | فِرَاس | Firās | Firās | Firās | FRAS | Firas |
0045 | كاظمة | كَاظِمَة | Kāz̧imah | Kāẓimah | Kāẓimah | KAYM? | Kazimah |
0046 | كاعب | كَاعِب | Kā`ib | Kā’ib | Kāʿib | KA`B | Kaaib |
0047 | كحلاء | كَحْلاَء | Kaḩlā’ | Kaḥlā' | Kāḥlāʾ | KHLAE | Kahlaa |
0048 | لبابة | لُبَابَة | Lubābah | Lubābah | Lubābah | LBAB? | Lubabah |
0049 | لبيبة | لَبِيبَة | Labībah | Labībah | Labībah | LBIB? | Labeebah |
0050 | ماهرة | مَاهِرَة | Māhirah | Māhirah | Māhirah | MA?R? | Mahirah |
0051 | ماوية | مَاوِيَّة | Māwīyah | Māwīyah | Māwīyah | MAWI? | Mawyah |
0052 | مائسة | مَائِسَة | Mā’isah | Mā'isah | Māʾisah | MAES? | Maisah |
0053 | نافع | نَافِع | Nāfi` | Nāfi’ | Nāfiʿ | NAF` | Nafia |
0054 | هجرس | هَجْرَس | Hajras | Hajras | Haǧras | ?JRS | Hajras |
0055 | هيفاء | هَيْفَاء | Hayfā’ | Hayfā' | Hayfaʾ | ?IFAE | Hayfa |
0056 | وليد | وَلِيد | Walīd | Walīd | Walīd | WLID | Waleed |
0057 | واثق | وَاثِق | Wāthiq | Wāthiq | Wāṯiq | WACQ | Wathiq |
0058 | يمنى | يُمْنَى | Yumna | Yumnā | Yumnā | IMN/ | Yumna |
0059 | ياسمينة | يَاسَمِينَة | Yāsamīnah | Yāsamīnah | Yāsamīnah | IASMIN? | Yasminah |
0060 | ياسر | يَاسِر | Yāsir | Yāsir | Yāsir | IASR | Yasir |