
Show HN: Eskéndereyya – Learn how to read and write Arabic - _samihasan_
https://github.com/samihasan/eskendereyya
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Nadya
I'm going to be a sour horse, and I apologize, because it looks like much
effort went into this project.

Is this meant as a romanization method, such as ローマ字ーー＞ 'romaji/roumaji' or as
a way to have "more correct" pronunciation for learners?

I hold a firm belief that romanization is terrible for learning a language. It
is counter productive (less inclination to learn the proper writing
system(s)), leads to incorrect pronunciations more often than not, and there
are always competing standards - so two people may learn two different ways to
romanize a word, which can be a problem for homophones.

To at least try and give _some_ constructive feedback, use of IPA [0] would be
beneficial for reinforcing pronunciations.

[0]
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/International_Phonetic_Alphabe...](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/International_Phonetic_Alphabet)

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_samihasan_
Hi Nadya,

Thanks for your feedback.

I am not really familiar with romanization schemes of the Japanese language.
So, I can't really comment on the specific point you raised but I'm familiar
with other schemes of Arabic and most are lacking or cumbersome to use esp.
for beginners.

The raison d'etre for my project is bridging the gap that Arabic learners esp.
beginners face when they explore the language and how's mastering Arabic
script whether in reading or writing is asking too much from them at that
stage and how's that affects their learning journey very negatively.

This learning curve is just too steep for them and I really wanted to help
them to make the first steps to learn the language without the unneeded
complexity and like I said on the introduction part, Arabic script is not
going anywhere and they have to get acquainted with it very closely if they
are serious about learning the language but too early in my opinion could be
counter-productive for them.

Eskéndereyya is not a substitute or competitor for IPA or any other fully-
featured pronunciation or romanization system. Like I said in the "Design
Philosophy", it has "just enough" academic rigor to get the job done. For
people who want more academic rigor and comprehensiveness, they're advised to
check other systems for review.

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bbcbasic
I spent a stint learning Arabic and I think learning the alphabet is the easy
part. Learning the grammar and building working vocab is harder. I think
learning the Arabic alphabet makes it easier to pick up Arabic. It has the
beautiful property that is a phonetic language so no guessing how to pronounce
words one the alphabet is learned

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_samihasan_
Hi,

Have you completed the whole guide?

Eskéndereyya doesn't only support MSA but other regional derivative
languages/dialects like Egyptian and Syrian Arabic. Also, it would be a good
idea to refresh your memory and test your knowledge of the language.

I agree with you that the Arabic script is and will always be better for
writing Arabic texts but this writing system was developed to fill the gap for
beginners and as a stepping stone to the full experience of learning Arabic.

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_samihasan_
Hi,

This is Sami. I developed this comprehensive writing system of Arabic in Latin
alphabet to help Arabic learners esp. beginners to improve their reading and
writing skills in Arabic without the immediate need to be familiar with the
Arabic script.

Please try it out and let me know what you think in the comments below.

Looking forward to your valuable feedback.

