Arabic alphabet

E38326

abjad writing system

The Arabic alphabet is a cursive, right-to-left abjad script used across the Arab world and adapted for many other languages, including Persian, Urdu, and Pashto.

Try in SPARQL Jump to: Surface forms Disambiguation Statements Elicitation Referenced by

All labels observed (6)

Label	Occurrences
Arabic script	186
Arabic alphabet canonical	12
Classical Arabic script	1
Ottoman Turkish alphabet	1
Urdu alphabet	1
الأبجدية العربية	1

How this entity was disambiguated

This entity first appeared as the object of triple T294044 — resolving that mention is where its identity was fixed. The disambiguator weighed these candidate entities and picked the highlighted one (or “None”, minting a new entity). This is how homonymy is resolved: the same surface form can point to different entities.

NED1 Entity disambiguation (via context triple) gpt-5-mini-2025-08-07

Target entity: Arabic alphabet
Context triple: [Urdu, hasWritingSystemOrigin, Arabic alphabet]

A. Perso-Arabic script
The Perso-Arabic script is a modified form of the Arabic writing system, expanded with additional letters and conventions to represent the sounds of Persian and several other languages across the Middle East and South Asia.
B. Hebrew alphabet
The Hebrew alphabet is an ancient consonant-based writing system used primarily for Hebrew and several other Jewish languages, including Judeo-Arabic and Yiddish.
C. Ruqʿah script
Ruqʿah script is a simple, highly legible Arabic handwriting style commonly used for everyday writing and official documents in the Arab world.
D. Tifinagh
Tifinagh is an ancient and modern script used primarily to write Berber (Amazigh) languages across North Africa.
E. Nabataean alphabet
The Nabataean alphabet is an ancient Northwest Semitic script used by the Nabataean kingdom, which evolved from the Phoenician writing system and later gave rise to the early Arabic script.
F. None of above. chosen
G. Unsure - the case is ambiguous/there is not enough information to decide.

NED2 Entity disambiguation (via description) gpt-5-mini-2025-08-07

Target entity: Arabic alphabet
Target entity description: The Arabic alphabet is a cursive, right-to-left abjad script used across the Arab world and adapted for many other languages, including Persian, Urdu, and Pashto.

A. Perso-Arabic script
The Perso-Arabic script is a modified form of the Arabic writing system, expanded with additional letters and conventions to represent the sounds of Persian and several other languages across the Middle East and South Asia.
B. Hebrew alphabet
The Hebrew alphabet is an ancient consonant-based writing system used primarily for Hebrew and several other Jewish languages, including Judeo-Arabic and Yiddish.
C. Ruqʿah script
Ruqʿah script is a simple, highly legible Arabic handwriting style commonly used for everyday writing and official documents in the Arab world.
D. Tifinagh
Tifinagh is an ancient and modern script used primarily to write Berber (Amazigh) languages across North Africa.
E. Nabataean alphabet
The Nabataean alphabet is an ancient Northwest Semitic script used by the Nabataean kingdom, which evolved from the Phoenician writing system and later gave rise to the early Arabic script.
F. None of above. chosen

Statements (91)

Predicate	Object
instanceOf	abjad ⓘ writing system ⓘ
associatedWithReligion	Islam ⓘ
derivedFrom	Nabataean alphabet ⓘ
hasAdditionalLettersForPersian	4 ⓘ
hasAdditionalLettersForUrdu	several additional letters ⓘ
hasContextualLetterForms	yes ⓘ
hasCoreLetters	28 ⓘ
hasDiacritics	shadda ⓘ short vowel marks ⓘ sukun ⓘ tanwin ⓘ
hasFinalForm	yes ⓘ
hasInitialForm	yes ⓘ
hasIsolatedForm	yes ⓘ
hasLetter	alif ⓘ baʼ ⓘ dal ⓘ dhal ⓘ faʼ ⓘ ghayn ⓘ haʼ ⓘ jim ⓘ kaf ⓘ khaʼ ⓘ lam ⓘ mim ⓘ nun ⓘ qaf ⓘ raʼ ⓘ shin ⓘ sin ⓘ taʼ ⓘ thaʼ ⓘ waw ⓘ yaʼ ⓘ zay ⓘ ʿayn ⓘ ḍad ⓘ ḥaʼ ⓘ ṣad ⓘ ṭaʼ ⓘ ẓaʼ ⓘ
hasLetterCount	28 basic letters ⓘ
hasLigature	lam-alif ⓘ
hasMedialForm	yes ⓘ
hasTransliterationSystems	multiple Latin-based systems ⓘ
hasUppercaseLowercaseDistinction	no ⓘ
ISO15924Code	Arab ⓘ
primaryUse	writing the Arabic language ⓘ
religiousUse	Islamic calligraphy ⓘ writing the Quran ⓘ
scriptType	cursive ⓘ
standardizationBody	Academy of the Arabic Language (various national academies) ⓘ
ultimatelyDerivedFrom	Aramaic alphabet (historically) ⓘ surface form: Aramaic alphabet
unicodeBlock	Arabic ⓘ Arabic Extended-A ⓘ Arabic Extended-B ⓘ Arabic Supplement ⓘ
usedFor	Arabic ⓘ surface form: Arabic language Balochi ⓘ surface form: Baluchi language Berber languages (Ajami) ⓘ Fula language ⓘ surface form: Fulani language (Ajami) Hausa ⓘ surface form: Hausa language (Ajami) Jawi script ⓘ Kashmiri language ⓘ Kurdish language ⓘ Malay language ⓘ Malayalam ⓘ surface form: Malayalam language (Arabi-Malayalam) Mande languages ⓘ surface form: Mandinka language (Ajami) Ottoman Turkish ⓘ surface form: Ottoman Turkish language Pashto language ⓘ Persian language ⓘ Shahmukhi script ⓘ surface form: Punjabi language (Shahmukhi) Saraiki ⓘ surface form: Saraiki language Sindhi ⓘ surface form: Sindhi language Swahili language (Ajami) ⓘ Urdu language ⓘ Uyghur Arabic alphabet ⓘ surface form: Uyghur language Wolof ⓘ surface form: Wolof language (Ajami)
usedForNumberSystem	Abjad numerals ⓘ
usedInRegion	Arab world ⓘ Middle East ⓘ North Africa ⓘ parts of Central Asia ⓘ parts of South Asia ⓘ parts of Southeast Asia ⓘ
vowelRepresentation	optional diacritics ⓘ
writingCategory	consonant-based script ⓘ
writingDirection	right-to-left ⓘ
writingSystemFamily	Arabic script ⓘ

How these facts were elicited

Referenced by (202)

Full triples — surface form annotated when it differs from this entity's canonical label.

Urdu language → hasWritingSystemOrigin → Arabic alphabet ⓘ

subject surface form: Urdu

Romani language → writingSystem → Arabic alphabet ⓘ