Arabic: An Essential Grammar

9

Chapter 3

Punctuation and handwriting

3.1 Punctuation

Punctuation marks are not found in early Arabic manuscripts. The

Arabs have borrowed modern European punctuation marks with some

modifications in order to distinguish them from Arabic letters, as

follows:

.
: ! ؟ () ′′〈〈〉〉

3.2 Arabic handwriting

It is recommended that handwriting technique is practised from the very

beginning, otherwise it may become difficult to learn not only to write

but even to read handwritten texts. Arabs consider good handwriting a

sign of erudition.

Printed and handwritten Arabic texts do not differ from each other as

much as they do in European languages.

Arabic handwriting follows certain rules. The straight horizontal direc-

tion used in writing English must be modified in Arabic handwriting,

since some of the letters change their form according to the preceding or

following letter.

3.3 Some remarks concerning the dots with certain consonants

The most common way of marking the dots which belong to certain

consonants in handwriting is to use a straight stroke instead of two