In this volume, the transliteration of Arabic terms (which are generally written in italics, except for the proper names of places and persons) uses the following:
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ā (a, i or u at the beginning of the word) |
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b |
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t |
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th |
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j |
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ḥ |
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kh |
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d |
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dh |
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r |
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z |
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s |
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sh |
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ṣ |
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ḍ |
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ṭ |
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ẓ |
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ʿ |
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gh |
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f |
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g (dialect); q (classical) |
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k |
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l |
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m |
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n |
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h |
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w, u, ū or ō |
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y, ī or ē |
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| -- |
-- a |
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ʾ |
We normally use the singular form of Arabic words, adding the suffix ‘s’ for the plural (e.g., farīgs, ‘camps’, rather than furgān), unless the plural form expressly refers to a particular phenomenon (e.g., awlād, plural of walad, ‘son’, which means a kinship group in the Sudanese context). On the other hand, for the names of ethnic or tribal groups, the plural form is used (without italics) for the singular (e.g., ‘the Aḥāmda’ and ‘an Aḥāmda leader’ rather than ‘a ḥāmmedi leader’, as it would strictly be in the singular Arabic form of this ethnonym). In transliterating local terms, we opted to follow the pronunciation of the Sudanese standard dialect. Accordingly, the letter