Arwi ( ) or Arabu-Tamil (, ) is an

Arabic Arabic (, , or , ) is a Central Semitic languages, Central Semitic language of the Afroasiatic languages, Afroasiatic language family spoken primarily in the Arab world. The International Organization for Standardization (ISO) assigns lang ...

-influenced dialect of the Tamil language written with an extension of the Arabic alphabet, with extensive lexical and phonetic influences from the Arabic language. Arwi has been used extensively by the

Muslims Muslims () are people who adhere to Islam, a Monotheism, monotheistic religion belonging to the Abrahamic religions, Abrahamic tradition. They consider the Quran, the foundational religious text of Islam, to be the verbatim word of the God ...

of the

Tamil Nadu Tamil Nadu (; , TN) is the southernmost States and union territories of India, state of India. The List of states and union territories of India by area, tenth largest Indian state by area and the List of states and union territories of Indi ...

state of

India India, officially the Republic of India, is a country in South Asia. It is the List of countries and dependencies by area, seventh-largest country by area; the List of countries by population (United Nations), most populous country since ...

and

Sri Lanka Sri Lanka, officially the Democratic Socialist Republic of Sri Lanka, also known historically as Ceylon, is an island country in South Asia. It lies in the Indian Ocean, southwest of the Bay of Bengal, separated from the Indian subcontinent, ...

History

Arwi was an outcome of the cultural synthesis between seafaring Arabs and Tamil-speaking Muslims of

. This language was enriched, promoted and developed in Kayalpattinam. It had a rich body of work in jurisprudence,

Sufism Sufism ( or ) is a mysticism, mystic body of religious practice found within Islam which is characterized by a focus on Islamic Tazkiyah, purification, spirituality, ritualism, and Asceticism#Islam, asceticism. Practitioners of Sufism are r ...

, law, medicine and

sexology Sexology is the scientific study of human sexuality, including human sexual interests, Human sexual activity, behaviors, and functions. The term ''sexology'' does not generally refer to the non-scientific study of sexuality, such as social crit ...

, of which little has been preserved. It was used as a bridge language for Tamil Muslims to learn Arabic. The patrons of Arwi do not seem to have been highly associated with any political powers of Southern Indian history, including Muslim-ruled states (such as the Deccan sultanates), which were rather influenced by Central Asia and Northern India, preferring the use of Persian, Dakhni and later

Urdu Urdu (; , , ) is an Indo-Aryan languages, Indo-Aryan language spoken chiefly in South Asia. It is the Languages of Pakistan, national language and ''lingua franca'' of Pakistan. In India, it is an Eighth Schedule to the Constitution of Indi ...

. It is therefore a community-based script and dialect, limited to the Labbays and the Marrakayars communities in Southern India, and to the

Sri Lankan Moors Sri Lankan Moors (; Arwi: ; ; formerly Ceylon Moors; colloquially referred to as Sri Lankan Muslims) are an ethnic minority group in Sri Lanka, comprising 9.3% of the country's total population. Most of them are native speakers of the Tamil langua ...

and the Indian Moors of Ceylon. Many hadith manuscripts have been found. Most of the ''

fiqh ''Fiqh'' (; ) is the term for Islamic jurisprudence.Fiqh
Encyclopædia Britannica ''Fiqh'' is of ...

'' books, particularly those of Imaam Abu Hanifa and Imaam Shaafi, have been found in Arwi. There was also a translation of the

Bible The Bible is a collection of religious texts that are central to Christianity and Judaism, and esteemed in other Abrahamic religions such as Islam. The Bible is an anthology (a compilation of texts of a variety of forms) originally writt ...

into Arwi in 1926. Arwi still has a place among the more Arwi Muslim and Sri Lankan Moor families.

Script

The Arwi alphabet is the Arabic alphabet, with thirteen additional letters used to represent the Tamil vowels ''e'' and ''o'' and several Tamil consonants that could not be mapped to Arabic sounds.

Vowels

:Notes # Unlike other vowels, and unlike in Persian, Urdu, or Arabic, when vowels ''i, ī, e, ē'' come at the beginning of a word (respectively ), the vowel carrier is not ''alif'' () but is instead ''yeh'' (). This spelling indicates the loss of glottal stop in words which start with these vowels, and its replacement by a palatal sound. In rare cases, these vowels have indeed been written with ''alif'' as their base.

Consonants

:Notes # The letter , representing the sound , has been written with the Arabic letter in the beginning of word, geminated, or in combination with other consonants. This letter has been written with the Arabic letter in between vowels. # The letter , representing the sound has been written with the Arabic letter in the beginning of word, geminated, or after a nasal consonant. This letter has been written with the Arabic letter in at the beginning of words and in between vowels. The Arabic letter also represents the Tamil letter , representing the sound and the Tamil letter representing the sound . # For when this letter is geminated, i.e. , some historic manuscripts used the letter ''dal'' with two dots underneath, the modified Arwi letter . But most manuscripts simply used the letter ''dal'' with one dot underneath, and with a gemination diacritic, the letter . # The Arabic letter has not been used in a widespread manner for representing the Tamil letter (representing the sound ). Most historic sources use the letter for this Tamil letter as well as for the Tamil letter (representing the sound ). # For the Tamil letter , representing the sound the Arabic letter is used. Except if this letter is in between vowels, or following a nasal sound, where the letter is used. # The Tamil letter representing the sound has usually been written with the Arabic letter . In addition, in rare occasions, this sound has been represented by the Arabic letter . This sound doesn't occur at beginning of words.

Sample Texts

Below are several sample texts in Arwi orthography, in standard Tamil Script, and transliterated into Latin as per

ISO 15919 ISO 15919 is an international standard for the romanization of Indic scripts. Published in 2001, it is part of a series of romanization standards by the International Organization for Standardization. Overview Relation to other systems ...

.Zubair, KMA. Ahamed. (2016). ''The Rise and Decline of Arabu-Tamil Language for Tamil Muslims''. IIUC Studies, 10, 263–282
Link

References

* Shu’ayb, Tayka. ''Arabic, Arwi and Persian in Sarandib and Tamil Nadu''. Madras: Imāmul 'Arūs Trust, 1993. * Yunush Ahamed Mohamed Sherif ''Arabu-Tamil/Arwi: the Identity of the Tamil Muslims'' TJPRC Publication. * Dr. K. M. A. Ahamed Zubair. ''The Rise and Decline of Arabu–Tamil Language for Tamil Muslims'' IIUC STUDIES, 2014 * DR. S.M.M Mazahir. ''அறபுத் தமிழும் அறபுத்தமிழ் ஆக்கங்களும்'' 2018

External links

Arwi: Comments, Questions and Answers

Islamic Cultural Values of Arwi
Southeastern university of Sri Lanka. Research and publication (2014).
For a cultural synthesis
Book review in The Hindu
Arwi or Arabu-Tamil
Book on Arwi
What is Arwi (Arabic Tamil)?

* ttp://arusiqadiri.wordpress.com/ 'Arusi branch of the Qadiri path
Some Arwi Books in Internet Archive
{{Arabic alphabets Tamil dialects Arabic alphabets Sri Lankan Moors Arabic alphabets for South Asian languages