Standard romanisation conventions from Arabic into English : a matter of language protection

This paper argues that the use of a standard Romanisation system of Arabic into English would contribute to the welfare of Arab nations, the protection and learning of the Arabic language, and the preservation of its literature and promotion of its status as a key and autonomous world language. The academic IPA system for Arabic, adopted by Arab and non-Arab phoneticians and linguists, has limited usage and the flurry of Western and colonial systems, each of which claiming universal usage, contribute to the threatening loss of the Arabic language and culture. Arabic has phonemic sounds non-existent in English and the current inconsistency in Romanisation practice of these phonemic sounds is unhelpful to the native English reader, learner and researcher of the Arabic language. Language directionality, the target language and the mode of the Arabic language needing Romanisation (i.e., written, spoken, spoken to be written, etc.) determine the conventions required. Intricate issues in the Romanisation of MSA and Arabic varieties are revisited and Romanisation tasks are categorised according to a set of functional dimensions. On a continuum of non-specialised to specialised user, the task-dimensions correlates suggest task-receiver conventions, with minor discrepancies at the non-specialised category levels