DE> Surprisingly to some, Unicode won't do much to solve this problem. It DE> will make it much easier to store, exchange, and query Arabic-script DE> text. But people who can't read the Arabic script will continue to need DE> Latin transcriptions.
Those in need of this, however, will find that their character needs are catered for, as long as they don't need correct collation :-) DE> I often use information about standards that has been "bootlegged" or DE> "pirated" off the Web. I'm not proud of that, but I'm not wealthy DE> either, and I'd rather follow standards than make up my own. Well, I can say that the publication of the Deutsche Morgenl�ndische Gesellschaft transliteration system is available in any institute of Islamic Studies or similar sciences, being a supplement to a 1930s issue of the ZDMG journal, and that DIN 31365 is available from public university libraries here for free (and copy for your own use). Shameless plug: I've written a relatively detailed paper on scientifically transliteratinig Arabic (DMG system, with some notes on other established transliteration systems) for a tutorial course I've given here at Bonn university. It's 16 pages, available for free, should cover nearly all the intricacies and comes with lots of examples, at http://www.orientasia.uni-bonn.de/orientalisierung/arab_trans.pdf (147 kB, in German, I'm afraid). There's an additional couple of pages on Persian as well bay Jasmin Khosravie that seems to have disappeared from the site. I'll need to see that I upload it again. Philipp
