After reading an article about how the Lebanese alphabet, according to Said Akl, should be structured, I managed to build a new alphabet.
The new alphabet is composed of Latin, Greek and Cyrillic letters. The sounds of some letters, especially the Greek and Cyrillic, have been modified for the phonetic requirements of Lebanese. The introduction of Greek letters solved the problem of diacritics as well as other issues like sounds that only occur in Lebanese.
Below is the new alphabet, with the phonetic representation of each letter according to the
IPA (International Phonetic Alphabet) along with an example in Lebanese.
Letter
|
Sound (IPA)
|
Example in Lebanese
|
A a
|
a
|
balad (country)
|
B b
|
b
|
berrad (fridge)
|
Ç ç
|
ʃ
|
çanta (bag)
|
D d
|
d
|
dawa (medicine)
|
E e
|
ā
|
wled (kids)
|
F f
|
f
|
fil (elephant)
|
Φ φ
|
ɣ
|
φada (lunch)
|
H h
|
h
|
hawa (air)
|
Λ λ
|
ħ
|
λet (wall)
|
I i
|
i
|
id (hand)
|
J j
|
ʒ
|
jaras (bell)
|
K k
|
k
|
kahraba (electricity)
|
Ҁҁ
|
x
|
ҁyar (cucumber)
|
L l
|
l
|
lamba (light bulb)
|
M m
|
m
|
markaz (center)
|
N n
|
n
|
nazar (vision)
|
O o
|
o
|
bot (shoe)
|
Q q
|
q
|
eqtisad (economy)
|
R r
|
r
|
ras (head)
|
S s
|
s
|
siyyara (car)
|
T t
|
t
|
tawle (table)
|
U u
|
u
|
buza (ice cream)
|
W w
|
w
|
wazir (minister)
|
Y y
|
j
|
yansun (anis)
|
Z z
|
z
|
zyara (visit)
|
Ԑ ԑ
|
ʕ
|
ԑalbe (box)
|
Γ γ
|
ʔ
|
baγra (cow)
|
Not to mention that, beside Latin letters having a
Phoenician origin, the Greek and Cyrillic letters introduced in the alphabet are derived from Phoenician. The following table shows the origin of each letter.
Letter
|
Origin
|
Φ φ
|
Origin disputed
|
Λ λ
|
Greek, derived from the Phoenician letter Lamedh
|
Ҁҁ
|
Cyrillic, borrowed from Greek, derived from the Phoenician letter Qoph
|
Ԑ ԑ
|
Cyrillic, reversed Ze З
|
Γ γ
|
Greek, derived from the Phoenician letter Gimel
|
You can download the Lebanese Qwerty keyboard to type in Lebanese using this alphabet by clicking
here.