The new alphabet is here!

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.

Homage to Said Akl

Not only he invented and encouraged the creation of a Lebanese language, but he also helped to found several Lebanese nationalistic movements which contributes to unitiy in the country and he also served in these movements.

Said Akl, a Lebanese prominent Lebanese poet, writer and ideologue, was born in Zahle in 1912. He is considered as - he actually is - one of the most important Lebanese modern poets.

He published the first book in Lebanese Yara in 1961, in addition to several books later on.

Creating a new alphabet

After I made some researches on Said Akl's principles and theories in creating a Lebanese Alphabet, I will be building a new alphabet that complies to his principles.

His concepts included  having a unique letter for each sound without having the need of dashes and diacritics.

I will post the new alphabet as soon as it is ready.

The Keyboards

There are actually three types of keyboard for Lebanese and they are as follows:

Bavorak - Bachir Dvorak: Its keys have the same arrangement as that of the DSK (Dvorak Simplified Keyboard) with some alterations to comply with the Lebanese language. It was built for DSK users.


If you want - I don't think you do - you can read about how to use the keyboard, and how to download it and install it by clicking here.

Lebanese Qwerty: It has the same key arrangement as the original Qwerty. In addition it has the same alterations as the Bavorak.

To download and know how to install the keyboard, click here.

Lebanese Official Keyboard: It will be designed according to studies and researches -  just like the way the DSK was built. When finished, it will remain obsolete until Lebanese becomes an official language in Lebanon.

The Lebanese alphabet was created

The Bachir Lebanese alphabet was actually created on August 1, 2010. It consists of 24 letters.

The letters are the following:

Note that P, V and X do not occur in Lebanese and that J is not used. Instead, only G is used, since G and J have the same sound in lebanese.

Why Bachir Lebanese Language?

I called it Bachir Lebanese Language since, as mentioned in the previous post, there are actually several suggested lebanese alphabets and languages. In order to differentiate mine from the others, I have named it Bachir Lebanese Language!

An introduction to the language

Lebanese is a language that must be disguinshed from Arabic though it is similar to it, but Lebanese has its own dialect, pronunciation, historical and cultural background. Since Said Akl, a famous old Lebanese figure, who created the first Lebanese alphabet and suggested a Lebanese language, many people also have suggested an alphabet and a language. However, many were inefficient and incomplete, that's why I suggested my own Lebanese language and called it the Bachir Lebanese language.