Arabic dialects, transcribed and reviewed by native speakers

Everyday Arabic speech is mostly dialect, and dialects differ in sounds, words and spelling habits. Morvio recruits native speakers per dialect, tags every switch into another language, and agrees conventions with you in writing before production.

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Demonstration example: one sentence in English and Arabic, with person, place and date entities labelled.

Amina HaddadPER will fly from AlgiersLOC to DubaiLOC on 12 MarchDATE.

ستسافر أمينة حدادPER من الجزائر العاصمةLOC إلى دبيLOC يوم 12 مارسDATE.

Fig. 01 · EN, AR · 2 sentences · 4 entities each · PER, LOC, DATESynthetic demonstration example: the same sentence in English and Arabic, with person, place and date labels.

Dialects

Arabic dialects are confirmed per project, with a calibration batch before any volume.

Recruited per dialect
Each dialect is transcribed and reviewed by native speakers of that dialect.
Calibrated before volume
You see a calibration batch in the dialect before any volume.

Everyone on the team signs an NDA before seeing data.

Speech transcription Text annotation Data collection

Mixed-language speech

Many Arabic speakers mix Arabic with other languages inside one sentence. We keep every language in one transcript, each in its own script, and tag each switch, so your data shows where the language changes.

Demonstration example: one spoken Arabic sentence with two switches into English, each tagged.

transcript

أرسلت لك الـ reportEN أمس، وعندنا meetingEN بكرة الصبح.

in English

I sent you the report yesterday, and we have a meeting tomorrow morning.

Fig. 02 · AR with EN · 1 sentence · 2 switchesSynthetic demonstration example: one spoken sentence, Arabic in Arabic script and English in Latin script, with both switches tagged. The tag format follows your convention.

Arabizi

Arabizi is Arabic written in Latin letters, with digits for sounds that have no Latin letter, such as 3 for ع and 7 for ح. Digit use varies by region: 9 can stand for ق in one region and for ص in another. For text projects we can keep Arabizi as written, convert it to Arabic script, or deliver both, using a mapping agreed per project.

Demonstration example: one Arabizi sentence as written, the same sentence in Arabic script, and the two digit mappings used.

as written

3andi mo7adara bokra

Arabic script

عندي محاضرة بكرة

mapping

3 → ع7 → ح

in English

I have a lecture tomorrow.

Fig. 03 · Arabizi · 1 sentence · as written and in Arabic scriptSynthetic demonstration example: one Arabizi sentence as written and converted to Arabic script. Here 3 stands for ع and 7 for ح.

Conventions we agree before production

The rules for your project are written into the guideline. The Arabic forms below are examples.

Diacritics: Omitted unless your specification asks for themExampleكتبwithoutكَتَبَwith
Digits: Western or Eastern Arabic, per your specificationExample12 مارس١٢ مارس
Normalisation: Alif and hamza forms, taa marbuta, alif maqsuraExampleأ إ آ اة هى ي
Dialect spelling: A project spelling list, kept in the guidelineExampleهلقهلأone word, two spellings
Names and foreign words: Script and transliteration rulesExampleGoogleجوجلغوغلone name, three spellings
Tags: Noise, overlap, unintelligible speechExample[overlap] … [/overlap]

Discuss your project

Two ways to start. Both reach Khaled Zerouki.

Book a call. Pick a time in your own time zone.

Book a call

Request a sample batch. A batch of your own data, returned with a QA report, on terms agreed before work starts. You can write your brief in Arabic.

Request a sample batch

WhatsApp +44 7537 154532 · WeChat khaledzer · contact@morvio.co.uk

We reply within 1 business day.¹ NDA on request. We can plan and price your project without seeing your data.

¹ Business days are Monday to Friday, UK time, excluding public holidays in England and Wales.