Variation in the Use of Diacritics in Modern Typeset Standard Arabic: A Theoretical and Descriptive Framework

Abstract The extent to which the diacritic layer ( tašk?l ) of Arabic writing system is employed in modern typeset text differs considerably between genres and individual texts, with many in-between forms not aptly captured by traditional binary categories “vowelled” “unvowelled” text. This article first present a theoretical account this variation applicable Standard Arabic. It suggested that diacritics serve three basic functions: facilitation reading comprehension; prescriptively correct diction; evoke associations other texts. Six modes diacritization are identified related data on rates from corpus electronically published books. Further lines research based framework suggested.