Why is it that in Arabic text written in English there are numbers, usually 3 or 7, incorporated within words?

Question

I see Arabic written in English letters, for example 'habiba ya 3ayni', and I'm not entirely sure why the 3 is present. My guess it is to do with the pronunciation of the word. Do you make a guttural sound before you say ayni in that example? Is the reason why the number 3 is used because of the lack of Arabic accents on an English keyboard?

Answer 1

because these numbers looks like some arabic characters so we use it in writing Arabic texts written in english like

3=ع

7=ح

حis an arabic character and looks like 7

عis an arabic character and looks like 3

Answer 2

It's just a way to make it easier for those who do not have arabic language installed in their Computer. It's UNICODE and some windows and chat tools do not recognize it. Also If I'm using an English KeyBoard and the Arabic Letter are not printed on it, What can I do then. The Third thing is I'm using it with another Native Arabic Speaker, So it would be easier for both of us to understand each others. The Last thing is, for some Mobile phones they do not recognize the Arabic Letter or the Language it self. I should use the Common Letters then, English letters with numbers would do it for me. It's a genius way man, but not ridiculous as you claimed. With all respect to English Language, English would never convey the same meaning and sounds we would do in our own way of writting Thanks for insuling Us by "uneducated of the Arab world who can't write properly" For your information, we write and read in many languages: English Arabic and German too... Who's uneducated then..:)

Answer 3

people who can read and speak Arabic,and want to write it in English keyboard,or they are sending it to some body who haven`t Arabic installed in his computer,how can they write some Arabic characters that have no English equivalent?guys choosed to use numbers instead of those letters,nearly look like them in its drawing,and these are some of them:

2=أ,ء

3=ع

5=خ

6=ط

7=ح

8=ق

9=ص

Answer 4

those numbers are stand for sounds/letters in the text but i don't like to read them in the nice Arabic language which is the language of the revealed Quraan as well

Answer 5

Er...the characters for numbers (1, 2, 3 etc) are originally ARABIC! We "borrowed" them!