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Q&A How to write Arabic in dialogue for an English piece?

I have a character who is a Syrian refugee to Canada. His first language is Arabic, but he's lived in Canada long enough that he's learned English and uses this as his primary spoken language. On o...

3 answers  ·  posted 5y ago by Trynda E. Adair‭  ·  last activity 5y ago by System‭

#3: Attribution notice added by user avatar System‭ · 2019-12-08T11:45:06Z (almost 5 years ago)
Source: https://writers.stackexchange.com/q/44719
License name: CC BY-SA 3.0
License URL: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/
#2: Initial revision by user avatar Trynda E. Adair‭ · 2019-12-08T11:45:06Z (almost 5 years ago)
I have a character who is a Syrian refugee to Canada. His first language is Arabic, but he's lived in Canada long enough that he's learned English and uses this as his primary spoken language. On occasion he'll use Arabic words in his speech, such as when he's not sure what the English translation is, but I'm unsure how this should be written in text for an English audience.

My thought would be to use the phonetic spelling, for example:

> "_Alaistirkha'_" Essam breathed tossing the book onto a nearby table, "It is not my place to say."

Or should it be:

> "_الاسترخاء_" Essam breathed tossing the book onto a nearby table, "It is not my place to say."

What is the correct way to write this?

#1: Imported from external source by user avatar System‭ · 2019-04-22T17:54:39Z (over 5 years ago)
Original score: 4