Wiktionary:About Arabic/Egyptian

Wiktionary uses the following system to transcribe Egyptian Arabic, based on the Cairene standard. This is intended for input to a module that will produce IPA.

Letter	Romanization	IPA	Notes
ا			Used as a silent carrier for short vowels in initial position, and ā elsewhere. For the pronunciation of these vowels, see the bottom of the chart.
ب	b	b	Romanized as ḅ when used to write the marginal emphatic form that surfaces as [b] but triggers emphasis spreading.
پ	p	p	A marginal phoneme only found in borrowings, often pronounced as [b] and written as ب.
ت	t	t
ث	s	s	Respelled with ت when an inherited pronunciation of [t] is used.
ج	g	ɡ, except in a few loanwords: ʒ	چ can be substituted for the pronunciation as ʒ.
چ	ž	ʒ	A marginal phoneme only found in borrowings, often pronounced as [ʃ] and written as ش. An alternative input is j.
ح	ḥ	ħ
خ	ḵ	x
د	d	d
ذ	z	z	Respelled with د when an inherited pronunciation of [d] is used.
ر	r	ɾ	Romanized as ṛ when used to write the marginal emphatic form that surfaces as [ɾ] but triggers emphasis spreading.
ز	z	z
س	s	s
ش	š	ʃ
ص	ṣ	sˁ	Emphatic consonant.
ض	ḍ	dˁ	Emphatic consonant.
ط	ṭ	tˁ	Emphatic consonant.
ظ	ẓ	zˁ	Emphatic consonant.
ع	ʕ	ʕ
غ	ḡ	ɣ
ف	f	f, unless in a few loanwords: v	Or v in borrowings which use this character as a substitute for ڤ.
ڤ	v	v	A marginal phoneme only found in borrowings, often pronounced as [f] and written as ف.
ق	ʔ or q	ʔ or q	Unpredictable; must be specified. When pronounced as [q], it is an emphatic consonant.
ك	k	k
ل	l	l	Romanized as ḷ when used to write the marginal emphatic form that surfaces as [l] but triggers emphasis spreading.
م	m	m	Romanized as ṃ when used to write the marginal emphatic form that surfaces as [m] but triggers emphasis spreading.
ن	n	n
ه	h	h
و	w ū o ō	w u(ː) o(ː)
ي	y ī e ē	j i(ː) e(ː)
ى	ā ī	a i	Only used in final position. The use for [i] is the norm in the Nile Valley, but is spelled as ي in other regions.
ء	ʔ	ʔ	Only pronounced as a glottal stop.
ة	a at et		Normally, use -a, but use -at, -et in the construct state.
اه	āh
Diacritics
ـَ	a	a	Realized as [æ] in normal environments, but as [ɑ] when subject to emphasis spreading. Diacritics are normally not used.
ا	ā	aː	Realized as [æ(ː)] in normal environments, but as [ɑ(ː)] when subject to emphasis spreading. Shortened in unstressed syllables.
ـُ	u o	u o	Diacritics are normally not used.
ـِ	i e	i e	Often realised as [e]. Diacritics are normally not used.
ـو	aw or ō	aw or oː	oː is shortened to [o] in unstressed syllables.
ـُو	ū	uː	Diacritics are normally not used.
ـی	ay or ē	aj or eː	eː is shortened to [e] in unstressed syllables.
ـِی	ī	i	Diacritics are normally not used.

References

• Daniel Pipes (1983), An Arabist's Guide to Egyptian Colloquial.
• Hinds, Martin, Badawi, El-Said (1986) A Dictionary of Egyptian Arabic‎^[1], Beirut: Librairie du Liban
• Janet Watson (2002), The Phonology and Morphology of Arabic. Oxford University Press, →ISBN.

Other Resources

• Jane Wightwick, Mahmoud Gaafar (1986), Colloquial Arabic of Egypt.
• Richard Jasch (1999), Arabic-English/English-Arabic Concise (Romanized) Dictionary for the Spoken Arabic of Egypt and Syria (Hippocrene Concise Dictionary).
• Living Language (2006), Ultimate Arabic - Beginner-Intermediate (5 lessons dedicated to Egyptian Arabic)
• Lonely Planet (various editions), Egyptian Arabic Phrasebook & Dictionary
• Barron's (various editions), Arabic at a Glance - Phrasebook & Dictionary for travellers (based on colloquial Egyptian).