Translating names and technical terms in Arabic text
Bonnie Glover Stalls, Kevin K. Knight · 1998
It is challenging to translate names and technical terms from English into Arabic.Translation is usually done phonetically: different alphabets and sound inventories force various compromises.For example, Peter Streams may come out as hr..~ ~ bytr szrymz.This process is called transliteration.We address here the reverse problem: given a foreign name or loanword in Arabic text, we want to recover the original in Roman script.For example, an input like .~..A~ bytr strymz should yield an output like Peter Streams.Arabic presents special challenges due to unwritten vowels and phonetic-context effects.We present results and examples of use in an Arabic-to-English machine translator.