Creole is a language based on English or French. Initial forms of Creole developed in some places primarily colonised by Britain and France, where speakers of English and French, and speakers of various native languages intertwined, as stated by Accredited Language Services, a US-based language services provider.
Creole is still found in different parts of the world, most prominently in Haiti and southern US, especially in Louisiana.
Today, as globalisation advances, the modern Arab world is also experiencing a similar blending of languages.
As the use of English becomes increasingly common amongst groups of Arab youth, a new alphabet has developed called ‘Arabizi’.
It uses English letters and digits to spell out Arabic words. Numerals are especially used to replace Arabic letters that have no phonetic replacement within the English alphabet. Like, the number ‘5’ is used to denote the letter ‘H’ in Arabic.
Due to convenience of not constantly switching the keyboard to Arabic from English, youngsters use these alphabet while typing.
— The writer is an intern with Gulf News.
