Blog · Explainer

How to write Arabic dialect in notes and transcripts

By the Echo team · Published 2 November 2026 · 5 min read

In short: Arabic dialects have no standard spelling, so the same word can be written several ways. For notes you will search later, pick one spelling for each word and keep it across the whole transcript. Researchers have a shared system for this called CODA, and its core idea is simple: one form for each word, used every time.

What does it mean to write a dialect?

Writing a dialect means putting spoken Arabic on paper as people actually say it: Gulf, Levantine, Egyptian or Maghrebi speech. Most people already do this in chat messages, comments and notes to themselves. The difficulty is that Modern Standard Arabic has a spelling system that everyone learns at school, and dialects have no equivalent. Each writer decides for themselves how a word should look.

For meeting notes this matters more than it seems. A transcript is only useful later if you can search it, and search only works when the same word is always spelled the same way.

Why do Arabic dialects have no standard spelling?

The main reason is institutional. In the 2012 paper that introduced CODA, Nizar Habash, Mona Diab and Owen Rambow explain that Dialectal Arabic has no standard orthography. They tie this to two gaps: there are no dialect academies to set spelling rules, and there is no large body of edited dialect writing that follows one spelling. Spelling rules usually come from schools, dictionaries and publishers. Dialects have few of those, so every writer improvises.

The result will look familiar to anyone who texts in dialect. The same word can appear in several spellings in one group chat, and each version is readable. The Arabic question word for “what”, for example, can be written as وش, إيش or شو, depending on the writer and their region. Nobody is wrong, but a search for one form will miss the other two.

What is CODA, and why does it matter?

CODA stands for Conventional Orthography for Dialectal Arabic. It is a set of spelling conventions: for each dialect word, one written form is chosen and the rules say when to use it. The researchers built it mainly to help computers learn from dialect text, and the 2012 paper worked out its guidelines in detail for Egyptian Arabic. A later LREC 2018 paper by the same group, Unified Guidelines and Resources for Arabic Dialect Orthography, pushed the idea towards a shared approach across dialects.

You do not need to learn CODA to write good notes. Its core idea is the useful part: choose one form for each word, and keep to it.

Which spelling should your transcript use?

There are three common approaches. Each has a place, and many good notes mix two of them on purpose.

Approach	What it looks like	Best for	Watch out for
Write as spoken	Spell each word the way it sounds in the speaker's dialect	Quotes, personal notes, a speaker's exact words	The same word appears in many forms, so search misses some of them
Close to Modern Standard Arabic	Use the standard spelling of the nearest formal word	Formal minutes, reports and decisions	Can flatten the tone of quoted speech and hide who said what
One consistent convention	Pick one form for each word and use it across the whole note	Transcripts you will search, reuse or share later	Needs a short list of chosen spellings to stay consistent

Consider a team that discusses the same Gulf word in every weekly meeting. If half the notes spell it one way and half another way, a search for either form finds only half the meetings. Choosing one form on the first day costs nothing and saves that search problem for every later month.

A practical rule: write decisions and actions in clear Modern Standard Arabic so they read well, and keep dialect only inside quotes where the exact wording matters. Apply one consistent convention to everything else.

How do you keep spelling consistent in a transcript?

Decide before the meeting. Note which dialect the meeting is in and which style you will use for decisions and quotes.
Keep a short word list. Write down the spellings you chose for recurring words, names and product terms. Ten lines are enough.
Write names the same way every time, in the script the person uses for their own name.
Mark doubtful words instead of guessing. Put a question mark in brackets, then check that point against the audio.
Read the note once after the meeting and fix any word that appears in two or three forms.

Our guide to why Arabic dialects are hard to transcribe covers the sound side of the problem. This post is about the written side.

What about English words inside an Arabic sentence?

In Gulf meetings English is often part of the speech itself, as in «خلّونا نأجّل الـ launch لين نخلص الـ testing». Keep English words in Latin script exactly as the speaker said them. That keeps them searchable under the name people will type. Do not turn them into Arabic letters unless the speaker did so. Our guide to Gulf Arabic transcription has more examples of this mixing.

The same rule applies to names. A client, a product and a place should each appear in one form in every note, so that a search for the name finds all of them. Write the name once in your word list, then copy that spelling each time.

Where Echo fits

Echo is an AI notetaker for iPhone and Mac. It transcribes meetings in Arabic and English, including Gulf, Levantine, Egyptian and Maghrebi speech mixed with English, and an Arabic note can get tashkeel (diacritics) in one tap. Echo does not replace your word list or your check of the names; read the note once after the meeting. If you record a meeting, tell everyone at the start and ask before you begin. Echo is free for 30 minutes of recording a month, and pricing lists Echo Pro.

Frequently asked questions

Is there one correct way to spell an Arabic dialect?

No. Dialects have no official spelling standard, so more than one spelling can be correct. What matters for notes is consistency: choose one form for each word and use it throughout, so you can find it again later.

Should meeting minutes be written in dialect or in Modern Standard Arabic?

For formal minutes, write decisions and actions in clear Modern Standard Arabic. Keep dialect only where the exact wording matters, such as a quote. Whatever you choose, apply it consistently across the note.

What is CODA?

CODA, Conventional Orthography for Dialectal Arabic, is a set of spelling conventions for dialect text. It was introduced in a 2012 paper by Nizar Habash, Mona Diab and Owen Rambow, and it was worked out in detail for Egyptian Arabic. You do not need it to take good notes, but its idea of one form per word is useful.

Can I fix dialect spellings after a transcript is made?

Yes. Read the note once after the meeting and fix any word that appears in more than one form. Check names and product terms too. Listening to the audio at the points you are unsure of is the most reliable check.

Should English words in a dialect sentence be written in Arabic letters?

Keep them in Latin script as the speaker said them, such as launch or testing. Changing them into Arabic letters makes them harder to find later by the name people actually search for.

Sources

Checked on 2 November 2026.

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