Overview

This file contains a set of Label Generation Rules (LGR) for the Arabic script for the Root Zone. For more details on this LGR and additional background on the script, see TF-AIDN, “Proposal for Arabic Script Root Zone LGR”, Version 3.4, 18 November 2015 [Proposal-Arabic]. This file is one of a set of LGR files that together form an integrated LGR for the DNS Root Zone [RZ-LGR-6]. The format of this file follows [RFC 7940].

Repertoire

The repertoire is described in Section 3.2 of [Proposal-Arabic] and only includes the 128 code points used by languages that are actively written in the Arabic script. It excludes code points for which TF-AIDN was unable to find sufficient evidence of use (see Appendix F in [Proposal-Arabic]).

This LGR does not include combining marks or code point sequences. All combining marks have been excluded for these reasons:

First, they can significantly overproduce and would require additional rules to contain them effectively, complicating the design.
Second, even where they are required for some languages, they are optional for others.
Third, this also circumvents the issue regarding duplication between some precomposed code points and combining sequences raised by [IAB].

For further details, see Section 3.2, “Code point repertoire included”, in [Proposal-Arabic].

The repertoire is contained in [MSR-6], which is a subset of [Unicode 16.0.0].

As part of the Root Zone, this LGR includes neither decimal digits nor the HYPHEN-MINUS.

Repertoire Listing: Each code point or range is tagged with the script or scripts with which the code point is used. For each repertoire element, one or more references document sufficient justification for inclusion in the repertoire; see the “References” below. Comments identify the principal languages or orthographies using the code point. Languages are given with their [EGIDS] level.

Note: use of standard Arabic code points by other languages is not marked.

Variants

This LGR includes “blocked” and “allocatable” variants, assigned according to Section 4, “Final recommendation of variants for Top Level Domains (TLDs)” in [Proposal-Arabic]. These recommendations balance the desire to minimize the number of possible allocatable variants with the need to keep the definition of variants simple. See also the comments given in the listing.

The specification of variants in the Root Zone LGR follows the guidelines in [RFC 8228].

Character Classes

This LGR does not define named character classes.

Whole Label Evaluation (WLE) and Context Rules

Default Whole Label Evaluation Rules and Actions

The LGR includes the set of required default WLE rules and actions applicable to the Root Zone and defined in [MSR-6]. They are marked with ⍟. The actions compute a label disposition based on WLE rules or variant mapping types.

Arabic-specific Rules and Actions

This LGR includes WLE rules and actions specific to the Arabic script. See Section 5, “Whole Label Evaluation (WLE) rules”, in [Proposal-Arabic]. As specified, the rules and actions serve to prevent the mixing of two variants of the same code point within the same label. This reduces overproduction of variant labels. The rules are listed here with the numbers given in Table 17 in [Proposal-Arabic]. See also the comments given for each rule or action.

no-mix-kaf-keheh — WLE Rule 1: do not mix Arabic letters KAF and KEHEH in the same label
no-mix-kaf-swash — WLE Rule 2: do not mix Arabic letters KAF and SWASH KAF in the same label
no-mix-alef-maksura-farsi-yeh — WLE Rule 3: do not mix Arabic letters ALEF MAKSURA and FARSI YEH in the same label
no-mix-heh-goal — WLE Rule 4: do not mix Arabic letters HEH and HEH GOAL in the same label
no-mix-heh-goal-ae — WLE Rule 5: do not mix Arabic letters HEH GOAL and AE in the same label
no-mix-heh-ae — WLE Rule 6: do not mix Arabic letters HEH and AE in the same label
no-mix-heh-doachashmee — WLE Rule 7: do not mix Arabic letters HEH and HEH DOACHASHMEE in the same label
no-mix-teh-marbuta-goal — WLE Rule 8: do not mix Arabic letters TEH MARBUTA and TEH MARBUTA GOAL in the same label
no-mix-noon-with-three-dots-above-yeh-with-three-dots-below — WLE Rule 9: do not mix Arabic letters NOON WITH THREE DOTS ABOVE and YEH WITH THREE DOTS BELOW in the same label
no-mix-peh-noon-with-three-dots-above — WLE Rule 10: do not mix Arabic letters PEH and NOON WITH THREE DOTS ABOVE in the same label
no-mix-feh-with-dot-moved-below — WLE Rule 11:do not mix Arabic letters FEH and FEH WITH DOT MOVED BELOW in the same label
no-mix-qaf-with-dot-above — WLE Rule 12: do not mix Arabic letters QAF and QAF WITH DOT ABOVE in the same label
no-mix-feh-qaf-with-dot-above — WLE Rule 13: do not mix Arabic letters FEH and QAF WITH DOT ABOVE in the same label
no-mix-kaf-with-ring-gaf — WLE Rule 14: do not mix Arabic letters KAF WITH RING and GAF in the same label
no-mix-kaf-with-ring-keheh-with-three-dots-above — WLE Rule 15: do not mix Arabic letters KAF WITH RING and KEHEH WITH THREE DOTS ABOVE
no-mix-gaf-keheh-with-three-dots-above — WLE Rule 16: do not mix Arabic letters GAF and KEHEH WITH THREE DOTS ABOVE in the same label

Methodology and Contributors

The Root Zone LGR for the Arabic script was developed by the Task Force for Arabic Script IDNs [TF-AIDN]. For more information on methodology and contributors, see Section 2 and Appendix H in [Proposal-Arabic], as well as [RZ-LGR-6-Overview].

References

The following general references are cited in this document:

[EGIDS]: Lewis and Simons, “EGIDS: Expanded Graded Intergenerational Disruption Scale,” documented in [SIL-Ethnologue] and summarized here: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Expanded_Graded_Intergenerational_Disruption_Scale_(EGIDS)
[IAB]: Internet Architecture Board (IAB), “IAB Statement on Identifiers and Unicode 7.0.0” https://www.iab.org/documents/correspondence-reports-documents/2015-2/iab-statement-on-identifiers-and-unicode-7-0-0/
[MSR-6]: Integration Panel, “Maximal Starting Repertoire — MSR-6 Overview and Rationale”, 23 September 2025, https://www.icann.org/en/system/files/files/msr-6-overview-23sep25-en.pdf
[Proposal-Arabic]: TF-AIDN, “Proposal for Arabic Script Root Zone LGR”, Version 3.4, 18 November 2015 https://www.icann.org/en/system/files/files/arabic-lgr-proposal-18nov15-en.pdf
[RFC 6365]: Hoffman, P. and J. Klensin, “Terminology Used in Internationalization in the IETF”, BCP 166, RFC 6365, DOI 10.17487/RFC6365, September 2011, https://www.rfc-editor.org/info/rfc6365
[RFC 7940]: Davies, K. and A. Freytag, “Representing Label Generation Rulesets Using XML”, RFC 7940, August 2016, https://www.rfc-editor.org/info/rfc7940
[RFC 8228]: A. Freytag, “Guidance on Designing Label Generation Rulesets (LGRs) Supporting Variant Labels”, RFC 8228, August 2017, https://www.rfc-editor.org/info/rfc8228
[RZ-LGR-6-Overview]: Integration Panel, “Root Zone Label Generation Rules (RZ LGR-6): Overview and Summary”, 23 September 2025, https://www.icann.org/sites/default/files/lgr/rz-lgr-6-overview-23sep25-en.pdf
[RZ-LGR-6]: Integration Panel, “Root Zone Label Generation Rules (RZ-LGR-6)”, 23 September 2025 (XML), https://www.icann.org/sites/default/files/lgr/rz-lgr-6-common-23sep25-en.xml
non-normative HTML presentation: https://www.icann.org/sites/default/files/lgr/rz-lgr-6-common-23sep25-en.html
[SIL-Ethnologue]: David M. Eberhard, Gary F. Simons & Charles D. Fennig (eds.). 2021. Ethnologue: Languages of the World, Twenty fourth edition. Dallas, Texas: SIL International. Online version available as https://www.ethnologue.com
[Unicode 16.0.0]: The Unicode Consortium. The Unicode Standard, Version 16.0.0, (South San Francisco: The Unicode Consortium, 2024. ISBN 978-1-936213-34-4) https://www.unicode.org/versions/Unicode16.0.0/
[TF-AIDN]: Blog, “Task Force for Arabic Script IDNs” https://www.icann.org/news/blog/what-is-the-task-force-on-arabic-script-idns-tf-aidn-up-to

For references consulted, particularly in designing the repertoire for the Arabic script for the Root Zone, please see details in the Table of References below. References [0] to [12] refer to the Unicode Standard versions in which the corresponding code points were initially encoded. References [100] and above correspond to sources given in [Proposal-Arabic] justifying the inclusion of the corresponding code points. Entries in the table may have multiple source reference values.

]]> The Unicode Standard, Version 1.1 The Unicode Standard, Version 3.0 The Unicode Standard, Version 4.1 The Unicode Standard, Version 5.1 The Unicode Standard, Version 6.0 The Unicode Standard, Version 6.1 El-Sherbiny, A., Farah, M., Oueichek, I., and A. Al-Zoman, “Linguistic Guidelines for the Use of the Arabic Language in Internet Domains”, RFC 5564, February 2010 https://www.rfc-editor.org/info/rfc5564 Omniglot, “Hausa” https://omniglot.com/writing/hausa.htm Omniglot, “Kashmiri” https://omniglot.com/writing/kashmiri.htm Omniglot, “Kazakh” https://omniglot.com/writing/kazakh.htm Omniglot, “Khowar” https://omniglot.com/writing/khowar.htm Omniglot, “Kirghiz” https://omniglot.com/writing/kirghiz.htm Omniglot, “Kurdish” https://omniglot.com/writing/kurdish.htm Omniglot, “Malay” https://omniglot.com/writing/malay.htm Omniglot, “Pashto” https://omniglot.com/writing/pashto.htm Omniglot, “Persian(Farsi)” https://omniglot.com/writing/persian.htm Omniglot, “Saraiki” https://omniglot.com/writing/saraiki.htm Omniglot, “Sindhi” https://omniglot.com/writing/sindhi.htm Omniglot, “Urdu” https://omniglot.com/writing/urdu.htm Omniglot, “Wolof” https://omniglot.com/writing/wolof.htm Omniglot, “Uyghur https://omniglot.com/writing/uyghur.htm Unicode, Kashmiri, Yeh https://www.unicode.org/L2/L2009/09215-kashmiri.pdf Unicode, Chad ANT, pp. 19-20 https://www.unicode.org/L2/L2010/10288r-arabic-proposal.pdf Unicode, DPLN, p.21 https://www.unicode.org/L2/L2010/10288r-arabic-proposal.pdf Unicode, Jawi and Moroccan Arabic GAF, https://www.unicode.org/L2/L2003/03176-gafs.pdf Unicode, Chadian, p.5 https://www.unicode.org/L2/L2010/10288r-arabic-proposal.pdf Wolof, Paul Timothy https://paul-timothy.net/pages/ajamisenegal/primers/je_sais_le_wolofal_harmattan_20-oct-2015_a4.pdf Hausa, pp. 261-289 Warren-Rothlin, Andy (2014): West African scripts and Arabic-script orthographies in socio-political context. Meikal Mumin, Kees (C.) H. Versteegh (Eds.): The Arabic script in Africa. Studies in the use of a writing system. Leiden, Boston: Brill (Studies in Semitic Languages and Linguistics, 71) Mandika, Bamana, pp. 225-260 Vydrin, Valentin Feodos’evich; Dumestre, Gérard (2014): Manding Ajami samples. In Meikal Mumin, Kees (C.) H. Versteegh (Eds.): The Arabic script in Africa. Studies in the use of a writing system. Leiden, Boston: Brill (Studies in Semitic Languages and Linguistics, 71) Ethiopian, Wetter, Andreas (2006): Arabic in Ethiopia. In Kees (C.) H. Versteegh (Ed.): Encyclopedia of Arabic Language and Linguistics. Volume I. A-Ed, vol. 2. With assistance of Mushira Eid, Alaa Elgibali, Manfred Woidich, Andrzej Zaborski. Leiden: E. J. Brill, pp. 51-56. Western Arabic, Qaf with three dots above, city of Gabes, Tunisia Urdu, Heh goal with hamza above, Section 3 in https://www.columbia.edu/~mk2580/urdu_section/handouts/izafat.pdf Urdu, Teh marbuta goal, Code point UZT 76 of Urdu Zabta Takhti 1.01, the official code page standard for Govt. of Pakistan, approved in 2001; see https://cle.org.pk/Publication/papers/2001/uzt1.01.pdf Kurdish-Sorani, p.7 in https://www.fas.harvard.edu/~iranian/Sorani/sorani_1_grammar.pdf Wolof, Beh with dot below and three dots above, “Wolofal Orthography” by Galen Currah, revised 20 May 2011 Malay, Jawi Keyboard standard by Department of Standards Malaysia https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jawi_keyboard (Accessed on 13 November 2015) Ajami usage, “Language planning in West Africa - who writes the script?” by Friederike Lüpke; https://www.elpublishing.org/docs/1/02/ldd02_08.pdf Scott Clark, “Alphabet and Orthography Statement For Fulfulde [FUB] Ajamiya”, SIL, Yaoundé, Cameroon, 2007, https://www.sil.org/system/files/reapdata/11/59/46/115946668959791144133440092187534320035/AlphabetandOrthographyStatementforFulfuldeFUBAjamiyafortheinternet.pdf (Accessed on June 17 2019) Hausa, Newspapers and books published in Hausa using Arabic script, https://aflang.humanities.ucla.edu/language-materials/chadic-languages/hausa/hausa-online-grammar/pronunciation-writing/hausa-writing/ Kyrgyz, https://www.ethnologue.com/language/kir Kyrgyz, https://www.ethnologue.com/country/CN/languages Urdu, https://www.bbc.com/urdu Wikipedia: “Kyrgyz alphabets”, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kazakh_alphabets (accessed on 13 November 2015) Malay, Information technology - Jawi Coded Character Set for Information Interchange MS 2443:2012, Department of Standards, Malaysia. https://www.jsm.gov.my Pashto Academy Peshawar University Kurdish, https://kurdpress.com/ Internet Architecture Board (IAB), “IAB Statement on Identifiers and Unicode 7.0.0” https://www.iab.org/documents/correspondence-reports-documents/2015-2/iab-statement-on-identifiers-and-unicode-7-0-0/ An introduction to Latin-Script Uyghur: by Waris Abdukerim Janbaz ,State Library of Victoria, 2006, https://docplayer.net/42224797-An-introduction-to-latin-script-uyghur.html Torwali online and printed dictionaries Wikipedia: “Jawi keyboard” https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jawi_keyboard (Accessed on 13 November 2015) Wikipedia: “Saraiki alphabet” https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Saraiki_alphabet (Accessed on 13 November 2015) ANT (Alphabet National du Tchad) is the national standard for Chad/Tchad; See Figures in L2/10-288R (used for “tr” sound as given in the table in Section 6.1.2): https://www.unicode.org/L2/L2010/10288r-arabic-proposal.pdf and Appendix B Wolof, https://www.openbookpublishers.com/htmlreader/978-1-78374-062-8/11.Ngom.xhtml