ABSTRACT
What is often called “Colloquial Arabic” has never had any official recognition or development, and therefore, any codified spelling. At best, during some historical periods, habits were taken about the spelling of such elements as verbal endings, affixed pronouns, preverbs or prepositions. But it never had any normative grammar and there are several ways in which one can adapt the Arabic (or Latin, or Hebrew) script to spell it. But freedom to write (encode) means difficulty in reading (decoding), if there is no regularity.
