Thread: What do numbers in Arabic written in Latin alphabet mean?

Example:
"ihath, 2ana ma momkin 2az3al minnik..."
http://www.ihath.com/2004/08/iraqi-comedy.html

The "system" varies depending on whichever person is doing it, but they represent Arabic letters that look slightly like those numbers. Enough for someone who speaks Arabic to guess which letter it is. For example, the "3" usually represents "'ain", which does indeed look a little bit like a 3 when written in it's full form(perhaps I'm wrong here, correct me, Arabic-speakers, but I do think it's "ain"). I'm not exactly what the "2" is there, but it's one of those back-of-the throat noises, I think.

Iraqi Commedy -

Saddam's march 2003 adress to the country.

"Don't worry, our forces will be victorious."

-I think that the " 2 " is the little sign that is found on the letter " أ "
(that is: "ء " ,( it is called " AL-HAMZA in arabic ).

-as for the letter that Pravit had mentioned , it is correct that it corresponds to the letter "ع" in arabic.

Hello all,
regarding these numbers used in transliterated arabic, they are used to reblace Arabic letters that do not hve equivalent letters in latin. Here is a list ( By the way these are not standard nor so popular only chatters in slang arabic use them):
Arabic Letter Equivalent Number

ح 7
خ 5
ص 9
ط 7
ع 3
ء 2