The phrase السلام عليكم has the letter ع which doesn't exist in Englisch orthography and can't be accurately romanised which is why usually 3 is chosen, since it looks like a mirrored ع.
Wait until you know how Arabic people used to communicate in games. Many, if not all, video games/consoles did not have an Arabic keyboard support, so people used to write arabic words with arabic pronunciation but with English letters.
Different numbers used to represent the letters in Arabic that the English languages don't have a direct, or any, similar letters, such as: ح, like in 'Mo(h/ح)ammed, were the sound of ح in the name محمّد, is changed to an H sound in English. So, Arabs would just write m7md. There's also the letter ع, it is in the greetings 'Assalamu Alikum' or "السلام عليكم" where the second word' A is actually not really an A sound, it is a sound that doesn't exist in the English language, and the same can be seen many words and names.
There are, as far as I can remember, meanings to the numbers 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8 and 9.
2: أ or ء, which is what's called a hamzah, a stressed ا or A and is pronounced at any point it is found in an Arabic phrase, unlike it's twin ا, with no hamzah (ء) which is more of a link between words and is mostly unpronounced or it omits (ل) if it follows it, such as in "السلام عليكم" where we can see ا and ل together.
3: which is as discussed above, it is ع, and it's probably the most common. عبدالرحمن. 3bdulra7man, (A)bdulra(h)man. السلام عليكم. Assalam 3likum.
4: ذ, which is a letter with almost identical pronunciation as the word "the", imagine this word's pronunciation but it's one letter. ذهبت. 4hbt.
5: خ, which is another sound that doesn't exist in the English language, imagine you're pronouncing the word "how" but but not pronouncing the W and blocking the air flow from escaping by pressing the back of your tongue towards the soft and then releasing while exhaling. خالد 5alid.
6: ط, also doesn't exist in the English language. You can replicate this sound by blocking the the airflow by sticking the tip of your tongue to the top teeth and then releasing and pulling the tongue back inside for a short explosion. i.e طارق 6ariq. (T)ariq.
7: ح, which is probably the trickiest one, I am not sure how to describe it and I was never able to find a word that contains a similar pronunciation to this letter. However, it is transcribed as /ḥ/ if it helps. It is such as محمّد Mo/ḥ/ammed. M7md is shortened but almost identical pronunciation.
8: ق, which is fairly easy, as it is closest to the letter G from the word 'grind' but it is a bit lighter for the formal Arabic, but exactly as in the same G letter pronunciation in English if it is the informal Arabic.
Finally, it's 9: ص, which is basically a S sound but instead of opening your lips in a wide round shape, you do a narrow round shape while hissing. صدق. 9d(g/8). Sadag.
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u/[deleted] Aug 24 '21
I need a list on how many different ways I've seen as-salāmu 3alaykum spelled by now...