Fig. 2.

Arabic allographs. In Arabic, different allographs of the same letter identity are used depending on the position of the letter within subwords. Subwords correspond to groupings of letters that are defined by nonligating letters (i.e., a letter that does not ligate on the left marks the end of a subword). The two allographs of the letter “jim” (/ʤi:m/) are shown in (a) in its isolated (blue) and ligating (red) forms. The two allographs occurring together in a word (“dajaaj,” or “chicken”) are shown in (b) along with nonligating (black) letters that create subwords. The relative spacing between words (boxes) and subwords (shading) is shown in (c).