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Using Arabic numerals for Arabic language (ar)
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Description

Issue and explanation
Hello, I am Ayoub from the Arabic Wikipedia. I also contribute (but to a lesser extent) on Commons. I thank everyone for what you are doing here, and I hope I can find someone to help me modify fonction of numbers in the Arabic interface. This is because I noticed that in Commons for example leads to the appearance of the Indo-Arabic numerals (١٢٣) when using the Arabic interface, but it is more correct if the Arabic numerals (123) are used, because a large part of the Arabs find it difficult to understand the current numbers, especially since most North African countries (Arabic countries) They use Arabic numerals in teaching and official services, and most individuals do not have any knowledge, even simple, of Indo-Arabic numerals, even among people who have studied at the university or have an academic education, with the exception of specialty students, of course. It was also pointed out that we in the Arabic Wikipedia use Arabic numerals (123), and a consensus was reached some short time ago, that we have to keep the matter as it is in the Arabic Wikipedia, because there are those who find it difficult to distinguish between the numbers “٢” and “٣” and “٦” or “٧” and “٨” or “٠” and “٥”. Best wishes.

Issue example

To reproduce this issue I will use parser function #time with date "june 22, 2024"

For example, parser function {{#time: d F Y | 2024-06-22| ar}} returns:

٢٢ يونيو ٢٠٢٤

while it should have been:

Screenshot 2024-06-22 at 12-06-35 Template talk ISOdate - Wikimedia Commons.png (27×94 px, 727 B)

the same thing for time (٢٣:٥٩:٥٩) for example should be (23:59:59)

Event Timeline

Ayoub_ renamed this task from Using Arabic numerals for Arabic language to Using Arabic numerals for Arabic language (ar).Jun 22 2024, 11:17 AM

@Aklapper, I think it is better to change the value of digitTransformTable to null in MessagesAr.

@Aklapper You can find the consensus here. However nd after i talk to some wikipedians, i find thats is better to open a new expanded talk on Meta about this changes.

There are several related tasks about this bug, but I think this one has the correct framing: the issue should be fixed for Arabic interface locales and not only by configuring wikis with an Arabic content language.

The upstream CLDR data is probably the source of the problem. Looking at the numbering system defaults, https://unicode.org/cldr/charts/45/by_type/core_data.numbering_systems.html#Numbering_System one can see that the ar locale will use Indic Arabic numerals by default, but ar_AE, ar_DZ, ar_EH, ar_LY, ar_MA and ar_TN will use Western Arabic numerals by default. There is a political question of where the center of the Arabic-reading world is located, I suppose?

The problem is severe enough that we might consider a language converter approach, or let users choose between different variants of Arabic locale in their preferences. Assuming of course that there are users of Arabic interface language who would prefer to keep Indic Arabic numbering?

There are several related tasks about this bug, but I think this one has the correct framing: the issue should be fixed for Arabic interface locales and not only by configuring wikis with an Arabic content language.

The upstream CLDR data is probably the source of the problem. Looking at the numbering system defaults, https://unicode.org/cldr/charts/45/by_type/core_data.numbering_systems.html#Numbering_System one can see that the ar locale will use Indic Arabic numerals by default, but ar_AE, ar_DZ, ar_EH, ar_LY, ar_MA and ar_TN will use Western Arabic numerals by default. There is a political question of where the center of the Arabic-reading world is located, I suppose?

The problem is severe enough that we might consider a language converter approach, or let users choose between different variants of Arabic locale in their preferences. Assuming of course that there are users of Arabic interface language who would prefer to keep Indic Arabic numbering?

I support make choice to user, I think this may be done by javascript if we will use only one cached version of page, otherwise, we are forced to cache two versions of page.