Egyptian Arabic text and alef maqsura with dots underneath

Why does an Egyptian Arabic document appear on a non-Egyptian system with too many alef maqsuras with dots underneath them?

We know that Egyptian Arabic does not display the dots under the ya's, whether it is ya' (ي) or alef maqsura (ى), but why do the texts we receive from them display dots on both?

For a non-Egyptian this looks really odd. I received the following text by email, and I knew the original author had to be an Egyptian.

نظرت إلي الخلق فرأيت كل مخلوق منهم متوكلا علي مخلوق مثله، هذا علي ماله وهذا علي ضيعته وهذا علي صحته وهذا علي مركزه. ونظرت إلي قول الله تعالي 'ومن يتوكل علي الله فهو حسبه'، فتركت التوكل علي الخلق واجتهدت في التوكل علي الله.

The reason why this happens is that Egyptians don't see these dots on their screens. Their operating systems are set to display Egyptian Arabic which doesn't display the dots on either the ya' or the alef maqsura.

So why doesn't it display that way on other systems? The reason is that on the Arabic keyboard, there are two key stokes, one for ya' and the other for alef maqsura. When a user strikes either of these keys on a system set to display Egyptian Arabic, both will appear on the screen as an alef maqsura. If words such as علي and إلي are typed, they will appear as على and إلى.

However, when this text is sent to a user who has a system set to display non-Egyptian Arabic, the letters display according to which key the original user typed. If an Egyptian typed إلي on his computer it will appear as إلى on his screen so he thinks it looks alright, but when he sends it to a non-Egyptian it will appear as إلي which looks odd.

Solution

I suggest replacing all ya's with alef maqsuras when the ya's are at the end of words. This can be done by using MS Word's "search and replace" feature. The search must be for a ya' followed by a non-letter (space, punctuation mark, paragraph mark, etc.) I am sure a script can be written for that easily. I am not sure if anyone has ever written it.

I think it would be beneficial if Microsoft did this automatically on systems that are set to use Egyptian Arabic.

For a non-Egyptian, it is not only odd, it is also wrong for منتدى to be spelled منتدي and for أخرى to be spelled أخري.

Whereas it doesn't look very odd for المالكي to be spelled المالكى for non-Egyptians, because that is the way it is spelled in old Arabic scripts including the Quran.

The Egyptian Arabic School is a valid school

Many non-Egyptians tend to view these dots as a sign of weak language standards among Egyptians, but this is not fair. It is only a compatibility issue between different local language settings.

The Egyptian Arabic School of omitting the dots from underneath the ya is actually the traditional school. Old Arabic scripts do not apply the dots nor does the Quran.

The problem is that Egyptians do not see the dots on their screens because their local settings hide them, but non-Egyptians see them because their local settings don't.