Andrew Dunbar wrote:

> > > Finding the version with vowels may be trickier...
> >
> > But not impossible:
> >
> > http://www.fas.org/news/iraq/2000/02/fc.gif
> >
> > [...]
>
> Oddly, using this spelling in Google gets not a single
> hit!

Of course. That style of voweling would just be used on the entry words of a
dictionary...

> I would expect a fully voweled version to retain
> the fatah above the shaddah.

But that information would be redundant, as an alif with no hamza in that
position can only indicate a long /â/. Not so for the ya' in the following
word, which could indicate long [î], the diphthong (thanks, Nicholas) [ay]
or even consonant [y] or [yy], that's why the fatha is written for
disambiguation.

> I've never been able to find anything to tell me what
> variations of Arabic orthography are legitimate, or if
> you can just include or omit any of the marks, without
> regard to any of the other marks.
>
> Plain text has no vowels, no sukuns, no shaddahs.
> Fully voweled text has vowels, sukuns, and shaddahs.
> But in-between these extremes I'm a bit vague. Are all
> these combinations as acceptable?
>
> [...]

(My Arabic is terribly broken, so take what follows as my personal
impression.)

Based on observation, I would say that these are fours main styles of
voweling, in decreasing order of complexity:

1) "Solemn": all the possible marks are indicated, including redundant ones
as e.g. a fatha before an alif. This is only used in religious texts (such
as editions of the Qur'ân), ancient poetry, and artistic calligraphy text
(where the marks also play a decorative role). In addition to the standard
marks, religious text often use "filling" marks (generally shaped like
little "v"'s) to fill up all the blank space where additional marks could
conceivably be placed, in order to avoid any possible alteration of the
text.

2) "Didactic": only the marks which are not obvious are indicated. This is
used in grammars, books for children or foreign learners and entry word of
dictionaries. It is the style shown in the "Saddam Hussein's Iraq" linked
above. The final short vowels or sukûn of nouns and adjective (which
indicate declension cases) may or may not be indicated depending whether
Classical Arabic or Modern Arabic is the target of teaching. Wasla (the mute
hamza found on some initial alifs, namely the one of the definite article
"al-") is always omitted.

3) "Plain": the only mandatory marks are hamza (including the hamza on
leading alifs) and madda (the contraction of a hamza followed by an alif).
Any other mark is written only when there is a possible ambiguity; whether
or not ambiguity exists depends on the context of a sentence and on the
meaning of the involved words: there is no definite rule but there are some
common cases, such as some verbal forms (e.g. the subjunctive) which are
only distinguished by different short vowels or by the presence of a shadda.
The word "Allah" is an exception to the general rules, as it always retains
its shadda and superscript alif. This is the style normally used in all
kinds of printed matter. In a slight variant of this style, a few more marks
are mandatory, such as the fathatan (double fatha) on alif, or the
superscript alif (a mark representing an etymological alif which is omitted
from the spelling).

4) "Casual": the only marks used are the hamzas in the body of a word (those
at the beginning or end are normally omitted, as they are in pronunciation).
This styles often involves simplifications in the shapes of the letters
themselves, e.g. the two dots below final ya' and the hamza-like sign in
final kâf are normally omitted. Homographs are not distinguished
graphically, as text written in this style are not supposed to use complex
grammar (e.g. the subjunctive mood). This style is similar to writing
English with no apostrophes or capital letters ("i cant spel english"), or
French with no accents; it is used mainly in personal or confidential
writing not intended for the public to be seen.

_ Marco