Languages · Arabic
Arabic meeting transcription, written up for you.
Nobody holds a meeting in Modern Standard Arabic — they hold it in Gulf, Egyptian or Levantine dialect, which is the variety a transcript has to actually handle.
Arabic is diglossic in a strong sense. Modern Standard Arabic is the written and formal broadcast language; the language people negotiate, argue and joke in is a regional dialect, and the dialects differ enough in vocabulary and grammar that a Moroccan and an Iraqi speaking their own varieties may struggle. Business meetings usually sit somewhere in between — a Gulf or Levantine base with MSA vocabulary for formal points. A transcript that only handles MSA will miss most of the meeting.
The script adds its own demands. Arabic is written right to left, letters change shape by position, and short vowels are normally unwritten, so the reader supplies them. Getting the consonantal skeleton and the correct word choice right is what makes a transcript usable in a document. GetNotes returns Arabic in its own script with correct right-to-left rendering.
Then there is the mixture. Gulf boardrooms run Arabic with English contract, finance and technical vocabulary; Maghrebi meetings mix Arabic with French to a similar degree, and Darija carries Berber and French borrowings throughout. GetNotes transcribes both sides of the switch and produces minutes with decisions and action items — which in a multinational Gulf office often needs to be in English even though the meeting was not.
Where it earns its keep
A Gulf board or family-office meeting
Discussion runs in Gulf Arabic with English for contract and finance terms, in a room, with no bot anywhere near it. The record has to be precise about what was agreed and by whom. Record on a phone and get an attributed transcript plus an English summary.
A construction project meeting in the Emirates
An Emirati client, a Lebanese project manager and an Indian contractor discuss progress in Arabic and English on site. Speaker labels are the difference between a record and a wall of text, and the action items need names attached.
A Casablanca meeting mixing Darija and French
Moroccan business conversation moves between Darija and French continuously. GetNotes transcribes both as spoken instead of dropping the French or forcing the Arabic into MSA, so the written record matches the meeting.
How GetNotes works
- Record or upload. Hit record on your phone or laptop in the room — or drop in an audio file you already have. No bot joins anything.
- It writes it down. Every word transcribed, every speaker labelled, in 90+ languages including ones that switch mid-sentence.
- Share the minutes.Summary, decisions, and action items with owners — ready before everyone's back at their desk.
Questions, answered
Does GetNotes handle spoken Arabic dialects or only Modern Standard Arabic?
It handles spoken Arabic, which is what meetings actually use — Gulf, Egyptian and Levantine varieties as well as MSA vocabulary when speakers shift into a formal register. Maghrebi Darija is the most distant variety from MSA and is worth testing on your own audio with the free first meeting.
Is the Arabic transcript written right to left in Arabic script?
Yes. Transcripts come back in Arabic script with correct right-to-left rendering rather than Latin transliteration, so they can be pasted into a document as they are. English words spoken inside an Arabic sentence appear in Roman script where they occurred.
Can it handle Arabic mixed with English or French?
Yes. Gulf meetings routinely use English for contract, finance and technical vocabulary, and Maghrebi meetings mix Arabic with French continuously. GetNotes transcribes code-switched speech as spoken, and the written minutes can be produced in English for the head office, the auditor or the joint-venture partner who does not read Arabic.
Will it label speakers in an Arabic meeting with several participants?
Yes — speaker labels are applied automatically, which is what a Gulf project meeting needs when an Emirati client, a Lebanese consultant and a South Asian contractor are all in the room speaking different varieties of Arabic and English. The minutes then attach names to the commitments instead of recording that the meeting collectively agreed something.
Other languages
Your next Arabic meeting can write its own minutes.
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