Many Fremen terms were of doubtful etymology, e g , baraka (miracle worker), and shadout (well-dipper), perhaps from shaduf, a device used for irrigation on Ishia, yah and ya ya yawm are of unknown meaning and provenience Ingslei ("Fremen Place-Names in the Languages of Salusa Secundus," BNM 72 28 54) ascribes the term stetch to Tamashek of Salusa Seiundus, and aelago and htereg to the ancient language of Har-monthep The etymology of some Fremen words remains locked in controversy, e g , ikhut eigh muad'dib2 Dialects There were two major dialects of Fremen, labeled Eastern and Western, identified primarily by phonological differences, certain lexical items, and some morphological variations The Eastern group extended (in Atreidean times) eastward in longitude from Arrakeen (30 W) to the False Wall-West and the Habbanya Erg (150 E) It included the sietch communities beyond the Plastic Basin and Observatory Mountains, the Rock Outcroppmgs on the Funeral Plain, Sietch Tabr, Bight of Ihe Cliff and the sietch communities of the False Wall West It was the Eastern dialect which figured in the rise of the Ummd Regent, Paul Muad Dib Atreides It employed all of the above-mentioned sounds (see Phonology above), the plural markers were at and -an FREMEN LANGUAGE 237 FREMEN LANGUAGE The Western group extended from the Sihaya Ridge (55 W) to the False Wall South (150 W) and included the sietch warrens of the Sihaya Ridge, Hole m the Rock, Gara Kulon, Pasty Mesa, Chin Rock, and the False Wall-South This dialect employed many lexical items borrowed from the languages of the smugglers near the edge of the Minor Erg Its plural marker was u and adjectives of Arabic derivation retained gender distinctions The sound g was absent, as was initial kh (e g , aumas Eastern chaumas)3 Graphemes The ancient Arabic script, a naturally cursive script with up to four different forms for each letter (depending on its position-initial, medial, final, or uncon nected-m a word), has, through millennia of usage been streamlined and at times arbitrarily restructured so that it has come to be an alphabetic script with only one form of a letter per sound unit This latest innovation was attributed to the planetologist Liet-Kynes during his stay on Arrakis with the Fremen tribes Other pnor innovations included the introduction of symbols to represent vowels (ancient Arabic script indicated short vowels only by infrequently used diacritical marks) attributed to Ah Ben Ohasi and later modi fied by the Fremen in the fast copies of their desert survival manual, the Kitab al Ibar The Fremen script in use during die time of Muad'Dib is shown below Many of the values of the old Arabic tetters have been reassigned while some new symbols have been contrived from existing letters, and there has apparently been at least some total ly arbitrary assignment of the letters them selves The script runs right to left although some Fremen dialects reportedly wrote bous trophedon ( 'as the ox plows that is right to left in the first line, left to nght m the second, and so on), such as the Fremen of the Sihaya Ridge & The Shadda or s.