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 Posted: Thu Aug 26, 2004 7:03 pm
 Marhaban! (Hello!)
Welcome to the Arabic language thread!
This thread's intent is to help people (both Muslim and non-Muslim) to become more acquainted with the Arabic language. It will cover the language's history, the basics of the language itself, and more. Anyone is welcome to contribute here (and should anyone here find any mistakes, you are most welcome to correct me). Corrections should be in the form of a PM, and contributions relating to my posts should also be in the form of a PM. Other contributions/comments/etc... and anything else not already mentioned, but is related to the Arabic language, could be in the form of posts (links related to the Arabic language [and/or teach the language] are especially welcome, since I don't have any at the moment sweatdrop ).
I will address different aspects of the Arabic language in different posts. This post will address the history of (and other information related to) the Arabic language (and later posts will address the basics and structure of the Arabic language itself).-Information and Background-Arabic is a language that belongs to the Semitic group of languages (which includes Hebrew and Aramaic), which also falls under the category of the Afro-Asiatic languages. As such, it has many similarities with the other Semitic languages, though unlike some other language families, the Semitic languages do not share a common alphabet (as do the Romance languages, for example).
Generally speaking, languages can be based on roots or on concepts. Arabic is very much a "root" language, that is, it is primarily based on roots, rather than on concepts that are associated with words. For example, the words: katib, kataba, kitab, maktoob (etc...) all have to do with "writing." They all share the basic root letters, "k," "t" and "b." Much of the words in the Arabic language, like the ones above, come from roots.
Arabic, just like other languages, has always had dialects. Even during the time of the prophet Muhammad [sallallahu alaihi wa sallam/peace be upon his soul], when Arabic had not been in usage for a long time (compared to other languages of the time), there were dialects. For example, during that time, the bedouins' dialect was considered the purest form of Arabic. Other dialects include those of Quriash (Muhammad [sallallahu alaihi wa sallam]'s tribe/family), those of Bilad (Al)-Sham (modern day countries: Jordan, Syria, Lebanon, and Palestine), and the dialect of the Yemeni people. Generally speaking, their dialects didn't differ as much as Arabic dialects do now, since Arabic at that point wasn't spoken by a large group of people. Since the Arabic that the bedouins spoke was the purest, it was a common tradition for rich Arabic families (usually dwelling within large families/tribes and cities), to send their children (a bit after they're born) to bedouins to be raised there for a couple of years, so that they learn the purest form of Arabic right from the start of their lives (and this is exactly what happened to Muhammad [sallallahu alaihi wa sallam] when he was yet a baby).
In the pre-Islamic times, the majority of the Arabs were illiterate (including Muhammad [sallallahu alaihi wa sallam]), however during those times, as well as the Islamic period, the Arabs were much more acquainted with their language than the Arabs are now. In other words, even though the majority of them could not read Arabic (during the pre-Islamic times), they knew the full capabilities of their language, and much of the vocabulary that their language had. In fact, because they were so able to express things in the Arabic language, it was very common for almost anybody to create poetry (complex poetry that had metrical patterns and such) at an instant (it came out from them naturally). In short, the strength of the Arabs (at that time) was their language. Thus, to challange the Arabs and show them a grand miracle, God sent the Qur'an to the Arabs. The Qur'an is a miracle because it is the best form of Arabic literature ever produced. The complexity and beauty of the poetic language in the Qur'an, was something that even the Arabs themselves could not imitate.
Muhammad [sallallahu alaihi wa sallam] had the ability to speak all Arabic dialects perfectly, including the one of his family, the Quraish dialect of Arabic (which, at that time, wasn't too different from the bedouin dialect). The Quriash dialect is the dialect that the words of the Qur'an were expressed in. Today, however, the language of the Qur'an is known as Classical Arabic, or in Arabic, al-lughatul Arabiyyatul Fus'ha, literally, 'the pure Arabic language.' Today also exists the Modern Standard Arabic, the Arabic generally used in the media, and the Arabic that every Arab understands. It's more similar to Classical Arabic than the modern Arabic dialects.
Today, there exists many Arabic dialects. Each Arabic country has a different dialect, and within the countries sometimes there exists different dialects. The dialects are what you'd hear Arabs speak everyday, though in school and in the media, the Modern Standard Arabic is being used and taught.
Arabic is written from right to left. The letters of the Arabic alphabet change form depending on their positions in the word (these will be discussed later). Arabic, in addition to letters, uses diacritical marks that denote short vowels, stress, silence, etc... on a letter (these will also be discussed later). These diacritical marks were actually not created until later. As I mentioned earlier, the early Arabs were very able in their language, that whenever they wrote Arabic, they didn't need to put diacritical marks (because they knew the pronunciation of the words without them). In fact, they also didn't need to put dots (which were also created and added later). Thus, if one were to look at a very early Arabic text, one would have a hard time understanding it.
More on the Arabic language to be discussed in a later post.
That's all for now (I'm exhausted xp ). I'll type on different topics later.
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Posted: Thu Aug 26, 2004 8:53 pm
This should be stickied. Basically, anything related to Islam should be, right, Baccus?
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Posted: Fri Aug 27, 2004 4:08 am
Here is the Arabic Alphabet (Al Abjadiya). It is read from right to left. Here are the corresponding letters in English, beginning from the rightmost letter: Alif: A Ba' : B Ta' : T Tha' : Th (In 'thorn', NOT in 'this') Jeem : J [H]a' : Guttural H (The sound comes from the back of the throat) Kha' : German 'Ch' sound as in "Bach" only heavier Dal : D Dhal : Dh (As in "this") Ra' : R Zayn : Z Seen : S Sheen : Sh ad : Heavily pronounced S
[D]ad : Heavily pronounced D
[T]a' : Heavily pronounced T
[Dh]a : Heavily pronounced Dh
'ayn : Comes from the back of the throat
Ghayn : A fricative G sound
Fa' : F
Qaf : Q (From back of throat)
Kaf : K
Lam : L
Meem : M
Nun : N
Ha' : H
Waw : W
Ya' : Y
Of course, the description is not sufficient. Here is a link providing the letters, their equivalents, and sound files to help with pronunciation:
http://www.arabic2000.com/arabic/alphabet.html
EDIT: Forgot the Fa' in the image, thanks Anima for bringing it to my attention sweatdrop
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Posted: Fri Aug 27, 2004 8:45 am
Shukran Jazeelan to the contributions! ^_^
(I'm going to be away for the rest of the day, so I'm not going to come here until much later. But it's going great so far, keep it up! 3nodding ).
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Posted: Fri Aug 27, 2004 12:45 pm
I'll definitely sticky it. 3nodding
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Posted: Fri Aug 27, 2004 7:47 pm
askhanswhat I'll definitely sticky it. 3nodding I made a difference? ^_^
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Posted: Fri Aug 27, 2004 7:59 pm
GhaleonEx askhanswhat I'll definitely sticky it. 3nodding I made a difference? ^_^ Yes. 3nodding
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Posted: Fri Aug 27, 2004 9:28 pm
Great thread!
I think after flunking my Arabic test 6 times in a row n losing interest in it years ago,this thread may rekindled my interest in Arabic....
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Posted: Sat Aug 28, 2004 12:46 am
Thank you askhanswhat (and GhaleonEx for the suggestion) for the sticky-ing of this thread. 3nodding
Joe Maya, thank you as well (for your compliment). I'm glad you think that way so far, and it's really great to hear. I hope your interest continues to increase. ^_^-Forms of the Arabic Letters-As you can see from Ayyar's post, the Arabic alphabet (abjadiya) contains 28 letters, 3 of which are vowels. However, there are certain sounds in the English (and some other languages) that are not represented within the Arabic alphabet. These sounds would be: "G," (G as in "Garage." Generally used in foreign words borrowed from other languages, however, certain Arabic dialects have and use that sound, such as the Egyptian dialect, to name an example) "P," and "V." The only times such sounds would be used (with the exception of the "G" sound aforementioned here) are when foreign words are being dealt with.
As I said earlier, the Arabic letters have different forms depending on their positions in the word (and as such, Arabic doesn't have "capital" and "small" letters). Below is a chart of all the letters and their different forms. Generally speaking, letters could be attached to a preceding letter, and a succeeding letter. However, there are exceptions. As you will see below, there are some letters that only have two forms listed. That means, that a letter such as that could only be attached by a preceding letter, but never by a succeeding letter. Thus, also in such a case, the first form listed is the initial form of the letter, and the second form listed would be the final form of the letter.
The boxed forms are those that have a special case (which will be discussed later), and the red colored letters are the vowels.
(Isolated = the form used when the letter is not attached to any other letter; Initial = the form used at the beginning of a word; Medial = the form used in the middle of a word; Final = the form used at the end of a word)
The key to the chart:The chart:As you can see from the chart, there are certain forms that are boxed. These are 'special' forms of the letters Alef and Ta', the only letters which have "special forms."
1.) The "Alef Al-Maqsura": The first set of the boxed special forms belong to the letter Alef. The Alef Al-Maqsura within it also has two forms (also used depending on their positions in the word. However, unlike the other letters and their forms, the Alef Al-Maqsura can only be attached at the end of the word. Never at the beginning or in the middle (unless it has a "hamza" on top of it, which will be discussed later) of a word (thus, the two forms listed are the isolated and the final forms). The only way to know when to use the Alef Al-Maqsura in the spelling of a word is to memorize and know the words (that are spelled using the Alef Al-Maqsura).
2.) The "Ta' Al-Marboota": This special form of the letter Ta', just like the Alef Al-Maqsura, can only be attached at the end of a word, but never in the beginning or in the end of a word. This, the two forms listed are the isolated and the final forms. The "Ta' Al-Marboota" usually has a "short a"-like pronunciation. However, the only time that it's actually pronounced as "T" is when it has short vowel diacritical accent marks.*The Hamza*To begin with, the hamza looks like this:It can be used only with the Alef, the Alef Al-Maqsura, and the Waw. The Hamza is generally always put on the Alef when the Alef in in the beginning of a word. When used with the Alef, it can be positioned [only; in no other positions] as shown:When used with the Alef Al-Maqsura, it can be positioned [only] as shown:When used with the Waw, it can be positioned [only] as shown:As for the sound (and pronunciation) of the Hamza...I can't think of a way to describe it. sweatdrop If someone would like to help me on that, that would be great.
Lastly, and I cannot emphasize this enough: the position and the number of the dots on the letters have great importance and matter a lot (this goes for every letter). If you put a dot in the wrong location, or don't have the correct number of dots, the entire meaning of the word will most likely change.
That's all for this "dars" (lesson). ^_^
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Posted: Sat Aug 28, 2004 1:51 am
Pronouncing the HamzaThe Hamza is a distinctive sound found in the Arabic language. It is basically a glottal stop where the passage of air is blocked. The hamza by itslef is pronouned like the 'uh' sound. For example, say "America". The first A in America is a Hamza because it has that 'h' sound. Please keep in mind that the Hamza is not a letter it's a sound. When the Hamza is placed on the Alif, it has two possible sounds: /a/ and /i/. Observe: When the Hamza is used on the letter Ya', the letter drops its two dots at the bottom, it is known as Ya' Hamza, it has that /i/ sound: The above word is Shaati' (Beach), the Hamza is on Ya' in the end of the word. So the end of the word will have the glottal stop. When the Hamza is put on the letter 'Waw' it has an /o/ sound to it. As you can see, the Hamza goes above the three Long Vowels (A[h]ruf Al 3illa) When the Hamza goes on one of these letters, the Hamza is pronounced instead of the letter (the Hamza may have an /a/, /i/, or /o/ sound depending on the letter and word). In daily spoken Arabic dialects, sometimes the Hamza is ignored and dropped from speach. This is grammatically incorrect, and since we are learning Modern Fus[h]a Arabic, the Hamza is required in speech. Help: http://www.webpersonal.net/jordimastrullenque/arabe/signodehamzah.en.html
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Posted: Sat Aug 28, 2004 8:14 am
Hey, this'll definatly help me learn Arabic. Good Job, Anima!
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Posted: Sat Aug 28, 2004 10:18 am
I'm going to use this for reference during my arabic class xd
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Posted: Sat Aug 28, 2004 11:17 am
thank you ssooooo much! (i needed this)
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Posted: Tue Aug 31, 2004 4:22 am
Basics of wordsFrom now on, I'll be using the Qur'an Standard font to write instead of images. To be able to view Arabic with this font, please download it here:
http://www.abstractfonts.com/fonts/download.is?id=605
And install it by extracting it to a directory, and going to Control Panel, Fonts, and clicking "Install New Font" in the file menu, then browsing to the location of the font.The Arabic language has three basic vowels, these are called أحْرُف العِـلَّة (A[h]ruf Al 3illa). Now, let us take a moment to analyze these two words. As you know, Arabic has three vowels: ا, و, ي (alif, waw, and ya'). These are the long vowles, when you connect them to a letter, it is pronounced with the extended vowel: ما for example is pronounced "Maa" instead of "Ma". So when Alif joins a letter, a long /a/ sound is produced. How then, do we get the short /a/ sound? That is where diacritics come in. The Arabic language has several diacritics to help with pronunciation: ُ : ضمة [D]amma [short /o/ sound] َ : فتحة Fat[h]a [short /a/ sound] ِ : كسرة Kasra [Short /i/ sound] So let's go to our example, we want to form the sound 'Ma' instead of 'Maa'. This is how we would write it: مَ. In addition to the diacritics for the vowel sounds, there are also two diacritics to help with pronunciation: ْ : سكون Sukoon [Signifies that the letter has no vowel sound] ّ : شدة Shadda [Signifies that a letter is stressed] The Shadda can take above it any of the three vowel diacritics so that a stressed letter can have a vowel . The diacritic then goes above the Shadda. Except for the Kasra which goes under the Shadda. ََّّNow, these diacritics can be used to properly pronounce the two words we mentioned in the beginning: أحْرُفُ العِلَّــةِThis will certainly come out as: "A[h]rufu-l3illati". Which is basically "A[h]ruf Al 3illa". (We will later explain why the first pronunciation is more correct if we get into parsing) The Diacritics of the Arabic language are only used when teaching the language to help students grasp the pronunciations of words. As students get used to some words, they will not need to write or read the diacritics and will be able to pronounce them correctly. The system of diacritics was created to help preserve the correct pronunciations of the Arabic language. Newspapers and books do not use diacritics except when an uncommon word is encountered.
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Posted: Tue Aug 31, 2004 5:51 am
I can't seem to be able to view the second page @__@
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