Arabic language
The expressions
Arabic and
Classical Arabic usually refer\nto
al-luġatu-l-ʿarabīyatu-l-fuṣḥā (Literally:
the pure Arabic language - اللغة العربية؛الفصحى ) which is, according to Arabic speakers, both the language\nof present-day media across North Africa and the
Middle East (from
Morocco to
Iraq) and the language of the
Qur'an. The expression
media includes not only television, radio, newspapers and magazines, but also all written matter, including all books, documents of every kind, and reading primers for small children.
The term
Modern Standard Arabic is sometimes used in the West to refer to the language of the media as opposed to the language of "classical" Arabic literature; Arabs make no such distinction, and regard the two as identical. The word "Arabic" also refers to the many national or regional dialects/languages derived from Classical Arabic, spoken daily across
North Africa and the
Middle East, which sometimes differ enough to be mutually incomprehensible. These dialects are not frequently written, although a certain amount of literature (particularly plays and poetry) exists in many of them, notably
Lebanon and
Egypt.
It is sometimes difficult to translate
Islamic concepts, and concepts specific to Arab culture, without using the original Arabic terminology. The
Qur'an is expressed in Arabic and traditionally
Muslims deem it impossible to translate in a way that would adequately reflect its exact meaning - indeed, until recently, some schools of thought maintained that it should not be translated at all. A
list of Islamic terms in Arabic covers those terms which are too specific to translate in one phrase. While Arabic is strongly associated with
Islam (and is the language of
salat), it is also spoken by Arab
Christians, Oriental
Jews, and indeed Iraqi
Mandaeans; and, of course, the vast majority of the world's Muslims do not actually speak it; they only know some fixed phrases of Arabic, as used in Islamic prayer.
The English word
algorithm is derived from the name of the inventor of
algebra - an Arabic word like
alchemy,
alcohol,
azimuth,
nadir, and
zenith. See a
List of English words of Arabic origin.
Arabic numerals are what we use in English - but, except in some North African countries, modern Arabs generally use what they call "
Hindi numerals".
Spanish is the European language with the most borrowings from Arabic.
Arabic is a
Semitic language, fairly closely related to, for instance, the
Hebrew language and the
Aramaic language. Many dialects are spoken in modern Arabic states such as
Egypt,
Lebanon, and
Morocco, but all of these countries use Modern Standard Arabic for printed media. Its function however is different from that of Western standard languages: it is used for practically all writing, but is spoken only on formal or academic occasions. Consequently, prestigious vernacular varieties (especially
Egyptian Arabic) fulfill some of the functions that standard languages have in Western countries (see Chambers,
Sociolinguistic Theory).
Dialects
\nSee Varieties of Arabic for a fuller overview.
"Colloquial Arabic" is a collective term for the spoken languages or dialects of people throughout the Arab world, which, as mentioned, differ radically from the literary language. The main dialectal division is between the Maghreb dialects and those of the Middle East, followed by that between sedentary dialects and the much more conservative Bedouin dialects. Maltese, though descended from Arabic, is considered a separate language. Speakers of some of these dialects are unable to converse with speakers of another dialect of Arabic; in particular, while Middle Easterners can generally understand one another, they often have trouble understanding North Africans (although the converse is not true, due to the popularity of Middle Eastern films and other media.)
One factor in the differentiation of the dialects is influence from the languages previously spoken in the areas, which have typically provided a significant number of new words, and have sometimes also influenced pronunciation or word order; however, a much more significant factor for most dialects is, as among Romance languages, retention (or change of meaning) of different classical forms. Thus Iraqi aku, Levantine fiih, and North African kayen all mean "there is", and all come from Arabic (yakuun, fiihi, kaa'in respectively), but now sound very different.
The main groups are:
Alphabet
Main article: Arabic alphabet
The Arabic alphabet derives from the Aramaic script (which variety,
Nabataean or
Syriac, is a matter of scholarly dispute), to which it bears a loose resemblance like that of
Coptic or
Cyrillic script to
Greek script. Traditionally, there were several differences between the Western (Maghrebi) and Eastern version of the alphabet - in particular, the
fa and
qaf had a dot underneath and a single dot above respectively in the
Maghreb, and the order of the letters was slightly different (at least when they were used as numerals.) However, the old Maghrebi variant has been abandoned except for calligraphic purposes in the Maghreb itself, and remains in use mainly in the Quranic schools (zaouias) of West Africa. Arabic, like
Hebrew, is written from right to left. (
note the "â" is inbetween "a" (car) and "e" (bed).)
Phonology
\nStandard Arabic has only three vowels, in long and short variants, namely /i, a, u/. Naturally, considerable
allophony occurs.
\nArabic consonant phonemes\n\n | | \n Bilabial | \n Inter-
dental | \n Dental | \n Emphatic
dental | \n (Alveo-)
Palatal | \n Velar | \n Uvular | \n Pharyn-
geal | \n Glottal | \n
\n\n | Stops | \n Voiceless | \n | \n | \n t | \n t' | \n | \n k | \n q | \n | \n ? | \n
\n\n | Voiced | \n b | \n | \n d | \n d' | \n dZ¹ | \n | \n | \n | \n | \n
\n\n | Fricatives | \n Voiceless | \n f | \n T | \n s | \n s' | \n S | \n x | \n | \n X\\ | \n h | \n
\n\n | Voiced | \n | \n D | \n z | \n D' | \n | \n G | \n | \n ?\\ | \n | \n
\n\n | Nasals | \n m | \n | \n n | \n | \n | \n | \n | \n | \n | \n
\n\n | Laterals | \n | \n | \n l² | \n | \n | \n | \n | \n | \n | \n
\n\n | Rhotic (trill) | \n | \n | \n r | \n | \n | \n | \n | \n | \n | \n
\n\n | Semi-vowels | \n w | \n | \n | \n j | \n | \n | \n | \n | \n | \n
\n
- /dZ/ is /g/ for some speakers, i.e. a plosive. This is especially characteristic of the Egyptian dialect. In many parts of North Africa and in Lebanon, it is /Z/ (ie not affricated.)\n# /l/ becomes [l'] only in /?alla:h/, the name of God, i.e. Allah.
/'/ is used to indicate velarization and pharyngalization (=emphatic consonants; usually transcribed as dotted consonants). The other symbols are
SAMPA.
In the dialects there are more phonemes, one occurs in the Maghreb as well in the written language mostly for names: /v/.
Vowels and consonants can be (phonologically) short or long.
Grammar
See Arabic grammar
Calligraphy
See Arabic calligraphy for a fuller overview.
After the definitive fixing of the Arabic script around 786, by Khalil ibn Ahmad al Farahidi, many styles were developed, both for the writing down of the Qur'an and other books, and for inscriptions on monuments as decoration.
Arabic calligraphy has not fallen out of use as in the Western world, and is still considered by Arabs as a major art form; calligraphers are held in great esteem. Being cursive by nature, unlike the Latin alphabet, Arabic script is used to write down a verse of the Qur'an, a
Hadith, or simply a
proverb, in a spectacular composition that is often indecipherable. The composition is often abstract, but sometimes the writing is shaped into an actual form such as that of an animal. One of the current masters of the genre is Hassan Massoudy.
See also
\n*Arabic alphabet\n*
Arabic calligraphy\n*
Semitic languages
External links
\n*Arabic Wikipedia\n*
"Antonyms in Arabic are a strange phenomenon" by Tamim al-Barghouti
Web references and examples:\n*
6 links\n*
E2 article\n*
Sprachprofi\n*
Introduction to Arabic grammatical states\n*
Arabic - English Dictionary: from
Webster's Online Dictionary - the Rosetta Edition.\n*
SIL's Ethnologue\n*
Dialects of Arabic
Category:Semitic languages
Category:Arab
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