# Properties of the Arabic language



## linguist786

I wonder if you can help me. 

I have to do a project (in a group of three) on any language of the world. We chose Arabic . I would really appreciate if anyone can just state general properties of the Arabic language. Not _necessarily_ things that separate it from other languages - although that would be OK too. I am mainly looking for morphological and syntactic properties (as well as maybe phonetic, or any other linguistic properties you may find interesting)

For example, subject-object-verb order in Arabic is SVO (or VSO). E.g. Muhammadun qatala Ahmadan/qatala Muhammadun Ahmadan.

I hope you get the idea  

I think this would be a good thread to have anyway, so we can all (natives/learners) think about properties of this amazing language. I will add my own too as they come to me.


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## ayed

well, if I understood you:

Ahmed loves Salim
*أحمد يحب سالم*
Salim is loved by Ahmed
*سالم يحبه أحمد*
*-----------------*
Brother , Muhammed translate the following:
*أحمد الفاكهة النضيج*


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## Abu Rashid

I think he wants people to list or mention different aspects of the Arabic language, rather than give examples of the aspect he mentioned.

Another property of the Arabic language is that the vast majority of words are derived from triliteral roots, which is a trait common to all Semitic languages. So most words can be traced back to an original (3 letter) root, which is then "transposed" into all different patterns (awzaan) to give different shades of meaning from the original base meaning.


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## linguist786

Yes, Abu Rashid is right 

I love your little explanation about the root system! It sums it all up in a few lines.

Thanks


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## MeiLing

Hello linguist786. Welcome to the Arabic Forum.  
If you allow me please, I'd like to start with the vowl system in Arabic. But before I begin, I'd like to point out that I'm not a linguist, so what you'll be reading here is just what I have learnt myself. 
All comments are highly appreciated. Thank you.

There are 3 basic vowels in Arabic: (ا = ā), (ي = ī), and (و = ū).* However, Arabic has a system of diacritical marks that is unique to it. There are mainly 4 diacritical marks:

- *al-fatħa (**الفتحة ـــَــ)*: which sounds like the vowel ( ا ), but the difference in pronunciation is that the vowel ( ا ) is long while al-fatħa is short. 
Examples:نـَامَ= nāma, كـَانَ= kāna, كـَتـَبَ= kataba, خـَرَجَ= ќaraja

- *al-kasra (**الكسرة ـــِــ)*: which sounds like the vowel ( ي ), but the difference in pronunciation is that the vowel ( ي ) is long while al-kasra is short.
Examples: كـَرِيـم = karīm, ربـِيـع= rabīε, مـِقـَص = miqas, غـَضـِبَ = ġađiba 

- *al-đamma (**الضمة ــُــ)*: which sounds like the vowel ( و ), but the difference in pronuncition is that the vowel ( و ) is long while al-đamma is short. 
Examples: يَـقــُولُ = yaqūlu, مـُلـُوك = mulūk, دُور = dūr

- *al-sukūn (**السكون ـــْــ)*:which, as its literal meaning in Arabic indicates, means that there is a very slight pose on the letter.
Examples: مـَلـْحـَمـَة = malħma, مـَشـْرُوع= mašrūε, مـِفـْتـَاح = miftāħ
________________________________________
* The Arabic sounds transcription I use here is based on Laithy’s Transliteration System: 
www dot wataonline dot net/site/modules/newbb/viewtopic.php?topic_id=1648&forum=77

*General Notes on Vowels and Diacritical Marks*:

1. NO Arabic word begins with a vowel. ALL words MUST begin with consonants.

2. Many words in Arabic (not all) are syntactic. The diacritic marks in some cases determine the syntactic position of the word.

3. The diacritical mark on the letter that precedes the vowel ( ا ) MUST be fatħa; however, it is not written in transliteration. If that diacritical mark is not fatħa, then the letter ( ا ) is not a vowel, but a consonant letter. 

4.Similarly, the diacritical mark on the letter that precedes the vowel ( ي ) MUST be kasra; however, it is not written in transliteration. If that diacritical mark is not kasra, then the letter ( ي ) is not a vowel, but a consonant letter.

5. Again ,the diacritical mark on the letter that precedes the vowel ( و ) MUST be đamma; however, it is not written in transliteration. If that diacritical mark is not đamma, then the letter ( و ) is not a vowel, but a consonant letter.


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## elroy

An old post of mine that might be useful.


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## linguist786

elroy, that is definitely useful! They are very useful "general" facts - just what I need! 

شكرًا


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## suma

MeiLing said:


> 1. NO Arabic word begins with a vowel. ALL words MUST begin with consonants.


That's not correct.
eeman  إيــمان
ab, umm   أب    أمّ
in fact many words in Arabic begin with vowels, not sure what you meant by this MeiLing???


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## Josh_

Actually, it is correct.  We had a long discussion about it a while ago, but it was removed.  I don't feel like going into a long explanation now, but I will say that short vowels in Arabic are expressed by diacritical marks; and as you know there are only three ( ـَــُــِـ ).  As such they cannot stand on their own, they can only be used in combination with a consonant -- they are complements to the consonant, so to speak -- every consonant has a vowel, except when it has a sukuun.  The hamza functions as a letter/consonant and like the other letters, it carries its own vowel.  I did a write up of it, but can't seem to find it now.  If I find it, I'll post it later.

Edit:  Also, Arabic is sort of a rhythmic language.  As I noted above the vowels are complements to consonants and as such the consonant always comes first and the language goes like this -- Cv Cv Cv Cv Cv Cv (where 'C' is consonant and 'v' is vowel).  The combination vC vC does not work.


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## MeiLing

Josh Adkins said:


> The hamza functions as a letter/consonant and like the other letters, it carries its own vowel.


That is true, Josh.  
You see, suma, the letter ( أ ), i.e. الهمزة, is in fact a consonant letter, not a vowel. It is totally different from the vowel ( ا ) which is called in Arabic حرف مد. Thus, the first letter in the words you mentioned is the consonant letter ( أ ), i.e. الهمزة, and not the vowel ( ا ) which is in fact حرف مد. 
I assure you that NO Arabic word begins with a vowel. ALL words MUST begin with consonants.


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## Mklangelo

suma said:


> That's not correct.
> eeman  إيــمان
> ab, umm   أب    أمّ
> in fact many words in Arabic begin with vowels, not sure what you meant by this MeiLing???



To my understanding, Hamza, is a "glottal stop" which carries the vowel.  I didn't think that Hamza was considered a vowel.


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## MeiLing

Mklangelo, 'hamza' ( الهمزة *أ* ) is not a vowel, 'alif al-madd' ( ألف المدّ *ا* ) is.


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## linguist786

MeiLing said:


> Mklangelo, 'hamza' ( الهمزة *أ* ) is not a vowel, 'alif al-madd' ( ألف المدّ *ا* ) is.


Isn't ألف المدّ the name for: آ ("aa")?


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## cherine

linguist786 said:


> Isn't ألف المدّ the name for: آ ("aa")?


Yes, this is right. Some people also transliterate is as á or as an a with a (-) above it (don't have it here, but I think you get what I mean(.


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## palomnik

Another characteristic of Arabic is a relatively small amount of conjugated verb forms, the lack of which is made up mainly by the nuances in meaning provided by the derived forms of the verb.

And _hamza_ is a consonant, is it not?  And _hamzat ul wasl _is inserted before any vowel that isn't preceded by a consonant, specifically to avoid the VC combination.  I don't see where anybody has specifically stated that.


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## suma

I know that "technically" hamzah is considered a consonant, but I feel that the insistance that Arabic words do not or cannot begin with a vowel is ridiculous and hard to grasp.

Take the words ab and umm and eemaan, ask anyone what's the initial sound? The fact that the pecularities of Arabic orthography do not allow a word to begin like this 

  َب
    ُمّ    if you can't see it that's a fathah sitting by itself followed by baa, then Dammah alone followed by meem. We can't write it like that, so we use the hamzah, but it doesn't change the fact the what you hear initially is the vowel sound.


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## Outsider

Josh Adkins said:


> Edit:  Also, Arabic is sort of a rhythmic language.  As I noted above the vowels are complements to consonants and as such the consonant always comes first and the language goes like this -- Cv Cv Cv Cv Cv Cv (where 'C' is consonant and 'v' is vowel).  The combination vC vC does not work.


However, Arabic also has many consonant clusters. From this thread:

Ahmed
al-kasra
hamza
hamzat ul wasl


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## Josh_

What I was trying to show was that vowels, when they are present, always come after consonants, never before.  But yes, obviously some consonants take the sukuun.


suma said:


> I know that "technically" hamzah is considered a consonant, but I feel that the insistance that Arabic words do not or cannot begin with a vowel is ridiculous and hard to grasp.


Hard to grasp, yeah, maybe. But ridiculous, how?


> Take the words ab and umm and eemaan, ask anyone what's the initial sound?


 This is due to lack of understanding of the glottal stop (explained below).

 I'm going to try to explain in taking some different approaches. Maybe it will be helpful.

I think what happens here, and why it is a difficult concept to grasp is that many do not understand, or think about, the processes that the mouth goes through in order to produce sounds, after all we do it automatically and it does not require thought.  So the initial glottal stop that is present before one vocalizes goes unnoticed, and as a result people think it is not there or it doesn’t happen, even though it most definitely does.  I do not claim to know as much as, say, a linguistic specialist, but as a stutterer I am acutely aware of vocal processes that cause me difficulty, of which the glottal stop is one.

  So let’s look at what a glottal stop is.  A glottal stop is formed by clenching the vocal cords together at which point the air flow it stopped and no sound can get out – like in the cockney bo’’le (for bottle), or the interjection ‘uh-oh’.  As I noted above, one of my biggest problems as a stutterer is the opening of my vocal cords in order to produce sounds.  They often just clench up and I am not able to get any sound out.

More info on the glottal stop here.

  In addition to not understanding the processes that the mouth goes through in order to produce sounds I also think part of the problem (vis-à-vis the function and presence of hamza in Arabic) is how the glottal stop is viewed and used, or lack thereof to be accurate, in other languages.  Most languages do not consider the glottal stop as part of a word and indeed there is no orthographic symbol to represent it, thus it is not thought about or deemed relevant.  These languages only consider what comes out of the mouth after the vocal cords are opened, as part of a word.  Thus they don’t consider the initial clenching of the vocal cords as part of a word. This is where Arabic differs – not only is the glottal stop considered part of a word in which it appears, but it has its own orthographic symbol to represent it.  But the fact of the glottal stop being irrelevant in other languages, I believe, influences how people see it in Arabic and so they just assume that a word that begins with a hamza and its complement vowel just begins with a vowel.

  Ok, now let’s look at where the name hamza originates from.  Maybe this will help us gain insight.  All Arabic grammatical terms are related in some way to the function they describe.  Verbs are called أفعال because they denotes actions; مبتدأ is called such because it is the beginning of a جملة اسمية and صفة is called such because it describes a noun, etc. So where does the word hamza come from?  It comes from the root ه-م-ز which had the meaning of “to press, squeeze, pinch”*  (I think the modern meaning is a bit different). So it is easy to make the connection between this word and the squeezing/pressing of the vocal cords together in order to produce the glottal stop.

  So now, let’s take a look at the hamza in the middle of a word.  Take the word رأس for example, or even better يرأّس  yura22isu, in which the hamza is mushaddad.  How is this word pronounced?  What is the function of hamza in this word -- a vowel, consonant, other? Why? I assume no one has a problem understanding the function of hamza in this word?

  Now, Let’s look at the hamza when it occurs at the end of a word:
  Examples include بطيء , جزء  , ميناء , مبدأ .  What is the pronunciation of these words?  Would you say they end in a vowel?  Why or why not?  Does مبدأ have the same ending sound as, say, فقرة ?  If not, what is the difference? 

  So, if the hamza/glottal stop appears in the middle of a word and the end of a word, why can’t it appear at the beginning of a word.

  Or to rephrase -- If a word that ends in a hamza is not considered ending in a vowel, why would a word that begins with hamza be considered beginning with a vowel?  How is the hamza at the end. or middle, of a word any different than one at the beginning?

  Now let’s do a little experiment to get us thinking about what a glottal stop is and its role in sound production.  Open your mouth as if you are going to say an ‘ah’ sound as in father, but don’t make a sound.  Now, make the sound -- say ‘ah.’  Did you feel the relaxation/release of the vocal cords in your throat?  Now do it and say a word such as ‘apple’ or ‘automobile’ – just open your mouth with no sounds for a few seconds, and then say the word. The same unclenching of the throat happens before vocalization of these words.  So it is present even if not orthographically recognized. 

  So in conclusion, the glottal stop is tricky – it is not understood because of (1) lack of knowledge of the processes of vocalization, and (2) it not considered a part of most language systems – Most languages don’t consider it relevant enough to be a part of the language, but Arabic does.

  -------------------
  *From Edward William Lane’s “An Arabic-English Lexicon.”
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EDIT:    I just thought of something else and I had to share it as well

  Another part of the problem as to why it is a difficult concept to grasp has to do with sound – we have all learned since we were small that letters make sounds. So we are all under the impression that a letter _has_ to make a sound otherwise how can it be a letter?  But who says so?  Is it not possible to have an orthographic symbol to represent the absence of sound?  Of course it is possible, That’s what the hamza is – an orthographic symbol to represent the absence of sound in certain Arabic words.  What would the word رأس or بطيء be without the hamza/glottal stop? 

  The same with the sound “uh-oh”.  Without the glottal stop ‘uh-oh’ would be “ooh!” – the sound you make upon realizing something obvious.  So it is important in certain cases to represent the absence of sound.

Let’s look at the word بطيء again – Again I ask how does it sound?  Does it end with a vowel?  After all the last sound we _hear_ is a vowel sound – so it must end in a vowel, right? Applying this logic ”We can't write it like that, so we use the hamzah, but it doesn't change the fact the what you hear initially is the vowel sound,” the word must end in a vowel, regardless of hamza.

  The “language of music” also has a symbol representing the absence of sound which is very integral to the production thereof – it is called the rest.  So if you are knowledgeable about music terminology and symbols think about it in that vein.

Another thing to think about, concerning this argument, is the basis of the Arabic language -- the root system. Roots are only composed of letters/consonants of the alphabet, right? And hamza is one of those letters that is used in root making. What is the root of a word like iimaan - ء - ل - م . The hamza is an integral part of the formation of this word, not just a holder for the kasra.   The root system goes beyond simple orthography.

Just food for thought.


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## suma

Nice explanation Josh,
but the hamzah as you stated basically represents the absence of any sound, and when sound is supplied it is the vowel that is heard and nothing else, so therefore the word begins with a vowel sound.

Or would you say that the word begins with in inaudible consoant followed by th audible vowel? That's silly IMHO.


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## Outsider

Linguists regard the glottal stop as a consonant.


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## Josh_

I actually linked to that page in my write up. Scrolling down to the "other languages" section the first example listed is Arabic and the word الله .


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## Mklangelo

MeiLing said:


> Mklangelo, 'hamza' ( الهمزة *أ* ) is not a vowel, 'alif al-madd' ( ألف المدّ *ا* ) is.



Right, like I said, Hamza is not a vowel  but words start with Hamza so...


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