# آخرٌ



## Finland

Hello from a newcomer.

I am wondering about a poem by Mahmud Darwish called
سيأتي يوم آخر
In the book the last word is written آخرٌ with tanwin. I find that really odd, since I always thought آخر was a diptote. Odder still, Darwish himself reads the poem in a recording and says آخرٌ.

Is there something I am missing here?

Thanks in avance!


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## cherine

Welcome to the forum 

The word "aakhar" is not a diptote, so there is no reason why it wouldn't take a tanwin.


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## Finland

Hello!


cherine said:


> The word "aakhar" is not a diptote, so there is no reason why it wouldn't take a tanwin.


 
How surprising! I don't recall ever seeing tanwin with this word in Arabic texts before. Just to make sure, I am not talking about آخِر aakhir, which of course is not a diptote, but about آخَر. Can anyone confirm its "non-diptoteness" by referring to a grammar or something?

Still confused...


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## WadiH

I think it is a diptote because it is on the pattern أفعل.  This looks like a case of poetic license (the diptote rule is very commonly ignored in poetry in order to maintain the metre).


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## AndyRoo

Yes aakhar is a diptote according to Hans Wehr, so it is poetic licence, I guess.


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## Finland

Ok, thank you for everyone. I am relieved to see that I haven't completely lost my mind! It must be a case of poetic licence indeed.


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## elroy

Wadi Hanifa said:


> (the diptote rule is very commonly ignored in poetry in order to maintain the metre).


 How would ignoring the rule help maintain the meter?   Using tanween instead of a regular vowel does not increase or decrease the number of syllables.  Did you mean rhyme perhaps?


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## Ghabi

Adding an extra _-n_ makes the syllable "heavy" (CVC), isn't it? Perhaps the poet needs a heavy syllable...


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## elroy

Ghabi said:


> Adding an extra _-n_ makes the syllable "heavy" (CVC), isn't it? Perhaps the poet needs a heavy syllable...


 Do you mean it makes the syllable a "closed syllable"?  Either way, that has nothing to do with meter.


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## WadiH

elroy said:


> How would ignoring the rule help maintain the meter?   Using tanween instead of a regular vowel does not increase or decrease the number of syllables.  Did you mean rhyme perhaps?



Do you mean in general or just in this particular example?

In this example, you have a point.  I was careless in my answer: in Arabic poetry, you can't end a verse on a _tanwiin_, anyway.  I think we need to see the entire verse to see what's going on: is this the end of the first hemistich (in which case, a tanwiin is required) or the end of a verse?

But in general, yes, ignoring the diptote rule can be necessary to maintain the metre, provided that the word is not the last one in the verse.  It may not necessarily change the number of syllables, but Arabic metre is not based on syllables to begin with.  Arabic metrical schemes are _quantitative_, meaning that you need to achieve a particular arrangement of "long" and "short" segments.  If you take a word like أحمرُ followed by فاتح (i.e. أحمر فاتح), the م and the ر will both be "short segments," but if you instead make it أحمرٌ فاتح, you have effectively changed it into أحمرن, so that the م is still a short segment, but it is now followed by a long segment رُنْ.

(The definition of a long segment is a حرف متحرك immediately followed by a سكون, which includes long vowels.  When a متحرك is followed by another متحرك, the first متحرك will be a short segment.  When the last segment in a verse is a متحرك such as كتبِ, the reader will automatically pronounce it as كتبي so that it is in reality a long segment.  I think this is called إشباع.  That's why you don't need to change أحمرُ into أحمرٌ if it is the last word in the verse.)


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## Xence

Wadi Hanifa said:


> in Arabic poetry, you can't end a verse on a _tanwiin_, anyway.


Except, perhaps, for what is known as تنوين الترنم  and  تنوين الغالي .


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## WadiH

Xence said:


> Except, perhaps, for what is known as تنوين الترنم  and  تنوين الغالي .



Go on ...?


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## post887

It is a diptote, in the Quran:

{فَمَن كَانَ مِنكُم مَّرِيضًا أَوْ عَلَى سَفَرٍ فَعِدَّةٌ مِّنْ أَيَّامٍ *أُخَرَ*} (184) سورة البقرة
Besides the poetic licence interpretation of Darwish's recitation, (personally) I don't consider modern Arabic poets as valid sources for correct Arabic composition, don't mention شعراء التفعيلة in particular, as Darwish is..


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## Xence

Wadi,
That may need another thread...


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## WadiH

post887,
That's a different word, أُخَر (plural of آخر).


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## post887

_Wadi Hanifa_:
You are right.. أُخَر is the plural of أخرى which is the feminine of آخَر. But the three are diptotes. Here is another example for آخَرَ I should have used instead:

{لاَّ تَجْعَل مَعَ اللّهِ إِلَهًا آخَرَ فَتَقْعُدَ مَذْمُومًا مَّخْذُولاً} (22) سورة الإسراء


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## Finland

Or actually أخَر is the plural of آخر, the plural of أخرى being أخريات.

Thank you for an interesting discussion!

Sampsa (who likes Darwish's poetry even in the case it has grammatical mistakes - its virtue lies in ideas, not in technical composition)


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## post887

Finland said:


> Or actually أخَر is the plural of آخر, the plural of أخرى being أخريات.



I had actually read it in an Arabic dictionary, but you have a point, your way follows the rule in this case besides the previous quote applies it rather.. so I looked for a quote from the Quran, and I found it is being used as an adjective for a feminine word as well:

{وَقَالَ الْمَلِكُ إِنِّي أَرَى سَبْعَ بَقَرَاتٍ سِمَانٍ يَأْكُلُهُنَّ سَبْعٌ عِجَافٌ وَسَبْعَ سُنبُلاَتٍ خُضْرٍ وَأُخَرَ يَابِسَاتٍ يَا أَيُّهَا الْمَلأُ أَفْتُونِي فِي رُؤْيَايَ إِن كُنتُمْ لِلرُّؤْيَا تَعْبُرُونَ} (43) سورة يوسف

Could be both correct.


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## Ghabi

Wadi Hanifa said:


> But in general, yes, ignoring the diptote rule can be necessary to maintain the metre, provided that the word is not the last one in the verse.  It may not necessarily change the number of syllables, but Arabic metre is not based on syllables to begin with.  Arabic metrical schemes are _quantitative_, meaning that you need to achieve a particular arrangement of "long" and "short" segments.  If you take a word like أحمرُ followed by فاتح (i.e. أحمر فاتح), the م and the ر will both be "short segments," but if you instead make it أحمرٌ فاتح, you have effectively changed it into أحمرن, so that the م is still a short segment, but it is now followed by a long segment رُنْ.



That's what I would have wanted to say ... well, not in so many words. But you explained it so well, _brafo 3aleek ya Wadi_!


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