# almost exclusively aquatic



## Haroon

Hi;
From a text book;
Fish‌, which are *almost exclusively aquatic*, are also characterized by the presence of scales‌ and gills‌‌.
what does the word "almost" imply regarding the real life? i.e Does fish really live elsewhere? how to express such phrase in Arabic?
almost exclusively aquatic
Thanks in advance.


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## Hemza

Hello,

I can't help with the translation (other's ones will be better) yet few fish species don't live in water but rather in mud like this species (although the sentence looks a bit odd since most people expect fishes to live in water exclusively).

Periophthalmus - Wikipedia

I can't think of other case right now.


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## shafaq

Haroon said:


> Hi;
> how to express such phrase in Arabic?



I suggest (بشكل) *شبه حصري*  .


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## elroy

Maybe التي أكثريتها الهائلة مائية.


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## Haroon

My trial is:
تتميز الأسماك، والتي *تكاد تنحصر في البيئة المائية*، بالقشور والخياشيم.
Does, it sound natural, please?


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## Abu Talha

Haroon said:


> My trial is:
> تتميز الأسماك، والتي *تكاد تنحصر في البيئة المائية*، بالقشور والخياشيم.


Also perhaps 
والتي لا تكاد توجد إلا في البيئة المائية
?


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## Mahaodeh

Haroon said:


> My trial is:
> تتميز الأسماك، والتي *تكاد تنحصر في البيئة المائية*، بالقشور والخياشيم.
> Does, it sound natural, please?


Yes, this sounds natural to me. 


elroy said:


> Maybe التي أكثريتها الهائلة مائية.


This seems like you are translating 'the vast majority' rather than 'exclusively'.


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## elroy

Mahaodeh said:


> This seems like you are translating 'the vast majority' rather than 'exclusively'.


 Do you see a material difference between "vast majority" and "almost exclusively" in this context?


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## Mahaodeh

Yes, I do. 

I understand exclusively in the sense that any given fish lives only in water and no other place throughout it's life but some of them in some cases may live elsewhere during some phase of their life but not their whole life, while the vast majority means that fish as a group are all aquatic except for a very small portion of them that are not aquatic.


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## elroy

Mahaodeh said:


> fish as a group are all aquatic except for a very small portion of them that are not aquatic


 For me this is what the original means.  Based on the English Only thread, "aquatic" here must mean "lives only in water."


Haroon said:


> والتي *تكاد تنحصر في البيئة المائية*





Abu Talha said:


> والتي لا تكاد توجد إلا في البيئة المائية


 I'm not a huge fan of these because all they're saying is that most fish are found in water, not that most fish are aquatic beings.  You can probably assume the latter based on the former, but in a science textbook I would expect more precision (and the English is precise).


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## Abbe

والتي تكاد أن تكون جميع أنواعه مائية 

Does this work?


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## elroy

Abbe said:


> والتي تكاد أن تكون جميع أنواعه مائية


 This is not bad, but personally I don't like تكاد أن تكون (this may just be a personal preference).

My revised suggestion is والتي أكثريتها الهائلة كائنات مائية.


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## Abbe

I was hoping that you would all come upp with something better once the word أنواع or كائنات or something similar was added.


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## Abu Talha

elroy said:


> Abu Talha said:
> 
> 
> 
> والتي لا تكاد توجد إلا في البيئة المائية
> 
> 
> 
> I'm not a huge fan of these because all they're saying is that most fish are found in water, not that most fish are aquatic beings.  You can probably assume the latter based on the former, but in a science textbook I would expect more precision (and the English is precise).
Click to expand...

Fair enough. How about
والتى تكاد تكون كائنات مائية *خالصة*


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## elroy

Abu Talha said:


> والتى تكاد تكون كائنات مائية *خالصة*


 I don't think خالصة works in this context, and also, you've changed the meaning.  Your translation means that _as a whole_, fish have the characteristic of being "almost exclusively aquatic," meaning that _all_ fish are "almost exclusively aquatic," which we know is not true.  What the sentence is saying is that _most_ species of fish are exclusively aquatic but that a few are not.  In other words, in semantic terms, "exclusively" takes scope over "fish" and not over "aquatic."


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## Abu Talha

I see what you mean. Thank you.


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## cherine

Here's my suggestion:
تتمييز الأسماك، والتي تعيش معظم فصائلها في الماء، بالقشور والخياشيم
تتميز الأسماك، والتي تعيش غالبية فصائلها/الغالبية العظمى من فصائلها في الماء، بالقشور والخياشيم


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## elroy

cherine said:


> تتمييز الأسماك، والتي تعيش معظم فصائلها في الماء، بالقشور والخياشيم
> تتميز الأسماك، والتي تعيش غالبية فصائلها/الغالبية العظمى من فصائلها في الماء، بالقشور والخياشيم


 I like these formulations, but they have the same (perhaps minor) issue I brought up in #10.  Why not (something like) والتي الغالبية العظمى من فصائلها كائنات مائية?


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## cherine

Ah, you prefer كائنات مائية to تعيش في الماء? I don't think there's a perceivable difference in meaning in Arabic. But I'm not specialized in science, so I may be mistaken. But here's a re-wording based on your suggestion:
تتميز الأسماء بالقشور والخياشيم، والغالبية العظمى من فصائلها كائنات مائية
and I personally prefer this to the structure with a جملة اعتراضية, I think it flows better this way.


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## elroy

cherine said:


> I don't think there's a perceivable difference in meaning in Arabic.


 Yeah, as I said I think if we say "most live in water" we can probably assume that that means "most are aquatic," but since this is a scientific context I think we should try to be as precise as possible. 


cherine said:


> تتميز الأسماء بالقشور والخياشيم، والغالبية العظمى من فصائلها كائنات مائية


  I like this (I too thought the other structure was a bit clunky). I might switch the order, though, to match the English:

الغالبية العظمى من فصائل الأسماك كائنات مائية، وتتميز الأسماك بالقشور والخياشيم

(I repeated الأسماك to make it clear that all, not just most, fish have scales and gills.)


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