Arabic language

From Metapedia
Jump to: navigation, search

The Arabic language (Arabic: العربية/عربي/عربى, al-ʿArabiyyah, ʿarabī/) is a macro-language of the Semitic branch, thus related to Hebrew and Aramaic, which originated in the Arabian Peninsula and is native to much of Northern Africa and West Asia.

History

Arabic is the language of the Quran and the religious language of all Muslims. It spread with the Islamization of former Christian, Hindu, Zoroastrian and Pagan populations.

Classical Arabic is the only surviving member of the Old North Arabian dialect group, attested in Pre-Islamic Arabic inscriptions dating back to the 4th century.[1] It has also been a literary language and the liturgical language of Islam since its inception in the 7th century.

Modern Standard Arabic (or MSA) is the modern adaptation and standardisation of Classical Arabic, and is widely taught in schools and used in workplaces, government and the media, but is not spoken natively by Arabs.

Colloquial Arabic refers to the many spoken varieties originating from Classical Arabic, with the most widespread of these being Egyptian Arabic. The varieties of Arabic are commonly referred to as "Arabic dialects", even though mutual intelligibility significantly reduces with increased geographic distance. Despite their often large differences, they are more similar to each other than they are to Modern Standard Arabic.

Arabic is an official language in Algeria, Bahrain, Comoros, Chad, Djibouti, Egypt, Eritrea, Iraq, Israel, Jordan, Kuwait, Lebanon, Libya, Mauritania, Morocco, Oman, Palestine, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Somalia, Sudan, Syria, Tunisia, United Arab Emirates, Western Sahara and Yemen. It is also an official language of the African Union, Arab League, Organization of Islamic Cooperation, and United Nations.

Alphabet and phonology

Alphabet

Common hijāʾī order
Arabic script ا ب ت ث ج ح خ د ذ ر ز س ش ص ض ط ظ ع غ ف ق ك ل م ن ه و ي ء
Transcription ʾ b t th j ḥ kh d dh r z s sh ṣ ḍ ṭ ẓ ʿ gh f q k l m n h w y ʾ
Arabizi a b t th j/g 7 7' d dh r z s sh/ch/$ 9 9' 6 6' 3 3' f 8 k l m n h o/u/w e/i/y 2
IPA æː ~ ɑː b t θ dʒ ~ ɡ ħ x d ð r z s ʃ sˤ dˤ tˤ ðˤ ʕ ɣ f q k l m n h oː ~ uː ~ w eː ~ iː ~ j ʔ

Short vowels are not usually represented in the written language, with the notable exception of the Quran, where they are indicated with diacritics. Word stress differs depending on the dialect, but as a general rule it usually falls on the penultimate syllable if the syllable is closed, otherwise it falls on the third-to-last syllable.

Vowels

Modern Standard Arabic has 6 vowel phonemes, 3 long /iː/, /uː/, /aː/ and 3 short /i/, /u/, /a/.

However, vowels in Arabic undergo phonetic changes depending on the neighbouring consonants.

  • /a, aː/
    • Get retracted to [ɑ], [ɑː] in the environment of a neighboring [rˤ], /q/, /sˤ/, /dˤ/, /tˤ/, /ðˤ/, /ɫ/, /ħ/, /ʕ/ and in a few regional pronunciations also near /χ/ and /ʁ/;[2]
    • Get advanced to [æ], [æː] near almost every other consonant:
      • labial consonants /m/, /b/ and /f/,
      • plain (non-emphatic) coronal consonants with the exception of /r/: namely /θ/, /ð/, /n/, /t/, /d/, /s/, /z/, /l/, /ʃ/ and /ʒ/~/d͡ʒ/~/ɡ/
      • glottal consonants /h/ and /ʔ/
      • semi-vowels /j/ and /w/, and /k/;[3]
    • Across North Africa and West Asia, the allophones [æ] and [ɑ] may be realised differently, either as [ɛ] ~ [a] ~ [ɑ], or both as [a] ~ [ä];
    • In Iraq and the Persian Gulf states, they become [ɐ] before a word boundary;[2];
    • In northwestern Africa, the open front vowel [æ] is raised to [ɛ] or even [e].
  • /i, iː, u, uː/
    • Across North Africa and West Asia, /i/ may be realised as [ɪ] ~ [e] ~ [ɨ] before or adjacent to /sˤ/, /dˤ/, /tˤ/, /ðˤ/, [q], [r], [ħ], [ʕ].
    • /u/ can also have different realizations, i.e. [ʊ] ~ [o] ~ [ʉ], sometimes with one value for both short and long vowels, sometimes with two different values for each short and long lengths. These can be distinct phonemes in loanwords for a number of speakers.
    • In Egypt, close vowels /i, iː, u, uː/ have different values: short initial or medial: [e], [o] ← instead of /i,u/. /i~ɪ/ and /u~ʊ/ completely become [e] and [o] respectively in some other particular dialects. Unstressed final long /aː/, /iː/, /uː/ are most often shortened or reduced: /aː/ → [æ ~ ɑ], /iː/ → [i], /uː/ → [o~u].

Consonants

Classical Arabic has 28 consonantal phonemes, including two semi-vowels.

Modern Standard Arabic consonant phonemes
Labial Dental Denti-alveolar Post-alveolar/
Palatal 		Velar Uvular Pharyngeal Glottal
plain emphatic
Stop/
Affricate 		voiceless t tˤ k q ʔ
voiced b d dˤ d͡ʒ ɡ
Fricative voiceless f θ s sˤ ʃ x ~ χ ħ h
voiced ð z ðˤ ~ zˤ ɣ ~ ʁ ʕ
Nasal m n
Trill r
Approximant l (ɫ) j w

Notes:

  • Emphatic consonants are pronounced with the back of the tongue approaching the pharynx. They are pronounced with velarisation by the Iraqi and Arabic Gulf speakers. /q/, /ħ/, and /ʕ/ could be considered the emphatic counterparts to /k/, /h/, and /ʔ/ respectively.[4]
  • /t/ and /k/ are aspirated [tʰ] and [kʰ], whereas /tˤ/ and /q/ are unaspirated.[5]
  • Depending on the region, the plosives are either alveolar or dental.
  • The Sudanese usually pronounce /q/ ق as [ɢ] even in Literary Arabic.
  • ض [dˤ] was historically [ɮˤ], a value it retains among older speakers in a few isolated dialects.[6]
  • When speaking Modern Standard Arabic, the phoneme represented by the Arabic letter ǧīm (ج) is pronounced d͡ʒ, ʒ, ɡ, or ɟ depending on the speaker's native dialect.[7] Outside the Arab League, [d͡ʒ] is the preferred taught variant.
  • In Modern Standard Arabic /ɡ/ is either the standard pronunciation for ǧīm (ج) or is used in foreign words which may be transcribed more commonly with ج ,غ ,ق or ك or less commonly ݣ (used in Morocco) or ڨ (used in Tunisia and Algeria), mainly depending on the regional spoken variety of Arabic or the commonly diacriticised Arabic letter.
  • /θ/ and /ð/ may be approximated to t and d or s and z, respectively.
  • In most regions, uvular fricatives of the classical period have become velar or post-velar.[8]
  • The "voiced pharyngeal fricative" /ʕ/ (ع) is described as neither pharyngeal nor fricative, but a creaky-voiced epiglottal approximant.[9] Its unvoiced counterpart /ħ/ (ح) is likewise epiglottal, although it is a true fricative. Thelwall asserts that the sound of ع is actually a pharyngealised glottal stop [ʔˤ].[10] Similarly, McCarthy 1994 points to dialectal and idiolectal variation between stop and continuant variations of /ʕ/ in Iraq and Kuwait, noting that the distinction is superficial for Arabic speakers and carries "no phonological consequences."[11]
  • The voiced emphatic dental fricative ظ [ðˤ] is mostly pronounced as a voiced emphatic alveolar fricative [zˤ] in Egypt and Lebanon.[12]
  • Emphatic [rˤ] exists in Northwestern African pronunciations and in Egypt when accompanied by /a/ or /u/ and plain when accompanied by /i/ or /j/; in closed syllables, then it is plain when the first preceding voweled consonant has /i/ or if /j/ is present, but emphatic if the first preceding voweled letter is accompanied by /a/ or /u/. The trill /r/ is sometimes reduced to a single vibration when single, but it remains potentially a trill, not a flap [ɾ]: the pronunciation of this single trill is between a trill [r] and a flap [ɾ]. ⟨r⟩ is in free variation between a trill [r] and a flap [ɾ] in Egypt and the Levant.
  • In most pronunciations, /ɫ/ as a phoneme occurs in a handful of loanwords. It also occurs in الله Allah /ʔaɫˈɫaːh/, the name of God,[7] except when it follows long or short /i/ when it is not emphatic: بسم الله bismi l-lāh /bis.milˈlaːh/ ("in the name of God").[13] However, /ɫ/ is absent in many regions, such as the Nile Valley, and is more widespread in certain regions, such as Iraq, where the uvulars have velarised surrounding instances of /l/ in the environment of emphatic consonants when the two are not separated by /i/.[14]
  • Long (geminate or double) consonants are pronounced exactly like short consonants, but last longer. In Arabic, they are called mushaddadah ("strengthened", marked with a shaddah). Between a long consonant and a pause, an epenthetic [ə] occurs[15], but this is only common across regions in West Asia.
  • The foreign sounds /p/ ﭖ and /v/ ﭪ (usually transcribed as ب /b/ and ف /f/ respectively) are not necessarily pronounced by all Arabic speakers and their usage is optional. As these letters are not present on standard keyboards, they are simply written with ب /b/ and ف /f/, e.g. باكستان or پاکستان /pa(ː)kistaːn, ba(ː)kistaːn/ "Pakistan", فيروس or ڤيروس /vi(ː)ru(ː)s, vajru(ː)s, fi(ː)ru(ː)s, fajru(ː)s/ "virus", etc.[16][17]

Distribution

The most frequent consonant phoneme is /r/, the rarest is /ðˤ/. The frequency distribution of the 28 consonant phonemes, based on the 2,967 triliteral roots listed by Wehr[17] is (with the percentage of roots in which each phoneme occurs):

Phoneme Frequency Phoneme Frequency
/r/ 24% /w/ 18%
/l/ 17% /m/ 17%
/n/ 17% /b/ 16%
/f/ 14% /ʕ/ 13%
/q/ 13% /d/ 13%
/s/ 13% /ħ/ 12%
/j/ 12% /ʃ/ 11%
/d͡ʒ/ 10% /k/ 9%
/h/ 8% /z/ 8%
/tˤ/ 8% /χ/ 8%
/sˤ/ 7% /ʔ/ 7%
/t/ 6% /dˤ/ 5%
/ʁ/ 5% /θ/ 3%
/ð/ 3% /ðˤ/ 1%

This distribution does not necessarily reflect the actual frequency of occurrence of the phonemes in speech, since pronouns, prepositions and suffixes are not taken into account, and the roots themselves will occur with varying frequency. In particular, /t/ occurs in several extremely common affixes (occurring in the marker for second-person or feminine third-person as a prefix, the marker for first-person or feminine third-person as a suffix, and others) despite being fifth from last on Wehr's list. The list does give, however, an idea of which phonemes are more marginal than others. Note that the five least frequent letters are among the six letters added to those inherited from the Phoenician alphabet, namely, ḍād, ṯāʾ, ḫāʾ, ẓāʾ, ḏāl and ghain/ġayn.

Grammar

Article

Al- does not inflect for gender, number, person, or grammatical case. The sound of the final -l consonant, however, can vary; when followed by a sun letter (t, th, d, dh, r, z, s, sh, ṣ, ḍ, ṭ, ẓ, l, and n), it disappears and the sound of the following initial consonant is doubled. For example: "the Nile" is not al-Nīl, but an-Nīl. When followed by a moon letter, no replacement occurs, as in al-masjid ("the mosque"). This affects only the pronunciation and not the spelling of the article.

Nouns and adjectives

Nouns and adjectives (‏اِسْمٌ‎ ism) are declined according to case (i‘rāb), state (definiteness), gender and number. In colloquial or spoken Arabic, there are a number of simplifications such as the loss of certain final vowels and the loss of case. A number of derivational processes exist for forming new nouns and adjectives. Adverbs can be formed from adjectives.

Cardinal numbers

The formal system of cardinal numerals, as used in Classical Arabic, is said to be extremely complex. In reality however, this system is never used: large numbers are always written as numerals rather than spelled out, and are pronounced using a simplified system, even in formal contexts.

Cardinal numerals (الأَعْداد الأَصْلِيّة al-a‘dād al-aṣlīyah) from 0–10. Zero is ṣifr, from which the words "cipher" and "zero" are derived. 

   *0 ٠ ṣifr(un) (‏صِفْرٌ‎)
   *1 ١ wāḥid(un) (‏واحِدٌ‎)
   *2 ٢ ithnān(i) (‏اِثْنانِ‎)
   *3 ٣ thalātha(tun) (‏ثَلاثةٌ‎)
   *4 ٤ arba‘a(tun) (‏أَرْبَعةٌ‎)
   *5 ٥ khamsa(tun) (‏خَمْسةٌ‎)
   *6 ٦ sitta(tun) (‏سِتّةٌ‎)
   *7 ٧ sab‘a(tun) (‏سَبْعةٌ‎)
   *8 ٨ thamāniya(tun) (‏ثَمَانِيةٌ‎)
   *9 ٩ tis‘a(tun) (‏تِسْعةٌ‎)
   *10 ١٠ ‘ashara(tun) (‏عَشَرةٌ‎) (feminine form ‘ashr(un) ‏عَشْرٌ‎)

It is very common, even by news announcers and in official speeches, to pronounce numerals in local dialects.[18]

Verbs

Verbs (فعل fi‘l) are based on a root made up of three to four consonants. The set of consonants communicates the basic meaning of a verb, e.g. k-t-b 'write', q-r-’ 'read', ’-k-l 'eat'. Changes to the vowels in between the consonants, along with prefixes or suffixes, specify grammatical functions such as tense, person and number, in addition to changes in the meaning of the verb that embody grammatical concepts such as mood (e.g. indicative, subjunctive, imperative), voice (active or passive), and functions such as causative, intensive, or reflexive.

Since Arabic lacks an auxiliary verb "to have", constructions using li-, ‘inda, and ma‘a with the pronominal suffixes are used to describe possession. For example: عنده بيت (ʿindahu bayt) – literally: At him (is) a house. → He has a house.

Examples of major regional differences

English I love reading a lot. When I went to the library, I only found this old book. I wanted to read a book about the history of women in France.
Arabic أَنَا أُحِبُّ القِرَاءَةَ كَثِيرًا عِنْدَمَا ذَهَبْتُ إِلَى المَكْتَبَة لَمْ أَجِد سِوَى هٰذَا الكِتَابِ القَدِيم كُنْتُ أُرِيدُ أَنْ أَقْرَأَ كِتَابًا عَن تَارِيخِ المَرأَةِ فِي فَرَنسَا
Modern Standard Arabic ʾana ʾuḥibbu‿l-qirāʾata kaṯīran

ʔana: ʔuħibːu‿lqiraːʔata kaθiːran 		ʿindamā ḏahabtu ʾila‿l-maktabah

ʕindamaː ðahabtu ʔila‿lmaktabah 		lam ʾaǧid siwā hāḏa‿l-kitābi‿l-qadīm

lam ʔad͡ʒid siwaː haːða‿lkitaːbi‿lqadiːm 		kuntu ʾurīdu an ʾaqraʾa kitāban ʿan tārīḫi‿l-marʾati fī faransā

kuntu ʔuriːdu ʔan ʔaqraʔa kitaːban ʕan taːriːχi‿lmarʔati fiː faransaː
Maghrebi
Tunisian (Tunis) nḥəbb năqṛa baṛʃa wăqtəlli mʃit l-əl-măktba ma-lqīt kān ha-lə-ktēb lə-qdīm kənt nḥəbb năqṛa ktēb ʕla tērīḵ lə-mṛa fi fṛānsa
Algerian (Algiers) ʔāna nḥəbb nəqṛa b-ez-zaf ki rŭħt l-əl-măktaba ma-lqīt ḡīr hād lə-ktāb lə-qdīm kŭnt ḥayəb nəqṛa ktāb ʕla t-tārīḵ təʕ lə-mṛa fi fṛānsa
Moroccan (Casablanca) ʔāna kanebɣi naqra b-ez-zāf melli mʃīt el-maktaba ma-lqīt ḡīr hād le-ktāb le-qdīm kunt bāḡi naqra ktāb ʕla tārīḵ le-mra fe-fransa
Hassaniya (Nouakchott) ʔānə nəbqi ləgrāye ḥattə līn gəst əl-məktəbə ma jbart mahu ḏə ləktāb l-qadīm kənt ndōr nəgra ktāb ʕan tārīḵ ləmra/ləʔləyāt və vrāns
Maltese jien inħobb naqra ħafna meta mort il-librerija sibt biss dan il-ktieb il-qadim ridt naqra ktieb dwar il-ġrajja tan-nisa fi Franza.
Egypto-Sudanic
Egyptian (Cairo) ʔana baḥebb el-ʔerāya awi lamma roḥt el-maktaba ma-lʔet-ʃ ʔella l-ketāb el-ʔadīm da kont ʕāyez ʔaʔra ketāb ʕan tarīḵ es-settāt fe faransa
Levantine
Northern Jordanian (Irbid) ʔana/ʔani kṯīr baḥebb il-qirāʔa lamma ruḥt ʕal-mektebe ma lagēteʃ ʔilla ha-l-ktāb l-gadīm kān baddi ʔagra ktāb ʕan tārīḵ l-mara b-faransa
Jordanian (Amman) ʔana ktīr baḥebb il-qirāʔa lamma ruḥt ʕal-mektebe ma lagēt ʔilla hal-ktāb l-gadīm kan beddi ʔaqraʔ ktāb ʕan tārīḵ l-mara b-faransa
Lebanese (Beirut) ʔana ktīr bḥebb l-ʔ(i)rēye lamma reḥt ʕal-makt(a)be ma l(a)ʔēt ʔilla ha-le-ktēb l-ʔ(a)dīm kēn badde ʔeʔra ktēb ʕan tērīḵ l-mara b-f(a)ransa
Syrian (Damascus) ʔana ktīr bḥebb l-ʔraye lamma reḥt ʕal-maktabe ma laʔēt ʔilla ha-l-ktāb l-ʔdīm kān biddi ʔra ktāb ʕan tārīḵ l-mara b-fransa
Mesopotamian
Mesopotamian (Baghdad) ʔāni kulliš ʔaḥebb lu-qrāye min reḥit lil-maktabe ma ligēt ḡīr hāḏe l-ketab el-ʕatīg redet ʔaqre ketāb ʕan tārīḵ l-imrayyāt eb-franse
Peninsular
Gulf (Kuwait) ʔāna wāyid ʔaḥibb il-qirāʾa lamman riḥt il-maktaba ma ligēt ʔilla ha-l-kitāb il-qadīm kint ʔabī ʔagra kitāb ʕan tārīḵ il-ḥarīm b-faransa
Hejazi (Jeddah) ʔana marra ʔaḥubb al-girāya lamma ruħt al-maktaba ma ligīt ḡēr hāda l-kitāb al-gadīm kunt ʔabḡa ʔaɡra kitāb ʕan tārīḵ al-ḥarīm fi faransa
Sanaani Arabic (Sanaa) ʔana bajn ʔaḥibb el-gerāje gawi ḥīn sert salā el-maktabe ma legēt-ʃ ḏajje l-ketāb l-gadīm kont aʃti ʔagra ketāb ʕan tarīḵ l-mare beh farānsa

The most divergent non-creole Arabic variety is Cypriot Maronite Arabic, a nearly extinct variety that has been heavily influenced by Greek, and written in Greek and Latin alphabets.

Maltese is descended from Siculo-Arabic. Its vocabulary has acquired a large number of loanwords from Sicilian, Italian and English, and it uses only a Latin-based alphabet. It is the only Semitic language among the official languages of the European Union.

Immigrant speakers of Arabic often incorporate a significant amount of vocabulary from the host-country language in their speech, in a situation analogous to Spanglish in the United States. In certain host countries, varieties of the local language with significant Arabic influence have started to appear. Examples of these are the so-called "multiethnolects" Perkerdansk in Denmark, Kebabnorsk in Norway, and Rinkebysvenska in Sweden.

List of Arabic varieties

Arabic varieties in 2023
  • Maghrebi
    • Bedouin
      • Hassaniyya
      • Algerian Saharan Arabic
    • Western Maghrebi
      • Moroccan Arabic
      • Algerian Arabic
      • Tunisian Arabic
      • Libyan Arabic – Western Egyptian Bedawi Arabic
    • Pre-Hilalian
      • Siculo-Arabic (extinct)
        • Maltese
    • Andalusian Arabic (extinct)
  • Sudanese
    • Chadian Arabic
    • Sudanese Arabic
    • Sudanese Creole Arabic
  • Egyptian
    • Egyptian Arabic
    • Eastern Egyptian Bedawi Arabic
    • Sa'idi Arabic
  • Mesopotamian
    • North Mesopotamian
      • North Mesopotamian Arabic
      • Cypriot Maronite Arabic
      • Judeo-Iraqi Arabic
      • Anatolian Arabic
    • Baghdadi Arabic
    • South Mesopotamian
      • Khuzestani Arabic
      • South Mesopotamian Arabic
  • Levantine
    • Çukurova Arabic
    • Jordanian Arabic
    • Lebanese Arabic
    • Palestinian Arabic
    • Syrian Arabic
      • Damascene Arabic
      • Aleppo Arabic
  • Peninsular
    • Najdi Arabic
    • Gulf Arabic
    • Baharna/Bahraini Arabic
    • Hijazi/Hejazi Arabic
    • Yemeni
      • Hadrami Arabic
      • Sanaani Arabic
      • Ta'izzi-Adeni Arabic
    • Shihhi Arabic
    • Omani Arabic
    • Dhofari Arabic
    • Bareqi Arabic
    • Bedawi Arabic
  • Central Asian
    • Tajiki Arabic
    • Uzbeki Arabic
    • Khorasani Arabic
  • Shirvani Arabic (extinct)
  • Creole
    • Nubi
  • Diglossic variety
    • Modern Standard Arabic

See also

External links

Encyclopedias

References

  1. ↑ Versteegh, 1997, p. 33.
  2. ↑ 2.0 2.1 Thelwall 1990 p. 39
  3. ↑ Holes 2004 p. 60
  4. ↑ Watson (2002:44)
  5. ↑ Thelwall (1990:38), Al Ani (1970:32), (44–45)
  6. ↑ Al-Azraqi. (2019). Delateralisation in Arabic and Mehri. Dialectologia, 23: 1–23. https://raco.cat/index.php/Dialectologia/article/download/366597/460520/
  7. ↑ 7.0 7.1 Watson (2002:16)
  8. ↑ Watson 2002 p. 18
  9. ↑ Ladefoged,Maddieson 1996 pp. 167–168
  10. ↑ Thelwall 1990, citing Gairdner 1925, Al Ani 1970, and Kästner 1981.
  11. ↑ McCarthy 1994 pp. 194–195
  12. ↑ Watson 2002 p. 19
  13. ↑ Holes 2004 p. 95
  14. ↑ Ferguson 1956 p. 449
  15. ↑ Thelwall (1990:38)
  16. ↑ Teach Yourself Arabic, by Jack Smart (Author), Frances Altorfer (Author)
  17. ↑ 17.0 17.1 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dictionary_of_Modern_Written_Arabic Hans Wehr, Dictionary of Modern Written Arabic (transl. of Arabisches Wörterbuch für die Schriftsprache der Gegenwart, 1952)
  18. ↑ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qMKwOA9I57U&t=68s "At 1 minute 10 seconds, Cairo Radio Music Program network opening of the transmission with clock chime of Cairo University". September 1987. Retrieved 22 January 2022.
Retrieved from "http://en.metapedia.org/m/index.php?title=Arabic_language&oldid=501092"