Thirty-second Edition - The Arabic Language

Arabic is a Semitic language of the Arabo-Canaanite subgroup (Ruhlen 1987). With approximately 186 million speakers, it ranks in sixth place among the world’s major languages, behind Mandarin Chinese, Hindi, Spanish, English and Bengali. In general, Arabic it may be sub-classified as follows:
 

	Classical Arabic (CA) – the language of poetry, literature and the Qur’an (Koran). As the language of the Qur'an, Muslims believe that it is the word or God and, thus it began with the creation of the world (Gerguson 1959:330). Described and standardized by Arab linguists in the 8th and 9th centuries, the language has survived to this day. Modern Standard Arabic, a streamlined and modernized version of Classical Arabic, was developed during the 19th and 20th centuries.
	Modern Standard Arabic (MSA) – The official language of the Arab world, differs from CA in vocabulary and style, but has remained unchanged in terms syntax and structure. MSA is the language of Islamic worship, contemporary literature, journalism, television and scientific writing. It is acquired through formal education, as a second language. Educated Arabs throughout the Arab world can read and understand the same newspaper printed in MSA.
	Colloquial Arabic – The Arab world is very large (Refer to Figure 1 for map of the Arab World), therefore, it is not surprising that a number of Arabic dialects have developed. These dialects, with their own pronunciation, rules of grammar and vocabularies, could be considered languages They   share some of the features of Classical Arabic, or MSA. Colloquial Arabic includes the Eastern and Western Colloquial Arabic groups of dialects or languages.   Eastern Colloquial Arabic (also known as Northwest Arabian, Colloquial Arabic) – Includes Levantine (Syrian, Palestinian, Jordanian, and Lebanese) and Egyptian. The latter is very prominent throughout the Arab world thanks to the popularity of Egyptian films, TV shows and music that are widely exported to other Arab countries. Najdi, a dialect of Syrian Arabic, is spoken in Iraq, Saudi Arabia, and Jordan.   Western Colloquial Arabic – Includes the dialects of western Libya to Morocco and adjacent African countries of northern Africa (Bateson 1967). They have been influenced by French and by the local languages of North Africa.

The top Arabic dialects or languages, in terms of number of speakers are:

1. Egyptian – spoken in Egypt – approx. 46 million speakers
2. Algerian – spoken in Algeria – approx. 24 million speakers
3. Moroccan/Maghrebi – spoken in Morocco – approx. 20 million speakers
4. Sudanese – spoken in the Sudan – approx. 19 million speakers
5. Saidi – spoken in Egypt – approx 19 million speakers
6. North Levantine – spoken in Lebanon and Syria – approx. 15 million speakers
7. Mesopotamian – spoken in Iraq, Iran and Syria – approx. 14 million speakers
8. Najdi – spoken in Saudi Arabia, Iraq, Jordan and Syria– 14 million speakers

(Refer to the table below for a list of Arabic languages or dialects and the country or region where they are spoken.)
 

Although related to each other, Arabic dialects are not always mutually understandable. Comprehension diminishes as geographical distance increases, e.g., Arabic-speaking Moroccans might not be able to talk easily with Arabic-speaking Yemenis.

Map of the Arab World
 

Figure 1 - Map of the Arab World

 

The Arabic Writing System

The modern Arabic writing system is a descendant of the North Arabic script that is believed to have evolved from the Nabataean Aramaic script - one of a number of scripts that originated from Aramaic at the end of the 3rd century BC. The Aramaic script did not have enough consonants for Arabic, so during the 7th century some Arabic letters were given an extended function by adding dots. This is why several Arabic letters are similar, except for a dot placed either above or below the letter (Daniels 559).

Arabic is written from right to left in a cursive style; i.e., letters are joined together to form words.

The Arabic Alphabet

The Arabic alphabet has twenty-eight (28) letters:

Due to the cursive nature of the script, twenty-two (22) of these letters can take different shapes according to where they appear within the word (initial, middle of final position) or if they stand-alone. Six (6) of the letters only have two possible forms, because they can only be joined on the left side:

The letters 'alif, yā and wāw  are used to represent the long vowels /a:/, /i:/ and /u:/ respectively, or as diphthongs (alif, and yā  combine to form “ay” and alif and wāw form “aw”), and also as weak consonants.

Short vowels are not usually represented, except in poetry, books for children and foreigners and in the Qur'an (Koran) to ensure accurate pronunciation. When short vowels are present, /a/ is marked with a horizontal line (fat’haa) over the consonant letter, /i/ iwith a horizontal line (kasraa) below the consonant letter, and /u/ with a little hook (damnaa): .

A shadda (or tashdīd), a mark that loo(looks like the letter sīn without its tail, is used to indicate the doubling of a consonant; and a small circle (sukūn) is used to indicate the absence of a vowel.

Arabic Vowels
 

Structure of the language

The following characteristics of Modern Standard Arabic (MSA) apply to all colloquial Arabic dialects, in general, although the specifics may differ according to the vernacular.

Root and Pattern System

MSA is based on a consonantal root system or root and pattern system; i.e., stem morphemes consisting of three or more consonants (a few have four or five) combine with base morphemes (fixed consonant vowel patterns) to convey the concept of an action or state of being. For example, the sequence ktb is associated with the concept of writing. The following are some examples of words that derive from this root form:

ketâb (book)
kotob (books)
katba (written)
katib (scribe)
maktab (office, a place of writing)

These root patterns generate various noun and verb stems that have a variety of functions. For instance, in nouns designate occupations, colors and diminutives, and in verbs they form participles, causatives and passives
 

Verbs

Basically, there are two modes: Perfect (or complete, past) and Imperfect (or incomplete, present/future). The following are examples of verbs based on the root ktb:

Kataba (he wrote, or has written)
Yaktubu (he writes or will write)

On the other hand, there are three tenses differentiated only by final vocalization: The indicative yaktubu, the subjunctive yaktuba, and the imperative yaktub. Most Arabic verbs have a three-letter root base, but there are many four-letter root base

Nouns

Nouns have numbers (singular, plural, dual and collective), cases (nominative, genitive and accusative), genders (masculine and feminine) and determination (definite or indefinite articles).

Word order

Word order is Verb-Subject-Object (VSO), with possible stylistic variations. On the other hand, the order in colloquial Arabic is Subject-Verb-Object (SVO), as in English.

Numbers

In Arabic, numbers - referred to as Hindu-Arabic numerals - unlike words, are written from left to right. Example:

Therefore, and not 721. For this reason, Arabic is sometimes said to be bidirectional.

References - The following sites were consulted during the writing of this newsletter:
http://www.muslimtents.com/salafi/durusulQuran/articles/vowels.htm (vowels)
http://www.lmp.ucla.edu/LMPWEB/profiles/profl02.htm
http://www.omniglot.com/writing/aramaic.htm Aramaic script
http://www.arabiclinx.lotelinx.vic.edu.au/ (A History of the Arabic Language)
http://www.lmp.ucla.edu/LMPWEB/profiles/profl02.htm
http://www.alphabets-world.com/arabic.html
http://www.jareeda.com/arabic_language.htm
http://www.arabion.net/spanish/leccion2.html
http://www.cedarseed.com/air/arabicverb.html
http://www.persocite.com/Langues/arabe.htm