Download معلومات عامة عن اللغة العربية

‫معلومات عامة عن اللغة العربية‬
Khalid Addamigh, PhD
King Saud University, Saudi Arabia
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.
2.
3.
4.
5.
Egyptian – spoken in Egypt – approx. 46 million speakers
Algerian – spoken in Algeria – approx. 24 million speakers
Moroccan/Maghrebi – spoken in Morocco – approx. 20 million speakers
Sudanese – spoken in the Sudan – approx. 19 million speakers
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.)
Varieties of Arabic spoken
Spoken in
Tajiki
Afghanistan
Algerian Saharan
Algeria
Baharna, Gulf
Bahrain (also spoken in Oman)
Chadian
Chad
Cypriot
Cyprus
Ta'izzi-Adeni/South Yemeni
Djibouti
Egyptian, Saidi, Libyan, Eastern Egyptian Bedawi
Egypt
Hijazi
Eritrea
Mesopotamian, Gulf
Iran
Mesopotamian, Najdi, North Mesopotamian, Gulf, Judeo-Iraqi
Iraq
Judeo-Tripolitanian, Judeo-Moroccan, Judeo-Iraqi, Judeo-Yemeni,
Judeo-Tunisian
Israel
Najdi, South Levantine, Eastern Egyptian Bedawi
Jordan
Omani
Kenya
Gulf
Kuwait
North Levantine
Lebannon
Libyan
Libya
Hassaniyya
Mali
Hassaniyya
Mauritania
Moroccan/Maghrebi, Hassaniyya, Judeo-Moroccan
Morocco
Libyan, Hassaniyya
Niger
Gulf, Omani, Dhofari, Shihhi
Oman
South Levantine, Eastern Egyptian Bedawi
Palestinian West Bank & Gaza
Gulf
Qatar
Najdi, Hijazi, Gulf
Saudi Arabia
Sudanese
Sudan
North Levantine, Mesopotamian, Najdi, North Mesopotamian, Eastern
Egyptian Bedawi
Syria
Tajiki
Tajikistan
Omani
Tanzania
Tunisian, Judeo-Tunisian
Tunisia
North Mesopotamian
Turkey
Gulf, Shihhi
UAE
Sanaani/North Yemeni, Ta'izzi-Adeni/South Yemeni, Hadrami, JudeoYemeni
Yemen
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 Arabicspeaking 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,
be bidirectional.
and not 721. For this reason, Arabic is sometimes said to
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Modern Standard Arabic
GENERAL INTRODUCTION
Standard Arabic, often called Modern Standard Arabic (or MSA), is the variety of
Arabic most widely used in print media, official documents, correspondence,
education, and as a liturgical language. It is essentially a modern variant of Classical
Arabic, the language of the Quran. Standard Arabic is not acquired as a mother
tongue, but rather it is learned as a second language at school and through exposure to
formal broadcast programs (such as the daily news), religious practice, and print
media. Because it is not acquired as a native language, the number of speakers of the
language is difficult to determine, and degrees of proficiency ranges widely, from the
ability to follow news broadcasts but no reading, writing, or speaking skills, to the
ability to speak and write the language with a minimum of grammatical errors. The
geographical center of the language can be said to encompass the northernmost part of
Africa from Mauritania to Egypt, the Levant, the Arabian Peninsula, and Iraq. It is
estimated that some 165,000,000 people throughout the Islamic world have some
knowledge of Standard Arabic.
LANGUAGE VARIATION
As used by its most skilled writers and speakers, Standard Arabic varies little across
the many countries where it is used. However, there are different registers of Arabic.
The highest register approximates Classical Arabic in its vocabulary and style, unlike
the register of Arabic used in newspapers, social sciences, and technical literature,
which uses a more restricted vocabulary and a distinct style. In these higher registers,
dialectal variation is limited largely to minor matters of pronunciation (such as stress
and the pronunciation of the letter giim/jiim) and to the choice of vocabulary for
certain concepts which Classical Arabic offers no way to express, such as tilifoon or
haatif for "telephone", and tiknulujya or tiqniyya for "technology." Another factor
which differentiates registers at this level is the degree to which certain grammatical
endings such as case and mood suffixes are pronounced. These suffixes are absent in
all of the modern Arabic dialects and their use is mastered only by the most
competent speakers of Standard Arabic. The suffixes are thus not pronounced in the
lower registers of what can otherwise be considered pure Standard Arabic. (Most of
these suffixes are not usually written.) Below these high registers are the Arabic
dialects and registers which mix a modern dialect and Standard Arabic. It is in such
lower registers, where there is influence and borrowing from a local Arabic dialect, in
which there is true dialectal variation in Standard Arabic.
ORTHOGRAPHY
Modern Standard Arabic is written in Arabic script, which is described in the
Orthography. section of the Arabic Overview page.
LINGUISTIC SKETCH
Standard Arabic has 27 simple consonants, the 3 short vowels /a,i,u/, and the 3 long
vowels /aa,ii,uu/. (Additional vowels and consonants are sometimes used in
borrowings.) The consonants /t,d,s,dh/ have two variants, one normal and one
"emphatic" (glottalized or pharyngealized). Emphatic consonants are usually
transliterated with a dot underneath. Arabic also has a number of velar and post-velar
consonants, including two pharyngeal fricatives (one voiced and one voiceless) and a
voiceless uvular stop. Standard Arabic does not allow clusters of more than two
consonants.
Stress is predictable. If the final syllable is superheavy (ending in a long vowel and a
consonant, or a vowel and two consonants) the stress falls on the final syllable, as in
katábt "I wrote" and banáat "girls" (in truncated form, as used before a pause).
Otherwise, if either the penultimate or antepenultimate syllable is long, in which case
the stress falls on the penultimate syllable, as in darrásat "she taught" and taraasáluu
"they corresponded". Otherwise, stress falls on the antepenultimate syllable, as in
kátabat "she wrote".
The noun is marked for gender (masculine and feminine), number (singular, dual, and
plural), case (nominative, accusative, and genitive), and definiteness. Masculine
gender is unmarked, while feminine singular nouns are usually marked with the suffix
'-a(t)'. (The t is not pronounced in phrase-final position.) Arabic nouns are divided
into those that have a "sound plural" (regular plural), and those with "broken plural"
(irregular plural). Nouns that have a sound plural, form it with a special suffix,
whereas the broken plurals are formed according to several different patterns or
templates, e.g. kalb "dog" > kilaab "dogs", kitaab "book" > kutub "books", baab
"door" > 'abwaab "doors". Definiteness is indicated by the article 'al- while
indefiniteness is usually indicated by the suffix -n, which follows any case suffixes.
Hence, al-kitaabu "the book (nom.)", kitaabun "a book (nom.)", al-kitaaba "the book
(accus.)", kitaaban "a book (accus.)". The modern Arabic dialects all lack case
endings and the indefinite suffix, and typically only the most competent speakers
master the rules governing their use in Standard Arabic.
The verb is marked for perfective or imperfective aspect. The perfective aspect is used
to denote completed events, while the imperfective aspect denotes uncompleted
actions. In addition to aspect, the Arabic verb is marked for person, number, mood
(indicative, subjunctive, jussive, and imperative) and voice (active and passive). The
choice of indicative, subjunctive, and jussive mood is regulated largely by
grammatical particles and complementizers. For example, the present tense negative
particle laa is followed by an imperfect indicative verb, as in laa yaktubu "he writes",
while the future negative particle lan is followed by a subjunctive, as in lan yaktuba
"he won't write", and the past negative particle lam is followed by a jussive, as in lam
yaktub "he didn't write".
Standard Arabic is a VSO language, that is, a language in which the usual word order
is Verb Subject Object. This characteristic distinguishes it from the modern dialects,
which are SVO. However, there are many contexts in which the SVO order is used.
For example, the neutral word order for a sentence such as "Muhammad read a book"
is VSO: qara'a (V) muHammadun (S) kitaaban (O), but when embedded in the clause
qaalat 'inna "she said that", the SVO order is used: qaalat 'inna muHammadan (S)
qara'a (V) kitaaban (O).
Like other Semitic languages, the bulk of its vocabulary consists of words formed by
the application of templates (vowel patterns and affixes) to triliteral (3-consonant)
roots. For example, from the triliteral root k-t-b are formed a variety of words related
to the concept of writing: kitaab "book", maktaba(t) "library", maktab "desk, office",
kaatib "writer", kataba "he wrote". Compounding is rare, and if a word cannot be
created by means of derivation, the Arabic language prefers periphrastic description,
e.g. maa fawqa l-banafsajii "ultraviolet" (lit. "what-is-beyond-violet").
Being closely associated with Classical Arabic, Standard Arabic resists heavy
borrowing from other languages. Thus novel words are often coined using Arabic
roots. These words often compete with borrowings for acceptance. For example,
while tilivizyoon has become almost universally accepted as the word for "television
set", "radio set" is expressed variously as radyu (a borrowing) or midhyaa' (a word
coined from a root meaning "broadcast").
There are many words of Arabic origin in English, such as algebra (< Arabic al-jabr),
alcohol (< al-kuHl), and coffee (< qahwa(t)). Due to the importance of Arabic in the
Islamic world, many languages have borrowed much of their literary and specialized
vocabulary from Arabic, in much the same way that English borrowed from French
and Latin. For example, the Arabic word jumhuuriyya has been borrowed as the word
for "republic" into Swahili as jamhuri, into Urdu as jumhuuriah, into Turkish as
cumhuriyet, and into Person as jomhuri.
ROLE IN SOCIETY
Standard Arabic is the language of literature and education in most Arabic countries.
Educated people throughout North Africa and the Arabian Peninsula have good to
excellent command of Standard Arabic besides their native Arabic dialect. As the
language of Quran, Classical Arabic is used as the language of prayer and recitation
throughout the Islamic world. Virtually all Arabic newspapers, magazines, and books
are written in Standard Arabic, as well. In the broadcast media, Standard Arabic is
also the usual language for news and other scripted informational and educational
programming. The media in which Standard Arabic is not as frequently used as the
spoken Arabic dialects are in song, film, and the theater.
The social status of Standard Arabic in relation to other languages and to other
varieties of Arabic varies from country to country. In the countries of the Maghrib,
many speakers of Arabic have been schooled in French and are more likely to use
French than Standard Arabic for reading and for written communication. In some
countries, such as Saudi Arabia, there is a tendency to use Standard Arabic in all
situations in the broadcast media, while in other countries, such as Egypt and
Lebanon, Standard Arabic is used in more formal programming while the local dialect
is used in informal contexts.
HISTORY
The earliest Arabic inscriptions date back to the 4th century AD, but the basis for
Standard Arabic was laid down with the writing down of the Quran (probably 7th–8th
centuries AD). In the course of the 8th and the 9th centuries Quranic Arabic
underwent standardization as a result of extensive work by medieval Arabic
grammarians. During that period, grammarians compiled a number of detailed
grammatical descriptions of literary Arabic, as well as of Arabic lexicons and other
linguistic treatises. The Standard Arabic has not changed much over the centuries, for
the most part because it is mostly used as a written language. (For additional
information see Bakalla 1994, Belova 1998a and 1998b, Holes 1994, Suleiman 1994.)
ACADEMIC RESOURCES
230 universities in the US teach Arabic (variety unspecified, but usually Modern
Standard Arabic; CARLA database).
REFERENCES
Bakalla, M. H. 1994. “Arab and Persian Phonetics”. In: Asher, R. E., editor-in-chief.
The Encyclopedia of Languages and Linguistics. Vol. 1, pp. 187-191. Oxford:
Pergamon Press.
Bateson, M. C. 1967. Arabic Language Handbook. Washington: Center for Applied
Linguistics.
Belova, A. G. 1998a. “Arabskij jazyk”. In: Jarceva, V. N., editor-in-chief. Jazykoznanije: bol'shoj enciklopedicheskij slovar'. P. 41. Moscow.
______1998b.“Arabskoje pis'mo”. In: Jarceva, V. N., editor in chief. Jazykoznanije.
Bol'šoj enciklopedičeskij slovar'. Pp. 41-42. Moscow.
Campbell, G. L. 2000. Compendium of the World's Languages. Vol. 1. Second
edition. London: Routledge.
Carter, Michael, G. 2001. “Arabic”. In: Facts about the World's Languages: An
Encyclopaedia of the World's Major Languages, Past and Present. Jane Garry and
Carl Rubino, editors. Pp. 23-27. New York: H. N. Wilson Company.
Djakonov, M. I. 1998. “Semitskije jazyki”. In: Jarceva, V. N., editor-in-chief. Jazykoznanije. Bol'shoj enciklopedicheskij slovar'. Pp. 442-443. Moscow.
Fischer, Wolfdietrich. 1992. “Arabic”. In: Bright, William, editor-in-chief.
International Encyclopaedia of Linguistics. Vol. 2, pp. 91-98. Oxford University
Press, Oxford and New York.
______2002. A Grammar of Classical Arabic. Third revised edition. Translated from
the German by Jonathan Rodgers. Yale Language Series. New Haven: Yale
University Press.
Holes, C. 1994. “Arabic”. In: Asher, R. E. (Editor-in-Chief). “The Encyclopedia of
Languages and Linguistics”. Vol. 1, pp. 191–194. Oxford: Pergamon Press.
Ruhlen, M. 1987. A Guide to the World's Languages, Vol. 1: Classification. London:
Edward Arnold.
Suleiman, M. Y. I. H. 1994. “Arabic Linguistic Tradition”. In: Asher, R. E., editor-inchief. “The Encyclopedia of Languages and Linguistics”. Vol. 1, pp. 194–202.
Oxford: Pergamon Press.
Xelimskij, E. A. 1998. “Afrazijskije jazyki”. In: Jarceva, V. N., editor-in-chief.
Jazykoznanije: bol'šoj enciklopedičeskij slovar'. Pp. 55–57. Moscow.
http://carla.acad.umn.edu/lctl/db/search-wlw.html/
Last updated January 24, 2005.
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