A Linguistic Description of Arabic

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A Linguistic Description of Arabic

November 30th, 2011 Author: Heather Johnson

1. Background

Arabic is the largest-spoken language of the Semitic

language family with approximately 323 million

speakers (Language). Standardized by the Academy

of the Arabic Language in Egypt, Arabic is the official

national language of many Arab countries including

Algeria, Egypt, Iraq, Jordan, Kuwait, Lebanon, Libya,

Morocco, Palestine, Saudi Arabia, Sudan, and Syria

(Language). Countries like Israel, Mali, and Somalia

also consider Arabic secondary national languages

(Language). A number of Muslim countries including

India and Pakistan also use Arabic in religious writings

and ceremonies (Kaye 664). Developing from thevarious dialects spoken by Arabs as early as the sixth

and seventh centuries, many diverse dialects of Arabic

are spoken throughout the Arab World (Semaan 10;

Tritton ix). Major dialects include Egyptian Arabic,

Maghreb Arabic including Moroccan Arabic and
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Algerian Arabic, Levantine Arabic, Iraqi Arabic, East

Arabian Arabic, and Gulf Arabic (Language).

According to native speakers of Arabic, standard Arabic

is more or less a literary language restricted to the

formal written form of the language, which is written

from right to left (Wickens 8; Language). As the Holy

Book of Islam, the Koran or Quran is probably the

most well known example of Arabic literature (Kaye

664). The earliest known records of the Arabic

language are written inscriptions dated around 950

B.C.E. in which only consonants and not vowels arewritten (Tritton viii; Semaan 6). Even today, vowels are

used in moderation in most texts except for schoolbooks

and the Koran (Tritton ix). Arabic lends many words to

various European languages, particularly in science,

mathematics, and philosophy (Language).

2. Phonetics and Phonology


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Arabic contains twenty-four consonant sounds, twenty-

three of which can be either long or short, as illustrated

in (1).

Arabic additionally uses five pharyngealized

consonants: [t], [d], [s], [], and [l] (Newman 2).

Arabic contains three core vowels: high front

unrounded [i], high back rounded [u], and low back
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unrounded [] (Ziadeh 7; Semaan xi). These main three

vowels can be either short or long (Semaan xi).

However, like most other languages, Arabic vowels are

pronounced slightly differently depending upon the

phonetic environment. The nine most common

pronunciations of the three core vowels are illustrated in

(2).

The high front unrounded [i] is pronounced as [i] as in

machine or triyd, [] as in kit or jiddan, and [e]

as in say or kayf. The high back rounded [u] is

pronounced as [u] as in boot or shuwf, [] as in

put or bukra, and [o] as in blow or shlown. The

low back unrounded [] is pronounced as [] as in
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watt or fahamt, [] as in bazaar or haadha, and

[] as in at or bass. (Van Wagoner 11-12)

Arabic also uses three diphthongs as illustrated in (3).

Unlike many Indo-European languages, most Semitic

languages including Arabic accurately represent allused vowel sounds with phonetic spelling systems

(Newman 1).

3. Morphology

Like most Semitic languages, the majority of Arabic

words are constructed from roots that typically consist

of three and sometimes four consonants (Ziadeh 20;

Bulos 3). The three consonants are also known as

radicals (Tritton vii). Roots are not actually words but


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rather offer a sense of meaning (Tritton viii). For

example, the root /k t b/ provides an idea of writing

(Bulos 4). Words are derived by infixing vowels into

the root as well as adding prefixes and suffixes (Ziadeh

20). Unlike other common Semitic languages like

Hebrew, Arabic only has three parts of speech: noun,

verb, and particle (Tritton viii).

3.1 Nouns

Arabic nouns are inflected for number, case, gender,

and state (Language; Grammar). Nouns and

adjectives both fall under the noun class in Arabic

because distinguishing the adjective from the noun is

not often necessary because what is true of the first is

usually true of the second (Tritton viii). The formation

of nouns is based on affixing sounds onto the root form.

3.1.1 Number

Arabic nouns can be singular, dual, or plural (Tritton

38).


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Dual nouns are formed by suffixing /-ni/ to the

nominative case and /-aini/ to both the accusative and

genitives cases (Wickens 57). Dual nouns refer to two

things such as a pair of shoes.

Plurals are formed by either suffixing prescribed plural

morphemes or by creating a new pattern with the root

radicals. Suffixing a morpheme to a noun creates a

plural called a sound plural because the singular form

of the noun is not altered. Plurals of the second type are

called broken plurals because the singular form of the

noun is broken apart and reassembled in a new pattern.Some singular nouns have both sound and broken plural

forms. (Wickens 42) Almost all nouns use the broken

plural form to derive the plural (Tritton 40).

3.1.2 Case

Arabic nouns can take three cases: nominative,

accusative, and genitive. The case endings for most

nouns of both genders are /u/ for nominative, /a/ for

accusative, and /i/ for genitive. For example, moon is


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qvmarun in the nominative, qvmaran in the

accusative, and qvmarin in the genitive. (Tritton 33)

3.1.3 Gender

Because Arabic uses grammatical gender as opposed to

natural gender, Arabic nouns are either masculine or

feminine (Tritton 28). Most feminine nouns are derived

from masculine nouns by changing the last sound of the

word (Ziadeh 30). The most common feminine ending

is /at/ (Tritton 28). Some feminine nouns have no

masculine equivalents (Ziadeh 30). Nouns referring to

males are always masculine even when the noun ending

is feminine. Similarly, nouns that refer to females such

as ummun for mother and aru:sun for bride

neither need nor have feminine endings. (Tritton 29)

3.1.4 State

Nouns and modifying adjectives in Arabic are either

definite, indefinite, or construct but only the definite

and indefinite states have affixed articles or marks


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(Grammar). To create a definite noun, the prefix /al-/

is affixed to the beginning of the word (Grammar).

Indefinite nouns are suffixed with /-n/ such as

risaalatan meaning a letter (Grammar). The

construct state is when one noun governs another in

the genitive such as baytu meaning of a man in

baytu rajulin meaning a house of a man (Tritton 33-34).

3.2 Verbs

Since Arabic derives words from a root form, an

infinitive form of the verb does not exist in the language

(Bulos 13). Although traditional Arabic contains fifteen

verb forms, modern Arabic only uses ten including the

bare or root form (Bulos 13). When describing the

changes made to the base in each verb form, the

radicals /q t l/ are most commonly used to represent a

root form (Bulos 13). The bare form is not technically a

verb but instead expresses an idea or sense of meaning

(Tritton viii). For example, the root /d r s/ offers a sense


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of learning while the root / r H/ provides a sense of

injuring (Bulos 15). Arabic does not have forms of the

verbs to be or to have but instead substitutes the

verb to become when absolutely necessary (Tritton

vii). Like most languages, the most common Arabic

verbs are irregular, although Arabic also has fewer

irregular verbs than most other languages (Tritton viii).Arabic verbs also express tense, aspect, mood, and

voice (Bulos 35).

3.2.1 Form I

Form I of the Arabic verb is expressed in three shapes

as illustrated in (4).

Roots that take the /qatala/ form typically create

transitive verbs such as kasara, which means he


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broke. However, a few intransitive verbs are also

derived from the /qatala/ form such as alasa, which

means he sat. Most other intransitive verbs take the

/qatula/ and /qatila/ forms. Intransitive verbs that

indicate a permanent state are derived from the /qatula/

form. For instance, qubuHa means he became ugly

and Hasuna means he became nice. Finally,intransitive verbs that indicate a temporary state take

the /qatila/ form. Examples include fariHa meaning

he became glad and Hazina meaning he grew

sad. (Bulos 14)

3.2.2 Form II

Form II of the Arabic verb is derived by duplicating the

second radical as illustrated in (5).


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Roots that form transitive verbs in Form I remain

transitive in Form II but also create causative or

intensified actions. For example, the root /d r s/, which

offers a sense of learning, becomes darasa, which

means to study, in First Form. In the Second Form,

darrasa is derived from the root /d r s/ and means to

teach, which is a more causative action. Instead of astudent studying to learn, a teacher teaches and causes a

student to learn. An example of an intensified action is

the root / r H/ for which the First Form araHa

means to wound while conjugated into the Second

Form arraHa means to inflict many wounds. The

action of causing injuring is intensified in Form II.

(Bulos 15)

Intransitive verbs in Form I also become transitive

verbs that also create causative or intensified actions in

Form II. For example, fariHa means to become

glad and Hazina means to become sad in the First

Form; fariHa transforms into farraHa meaning to

make glad and Hazina into Hazzana meaning to


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make sad in the Second Form. Instead of indicating a

temporary state, similar verbs in Form II show some

sort of causative action. (Bulos 15)

3.2.3 Form III

Similar to Form II, Form III of the Arabic verb is

formed by lengthening the first vowel after the first

radical to a long vowel as illustrated in (6).

Roots conjugated into Form III create verbs that

indicate reciprocity, effort, or an attempt to perform an

action (Bulos 16). To illustrate an example of

reciprocity, the action kataba meaning he wrote in

Form I becomes the reciprocal ktabahu meaning he

corresponded with him in Form III. An example of

effort or attempt is sabaqa meaning to precede in

Form I, which in Form III morphs into sbaqa


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meaning to compete with or to attempt to precede.

(Bulos 16)

3.2.4 Form IV

Form IV of the Arabic verb is derived by prefixing the

voiceless glottal stop // to Form I, which results in an

inversion of the first radical and vowel as illustrated in

(7).

Similar to the Second Form, verbs in the Forth Form

signify factitive and causative actions. Verbs in Form I

that are intransitive again become transitive while verbs

in Form I that are transitive remain transitive. For

example, alasa means to sit in Form I and morphs

into alaza meaning to seat in Form IV. Although

the meaning of a verb in Form II is occasionally the

same as the meaning of that verb in Form IV, most


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verbs are different semantically such as the derivatives

of the root / l m/. While similar, allama in Form II

meaning to teach and alama in Form IV meaning

to inform are nonetheless semantically different.

(Bulos 17)

3.2.5 Form V

Form V of the Arabic verb is formed by adding the

prefix /ta-/ to Form II as illustrated in (8).

Adding the prefix /ta-/ to Form II creates a reflexive

verb in the Form V that expresses the state into which

the object of the action denoted by the Second Form is

brought by that action, as its effect or result. (Bulos

18) The Fifth Form is similar to the passive voice in

English but more comparable to the reflexive form in

Romance languages like Spanish and French. For


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example, the root /k s r/ becomes takassara meaning

to get broken or it itself breaks in Form IV. Some

reflexive verbs in Form IV are derived from nouns as

opposed to Form II such as tawassada meaning to

lean oneself on a pillow from wisdat meaning

pillow and talaHHafa meaning to cover oneself

with an eiderdown from liHf meaningeiderdown. A few verbs in Form V are not obviously

reflexive but are reflexive nonetheless because the

direct objects of these kinds of verbs are actually the

subjects. An example is taHaqqaqa, which literally

means to ascertain but is actually reflexive because

something is ascertained. (Bulos 18-19)

As well as reflexive verbs, Form V also forms verbs

that express an act is done to a person, or a state

produced in him by another person or by himself, both

of which render the subject submissive (Bulos 18). For

example, the verb taallama meaning to become

learned indicates that learning occurred for one

because of the teaching by another. Similarly, some


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verbs in Form V show the acquiring of an attribute,

complaining, the avoidance of an action, or repetition

(Bulos 19). For example, both tana&7779;&7779; ara

meaning to become Christian and takabbara

meaning to become haughty, indicate the acquisition

of new characteristics.

3.2.6 Form VI

Form VI of the Arabic verb is formed by adding the

prefix /ta-/ to Form III as illustrated in (9).

Form VI is extremely similar to Form III in that verbs

in Form VI also indicate reciprocity, effort, and attempt.

Transitive verbs showing effort or attempt in Form III

become reflexive verbs in Form VI such as

allamtuhu meaning I taught him in Form III and

fa-taallam meaning and he [himself] learned in


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Form VI. The Third Form expresses an attempt of the

subject to educate the object while the Sixth Form

shows learning by the former object who transforms

into the subject. Weak or implied reciprocity in Form

III becomes strong or evident in Form VI. For example,

the Form III ktabahu meaning he wrote him

becomes the obviously reciprocal taktab meaningthe two corresponded with each other in Form VI.

Finally, some verbs in the Sixth Form show pretence

such as tamwata and tamrada, which mean he

pretended to be dead and he feigned illness. (Bulos

20-21)

3.2.7 Form VII

Form VII of the Arabic verb is derived by prefixing the

sound /n/ to Form I as illustrated in (10).


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Roots conjugated into Form VII create reflexive-

passive meanings that are even more intensified than

in Form V. For example, Form I of the root /k s r/ is

kasara and means to break (something) whereas

Form VII of the same root is nkasara and means to

get broken or something itself is broken by some

outside force. Another example of a reflexive-passive verb is nqataa meaning to get cut off or

something itself is cut off by some outside force.

Similar to the passive meaning, some verbs in the

Seventh Form also indicate involuntarily submissive

actions such as nqda meaning to be led and

nxadaa meaning to be deceived. Like previous

forms, certain verbs in Form IV become reflexive in

Form VII. For example, alaqa meaning to close

in the Forth Form morphs into nalaqa meaning to

close (of itself) in the Seventh Form. Verbs in Form

VII are never reciprocal.

3.2.8 Form VIII


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Form VIII of the Arabic Verb is formed by infixing the

sound /-t-/ after the first radical as illustrated in (11).

Verbs in the Eighth Form are again reflexive verbs such

as arada meaning to exhibit in Form I, which

morphs into tarada meaning to put oneself in the

way to oppose in Form VIII. When the indirect object

is also the reflexive object in the Eighth Form, the verb

indicates that the action is done for oneself. For

instance, lamasa meaning to touch in Form I

becomes ltamasa meaning to seek or try to obtain for

oneself in the Eighth Form. Verbs with implied

reciprocity in the Sixth Form become evidentlyreciprocal in Form VIII such as talq meaning they

met in Form VI which becomes ltaq meaning they

met one another in Form VIII. Although most derived

verbs have different meanings, certain verbs are the


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same semantically in both the First Form and the Eighth

Form. For example, both Form I ar and Form VIII

tar mean to buy just as Form I xaafa and

Form VIII xaafa mean to kidnap. (Bulos 23)

3.2.9 Form IX

Form IX of the Arabic verb is derived from Form I by

duplicating the second third radical similar to Form II

as well as eliminating the first vowel as illustrated in

(12).

Form IX verbs are not derived from roots but ratherfrom noun-adjectives as adjectives are called in

Arabic. For example, aHmar meaning red and

awa meaning crooked become Hmarra

meaning to get red and waa meaning to become

crooked in the Ninth Form. Form IX indicates color,


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size, defects, and other similar physical characteristics.

(Bulos 25)

3.2.10 Form X

Form X of the Arabic verb is formed by prefixing the

syllable /st-/ to Form I, which results in an inversion of

the first radical and vowel similar to Form IV as

illustrated in (13).

The semantics of Form X verbs depend solely upon the

sense of meaning expressed by the root. Some transitive

verbs in Form IV become reflexive verbs in Form X.

For example, aadda meaning to prepare andaslama meaning to give up in the Forth Form

morph into staadda meaning to prepare oneself

and staslama meaning to give oneself up in the

Tenth Form. Other verbs in Form X indicate pleading,


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requesting, and taking such as staana and

staxbara, which mean to ask permission and to get

information when derived from their roots into Form

X. A few verbs also denote thought or estimation in the

Tenth Form. Examples include stamala meaning to

find beautiful and staqwa meaning to overestimate

the power of, both of which indicate consideration bythe semantic subject. (Bulos 25-26)

3.2.11 Tense

Arabic verbs can take either the imperfect tense of the

perfect tense. The imperfect tense is the equivalent of

the present tense whereas the perfect tense is the

equivalent of the past tense. (Bulos 35)

3.2.12 Aspect

Arabic verbs are mainly either resultative or iterative in

aspect (Bulos 35). Resultative verbs indicate a

completed action whereas iterative verbs express

recurring action.


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3.2.13 Mood

Arabic verbs are recognized to have a number of verbs

including indicative, subjunctive, jussive, energetic,

conditional, and imperative (Tritton 81-83; Bulos 46).

Indicative verbs are used to form most declarative

sentences. Subjunctive verbs are generally present in

subordinate clauses and express some sort of wish or

desire (Tritton 81-82). The subjunctive mood is formed

by changing the /u/ of the indicative verb to the /a/ of

the subjunctive (Tritton 81). The jussive mood is

mainly used in forming imperative sentences by eitherdropping the /u/ of the indicative or taking the

subjunctive form (Tritton 82). The energetic form is

used to indicate solemn statements, commands, and

wishes (Tritton 83). Energetic verbs are created by

suffixing /anna/ to the indicative (Tritton 82). The

conditional mood is used to create if-then statements

(Tritton 83).

3.2.14 Voice


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The Arabic verb can be either active or passive. The

passive is formed by changing the vowels in the

indicative verb. An agentive can never be present in

passive sentences. (Tritton 108)

3.3 Particles

Most grammatical words such as prepositions and

conjunctions fall under the class of particle (Tritton

viii). Some particles indicate tense of aspect of verbs

(Shlonsky 11). Several Arabic words have no

equivalent in Indo-European languages and are thus

lumped together with the other grammatical words in

the Arabic language (Tritton viii).

4. Syntax

Because Arabic uses a case system, word order is lessimportant for creating meaning. However, only two

main word order patterns are allowed in the language:

VSO and SVO.

4.1 Word Order


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Standard Arabic is primarily a VSO language, although

other word order patterns such as SVO occur under

varying circumstances (Shlonsky 8). Most sentences in

Arabic are verbal sentences or sentences that begin

with a verb; the subject follows directly after the verb

(Ziadeh 51). An example of a VSO sentence is katabat

Mona risaalatan, which means Mona wrote a letter(Shlonsky 7). Katabat feminine nominative verb form

of the root /k t b/ that provides a sense of writing.

Mona is the subject of the sentence and follows

directly after the verb katabat because of the verb-

subject syntactic rule. Finally, risaalatan is the direct

object of the verb meaning a letter and proceeds the

subject. Risaalatan is in the accusative form as

indicated by the /a/ case ending (Tritton 33).

Although not the default word order pattern, SVO is

another possible sentence structure in Arabic used when

emphasis is on the subject. An example is found in the

Palastinian dialect of the language: Mona katbat

risaale (Shlonsky 7). Like the previous Standard


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Arabic example, Mona katbat risaale means Mona

wrote a letter in Palastinian Arabic (Shlonsky 7). The

nominative verb katbat again means wrote while

risaale meaning a letter is the direct object of the

verb. Mona also is again the subject of the sentence;

however, the subject precedes the verb in this particular

sentence structure because emphasis is put on the factthat Mona is the person who wrote the letters, not the

fact that the letters were written. Declarative sentences

structured by the SVO word order do not need an

equivalent of the verb to be if the present tense is

implied (Ziadeh 26). For example, the book magical

is a possible sentence in Arabic because the predicate

verb to be is implied and therefore not required.

4.2 Case

Arabic nouns take case endings for the three possible

cases in the language: nominative, accusative, and

genitive (Tritton 33). For both verbal sentences and

nominal sentences, the subject and the verb are both in


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the nominative case because of the necessity of subject-

verb case agreement (Ziadeh 26; 51).

4.3. Complex Sentences

Arabic allows for a number of complex sentences

through the use of subordinate clauses including

subjunctive clauses and conditional clauses (Tritton 82-

83).

References

Arabic Grammar.Arabic Language. 2006. Arabic Language. 26

Nov. 2006.

Arabic Language. Wikipedia, the Free Encyclopedia. 15 Nov. 2006.

Wikimedia Foundation, Inc. 15 Nov. 2006.

Bulos, Afif A. The Arabic Trilateral Verb: A Comparative Study of

the Grammatical Concepts and Processes. Beirut: Khayats, 1965.

Kaye, Alan S. Arabic. The Worlds Major Languages, ed. by

Bernard Comrie, 664-685. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1990.

Newman, Daniel. The Phonetics of Arabic.Arabic Phonetics:

Sound Descriptions. Durham University. 8 Nov. 2006.

Semaan, Khalil I.Linguistics in the Middle Ages: Phonetic Studies in


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Early Islam. Leiden: E. J. Brill, 1968.

Shlonsky, Ur. Clause Structure and Word Order in Hebrew and

Arabic: An Essay in Comparative Semitic Syntax. New York: Oxford

University Press, 1997.

Tritton, A.S.Arabic. London: The English Universities Press, 1943.

Van Wagoner, Merrill Y., Arnold Statterthwait, and Frank Rice.

Spoken Arabic (Saudi). Ithaca: Spoken Language Services, Inc., 1977.

Wickens, G. M.Arabic Grammar: A First Workbook. Cambridge:

Cambridge University Press, 1980.

Ziadeh, Farhat J., and R. Bayly Winder.An Introduction to Modern

Arabic. London: Princeton University Press, 1957.

Category: Linguistics

Tags: Arabic language, morphology,phonetics,phonology, syntax |

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