ARABIC LANGUAGE
347
ARABIC LANGUAGE
NAME.
SIMPLE FORM.
CONNECTED WITH THE
LETTER
POWER IN ENGLISH.
HF.BHEW REPRESENTATIVE.
Preceding.
Following.
With Both.
'Alif
t
L
>
X
Ba
o
V*
J
A
b
a
CTa
Id)
c^.
3
A
t
n
( Tha
CJ
6.
j'
A
th
n
Jim CHha | ( Kha (Dal
c
c
4>
e e e
j
hh kh d
n n 1
(Dhal
0
(X
dh
i
;
7 y
r
-i
JLVUI
Zay
;
> r
z
T
(Sin
LT
u**
AW
^
q
TD
( Shin
LT
u^
JW
AM
sh
ti
( Ssad
LT°
U^
.O
/a
ss
2
( Ddad
U*
L>d
.O
*a
dd
2
j Tta
h
Ja
h
k
tt
•J
( Ttha
h
Ji
lb
k
tth
•J
TAin
e
£
£.
A
c
2
1 Gcain Fa
£■
i
A A
g f
9 IS
Qaf
O
(j-
9
A
q
P
Kaf
J
JL
r ^
£i=.
k
D
Lam
J
J^
j
JL
l
b
Mim
r
r
XI
A
m
tt
Nun
u
j*
j
a
n
5
Ha
8
&
S5
4
li
n
Waw Ya
^5
w
y
J
A
ARABIC LANGUAGE
348
ARABIC LANGUAGE
LIGATURES. Si = b-hh ; ^ - thh ; 3t = j-hh ; g! = s-hh ; ^> - dd-hh ; si = y-hh ; % = ft-' ; ^ or *$ = V ; J = l-,j ; j? = h-m ;■ jJL = Uh-j r; £ = f-y ; g = hh-j-j; s£ - V; s? = /-»* -L = y,« ^>J = l-m-M ; etc.
ARITHMETICAL FIGURES.
♦ 1 0 9
d r* l" 5 4 3
TOWELS.
Fat-hhah -j=- a, as in fat, fate, woman.
Kasrah — — i, as in pin, machine, bird.
Dammah -2— it, as in full, rule, awful.
OTHER ORTHOGRAPHICAL SIGNS.
Jazmah — = silent Sheva of the
Heb.
Tashdid -^-- = Dayesh forte, of the
Heb.
Hamzah ~^- or c Shows a vocal 'Alif.
Waslah -=5- Shows a silent 'Alif
and also = Hebrew Mahheph. Shows a long 'Alif syl- lable. 1 The vowels respective- \ ly, with a final n or I nasal sound added.
Jladdah . . .
Tan win, or
" Nunnation." [
of difficulty to the learner, by the peculiar marks or signs frequently employed in connection with certain letters, or in certain positions, to indicate an implied, developed, prolonged, or connected sound. In ordi- nary writing (and printing) this whole system of vo- calization is omitted. Several of the letters (called "solar") are doubled in pronouncing when initial after the article, the final letter of which is then silent (like the dayesh forte of the Heb. after H). A similar sys- tem of prefixes and suffixes (for prepositions, pronouns, particles, etc.) exists to that in Hob., but with some- what more variety in. application. Vav " conversive," however, disappears in the Arabic, as in the Chaldee. Numbers are expressed by peculiar characters for the digits, or the ordinary letters, as in Gr. and Heb., may be used with a numerical value. The accent is never written, but stands, in dissyllables, upon the penult, in polysyllables upon the antepenult, unless the penult lias a long vowel, which then takes the tone. An ex- tended system of prosody and versification belongs to the language, and forms a marked contrast with the simple poetry of the Hebrew.
The Arabic is rich in grammatical forms. In nouns, as well as pronouns and verbs, the dual is cus- tomary; and for the plural t ho noun has a larpe store of collective forms. The singular has three (so-called) cases, distinguished chiefly by the pointing, and cor- responding to the nominative, genitive, and dative (besides forms for the accusative, and the intcrjective mark of the vocative), together with the "nunna- tion ;" the dual and plural only two (the nominative and objective). To t lie verbs (which, as in Heb., af- ford triliteral roots of all the words) belong thirteen forms or conjugations, somewhat answering to those
of the Heb. ; which either have a factive, reciprocal, passive, and desiderative force, or else modify the ground-meaning of the root. Each of these, except the ninth and eleventh, has a passive as well as an ac- tive voice. The tenses, properly so called, are the same in number, use, and method of formation, as in Heb. Other relations of time are expressed by em- ploying the substantive verb as an auxiliary. A near- ly like series of weak or defective verbs is found as in the Heb. Apocopated, paragogic, and intensified forms of the tenses exist, almost having the force of moods. Verbal nouns are used as infinitives, and verbal adjec- tives as participles ; or these forms may be regarded as the regular infinitives and participles of the several conjugations and voices. There are various inflections to express gender, place, instrumentality, authorship, diminutiveness, etc. The comparative and superlative have appropriate forms.
The formation of sentences is simple, but syntactic- al. A terse vigor is characteristic of the language ; yet the style of Arabic writers is various : in some, for example the more ancient, extremely natural and plain ; in those of later date, more artificial and or- nate. The language of the common people (vulgar Arabic) differs from the written in the omission of the final vowels of words, in certain ungrammatical flex- ions and constructions, and in the use of some conven- tional terms. (On the pronunciation of the Palestin- ian Arabs, see Dr. E. Smith's appendix to the first ed. of Robinson's Bib. Researches, vol. iii.)