Welcome to Gaia! ::

مرحباً بكم!!!ـ
Greetings to you!!!
Hello everyone,

This is my first post in the guild, and I hope this thread is going to be helpful to all of you.

About Me:

I am a native speaker of Arabic, and have learned the Modern Standard for accademic reasons, and the Classical for religious reasons. The differance between the two is more on grounds of vocabulary, but aside from that, they are identical in all other aspect including grammar, and pronounciations.

The way I see it, Arabic has a fairly easy vocabulary, because it uses the triconsonantal root system also found in other Semitic Languages (such as Hebrew and Syriac). However, the language's grammar is somewhat complex, and as a subject ranks relatively high in difficulty for many students.

I also speak other coloquial dialects native to different countries: Sudanese (growing up in a Sudanese household), Egyptian (most popular one due to Television and Cinema), Gulf (growing up in Eastern Saudi Araiba), and Levantine (Having many friends from the Levant).

From my knowlege in Arabic, I have had the opportunity to look at other related languages in a different light. For example, while watching "The Passion", I was able to understand many of what was being said due to the linguistic similarities.

I also find word Etymologies to be interesting: Magazine is derived from Mkhaazin in Arabic, plural of one Makhzan... meaning a place of storage (such as a storage silo, for example).

Finally, I am a graduating college student aiming for a Bachelor's degree in chemistry. Language is my intelect's misstress...

About the Language

Arabic is one of the richest languages on earth. Some dictionaries can have entrees in the millions. However, many of the words are related, and by figuring out what their root is, the meaning can be easily understood...

My most fevorite example is the root Ka-Ta-Ba which literally means "(he) wrote" (singular masculine, or s masc)

From the root more words can be derived

KaTaBa (wrote) KaSaRa (broke)
YaKTuBu (writing) YaKSiru (breaking)
KATiB (writer) KASiR (breaker)
MaKTOoB (written) MaKSOoR (broken)

Basically, words have related meanings... some of them more distant than others. The word "crow (bird)" is related to "west (destination)" but distantly.

I will update this thread as soon as I find more time in the very near future...

If you have any questions and/or concerns, please don't hesitate to send me a PM...

NOTE: I might just have to reorganize the thread. The problem isn't with the information, but rather how it's organized. I'm going to do my best!!! xd
The question is, what's scarier than Kimyanji hyped on caffeine?! gonk
Kimyanji suffering the withdrawl symptoms... >.O *twitch*

العفو يا كهرمانة!ـ
لا بئس!ـ أنت متقدمة في عدد الكلمات التي تعرفينها.ـ

Please don't hesitate to ask about anything...
I'm glad you're looking forward to it...

P.S. "كهرمانة" = Amber (femanine)
___________________

The Arabic Alphabet:

The Arabic alphabet is very similar to most other Semitic languages, and it's current writing system is derived from North Semitic Languages, such as Syriac. The Arabic word for alhpabet is "أبجد" or "Abjad". It is written and read from right-to-left. You're getting nowhere if you're reading the end of the sentence, eh?

This is the recitation of the following list of letters, and at the end, explaining what the gluttoral stop is:

http://media.putfile.com/ArabicAlphabet

أ Aliph
ب Ba'
ت Ta'
ث Tha' ("th" as in "thing")
ج Jeem
ح Ha' (A gluttoral "H" sound...)
خ Kha' (a gluttoral sound that resembles the "ch" in "Bach", but heavier)
د Dal
ذ Dhal ("th" in "the" and "then"
ر Ra' (Resembels the Spanish "r" with a little less emphasis)
ز Zein
س Seen
ش Sheen
ص Saad (Gluttoral "S")
ض Daad (Gluttoral "D")
ط Ta' (gluttoral)
ظ Zha' (gluttoral "Dh")
ع 'Ain (Gluttoral ')
غ Ghain (Sounds like a French "r")
ف Fa'
ق Qaf (gluttoral Q, I've heard it in Filippino personally)
ك Kaf
ل Laam
م Meem
ن Noon
ه Ha'
و Waw
ي Ya'

This is the modern order of the letters. The old form makes a long meaningless sentence I used to memorize the whole alphabet in a song actually: (It's hard to convey without audio, I'll try to do that later)...

أبجد هوز حطي كلمن سعفص قرشت ثخذ ضغظ

Some additional letters would be:
ة (Ta' MarbooTah) This is a "ت" added to the end of the word, usually signifying femanine nouns. When stopping at it, it is not pronounced as a "T", but rather as an "H". Don't worry about it too much for now. At least, know what it means to see it at the end of a word.

ء (the Hamzah) This is the "A" sound as a gluttoral stop (the sound you make at the beginning of the word such as "Ant" and "Arm") Spelling-wise, it can be mounted on any of the following letters but it still has the same "A" sound: ء أ ؤ ئ

Don't worry about those too much, because it's mostly about spelling, which will be discussed later.

Finally, it is important to note, Arabic is cursive even when typed on a computer. The shape of the letter may change in order for it to be connected to another... A letter's shape changes depending on its position in the word. Here are some color-coded examples.

بيت (or BYT, or Bait... meaning: House)

Now, you may have noticed that some letters differ only in the number of dots they have. That is true, they are identical in writing. ج ح خ are all identical in form except for the dots. From right to left, this is what the letter would look like completely separate from everything, at the beginning, middle, and then end of a word:

ج جـ ـجـ ـج
ح حـ ـحـ ـح
خ خـ ـخـ ـخ

For more on how this script is related to Latin, Hebrew, Greek, Cryllic and Phoenician, please visit this Wikipedia articles. They were very helpful.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Phoenician_alphabet#The_Alphabet
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arabic_alphabet

EDIT @ 5/12/06 5:50am

Here is how all the letters look in all their forms. From right to left, these characters are:
Isolated (not connected to anything else)
Initial (connected from the left only even in the center of a word)
Remedial (connected from both sides)
Terminal (connected from the right only even if in the center of a word)

Also, it's important to note, the the letters that have only two forms show the isolated and terminal forms. The previous word شدة shows a "د" in the center of the word, but it looks like a terminal letter. It is identical if written Terminal (at the end of a word), شد.

ا ـا
ب بـ ـبـ ـب
ت تـ ـتـ ـت
ث ثـ ـثـ ـث
ج جـ ـجـ ـج
ح حـ ـحـ ـح
خ خـ ـخـ ـخ
د ـد
ذ ـذ
ر ـر
ز ـز
س سـ ـسـ ـس
ش شـ ـشـ ـش
ص صـ ـصـ ـص
ض ضـ ـضـ ـض
ط طـ ـطـ ـط
ظ ظـ ـظـ ـظ
ع عـ ـعـ ـع
غ غـ ـغـ ـغ
ف فـ ـفـ ـف
ق قـ ـقـ ـق
ك كـ ـكـ ـك
ل لـ ـلـ ـل
م مـ ـمـ ـم
ن نـ ـنـ ـن
ه هـ ـهـ ـه
و ـو
ي يـ ـيـ ـي

The following letters are a little special:
ة ـة
ى ـى
ء أ ـأ ؤ ـؤ ئ ـئـ ـئ
ء + ا ـا = آ ـآ
ل + ا ـا = لا ـلا
Letters in red are always Terminal.
Letters in green are always Isolated and only in the end of a word.
Letters in blue can be either Remedial or Terminal, but never Initial.

In pronounciation, any situation there is a hamzah "ء should be a gluttoral stop and identical. It's only a matter of spelling that it is mounted on different letters.

I'm not sure... This is probably due to your computers encoding using Western Arabic Numerals. I just re-researched it, and the form prevalent in the West are derived from Western Arabic Numerals (Mghreb, including Andalusia)... I don't know how to add Eastern Numerals. For me, it doesn't matter much, seeing that I have read a couple of Newspapers that use Western Numerals (namely الشرق الأوسط).

I'll see what I can find about how to change number script... I'll report back soon...

EDIT: P.S. Don't worry about making mistakes... as a learner, it's your job to make mistakes and learn from them 3nodding

يمكنك كتابة اللغة العربية. ولكن إذا وجدتي أي صعوبات، يمكنك كتابة اللغة الإنجليزية للاستفسار.ـ

2nd P.S. I am not very good with puncutation, be it in Arabic or English... xp

Arabic Vowels:

Officially speaking, there are only three vowels in Arabic:

ا a sound (cat): Known as "alif madd
و oo sound (Zoom): Known as "waaw madd"
ي (rarely written "ى") ee sound (Jeep): Known as "yaa' madd"

The word مد (madd) here means "to stretch". That's obvious when saying the word "Zooooom" or "Jeeeeeep" versus "Zum" or "Jip" which is very short...

Some examples would be:

عالم "'Aalim" (scholar or scientist)
يقول "yaqool" ((he) says [masculine singular])
جميل "jameel" (beautiful or handsom [masculine singular])

In addition to the long vowels, which tend to be longer, there are shorter حركات "Harakaat" (literally, "Movements" in Arabic). They are written as little accents over and under letters letters.

***Note*** Fluent speakers rarely write them, and they are usually understood from context. When written in books and news papers, they are written over key letters to avoid ambiguity. Some words may have the same exact spelling and letters, but the Harakaat affect the meaning. That's why, most Muslims, when quoting the Qur'an write the accents on ALL the letters.

بَ "ba" "فتحة" ("fatHah"): fatHah literally means: an opening... you open your mouth when pronouncing the "a" sound...
بُ "bu" "ضمة" ("Dammah"): Dammah means: a surrounding hold, embrase, or collect (like hugging someone). It is called so because of the sape of the leps when pronouncing the "u" sound.
بِ "bi" "كسرة" ("kasrah"): kasrah litery means: a break (like breaking glass). The sound "breaks" and falls down... I hope that makes sence... sweatdrop

Some examples would be:

جَمل "Jamal" (meaning: Camel)
جُمل "Jumal" (meaning: Sentences)

In addition to those, there are additional ones:

بْ "b" سكون "sukoon": literally: state of stopping, quiet, or stationary. The best example would be the sound in the following words:
Barton
Baseball
Bank
Run
Jester

بّ "bb" "شدّة" "shaddah": This means: "stress"... Even the word "shaddah" itself contains this stress. The stress is technically two identical letters. The first has a sukoon, and the second has one of the Harakat (a, u or i).

Instead of writing "[incorrect]شدْدَة[/incorrect]" (this is how it's pronounced, not written), the two letters are combined together into one letter that contains the shaddah and a fatHah to give "شدَّة"...

That concludes the vowels from my point of view...

I'll be working on some recordings later...

Random Words ^^

الآلَةُ الحَاسِبَةُ

I won't transliterate this one...

Literally: the calculating (adjective, not a verb) machine...

Pronouns: الضمائر

Separated Pronouns: الضمائر المنفصلة
From their name, these pronouns are separated from any other word when written. These usually are subject pronouns that resemble: I, you, he, she, it... ect.

Those are separated depending on point of view: The speaker, the spoken to, and the absent.

1. Speaker Pronoun (1st person?): ضمير المتكلم
These pronouns have a lesser degree of gender and number distinguishing. There is either a singular or plural form.

أنا I
نحن We

2. Spoken-to Pronoun (2nd person?): ضمير المخاطب
All of these would directly translate to "You" in English...

أنتَ (masc.)
أنتِ (fem.)
أنتما (dual)
أنتم (plural masc.)
أنتن (plural fem.)

3. Absent Pronoun (3rd person): ضمير الغائب

هو He
هي She
هما They (dual)
هم They (pl. masc.)
هن They (pl. fem.)

Connected Pronouns: الضمائر المتصلة
These pronouns are can be used as either objective or posessive. When connected to a verb, they are usually objective, and when connected to a noun, they are posessive. It's basically that. They also resemble the separated ones in gender, number, and point of view... They are always connected to the end of the word.

1. Speaker Pronoun (1st person?): ضمير المتكلم

(to a v.) ني (to a n.) ي
نا

2. Spoken-to Pronoun (2nd person?): ضمير المخاطب

ك
كي
كما
كم
كما

3. Absent Pronoun (3rd person): ضمير الغائب

ه
ها
هما
هم
هن

Vocabulary:
If there were any important terms I forgot, and you would love to see, just tell me biggrin

School: مدرسة
طالِب/طالِبة Student [literally, seeker (of knowlege)]
دَرَس Learned/Studied
دَرس Lesson
دارِس/دارِسة Learner
مُدَرِّس/مُدَرِّسة Teacher [as in, lesson giver]
عَلَم Flag
عِلم Science/Subject/Knowlege
عالِم Scientist/Scholar
عالَم World
مُعَلِّم/مُعَلِّمة Teacher [as in Knowlege giver]
أُستاذ/أُستاذة Professional/Professor/High-ranking Teacher
مُدير/مُديرة Principle/Manager
مُرشِد/مُرشِدة Guide/Councelor
سائِق/سائِقة Driver [especially of vehicles]
باص، حافِلة Bus
شَنطة، حَقيبة Bag
كِتاب Book
قَلَم Pen [generally, a writing utencil]
قلم رَصاص Pencil [رصاص = lead... a dense poisonous metal]
قلم حِبر Pen [حبر = Ink]
دَفتَر Notebook
وَرَقة Paper [one singular paper, ورق is the singular]
مِمحاة، مَسّاحة Eraser
مِبراة، بَرّاية Sharpener [of pencils]
مِسطَرة Ruler
لَوح، سبّورة Board [لوح = "Board" generally, سبورة = "Blackboard" especially]
طَبَشير Chalk
كُرسي Chair
دُرج Desk (sometimes used for "drawer")
طاوِلة Table

Home & Family: المنزل و العائلة
(coming up)
منزل home
بيت house
غرفة room
حجرة

3.Plural Nouns: جمع

The word جمع in itself literally means "the act of collecting", "collection", "summation", "mathematical addition", "(a) group"... ect.

There are two types of plural in Arabic: سالم and تكسير
Wether a word is one or the other depends on the word's own structure. Some words can have two plural forms according to the above criteria.


1.a. جمع سالم:
The word سالم, aside from being a common male name in Arabic, and a famous colonial American city, whre the infamous "Salem Wich Trials" were held (no relationship), literally means: Safe, or protected.

In this case, it's protected from tampering and has rules that make it as simple as the dual مثنّى form. However, male and female words have different suffixes:

1.a.I جمع مذكر سالم: (Protected Masculine Plural)
This is very simple and streight forward: You simply add a ون (oon) at the end of the word:

دارس becomes دارسون
معلم becomes معلمون
مدير becomes مديرون
and so forth

Like the dual, the ن is also removed when it's added in posession:
مرشدو المدرسة
سائقو السيارات (--- of cars)
and so forth

1.a.II جمع مؤنث سالم: (Protected Femanine Plural)
It differs in that ات، ـات (aat) is added to the end of the word.

دارسة becomes دارسات
معلمة becomes معلمات
مديرة becomes مديرات
and so forth

These are the most common ones, seeing that most words that end with ة، ـة are usually femanine.
When looking at the other forms of femanine words, they need adjustments similar to that in the dual form:

مديرة becomes مديرات
كبرى becomes كبريات
حمراء becomes حمراوات

-

1.b. جمع تكسير:

The word تكسير itself literally translates to: (the act of) breaking. What happens is, the structure of the word itself is changed to give another word that implies plurality. It is thoroughly studied in a field of Arabic known as الصرف where the structure of the word gives the meaning in the context of the root letters. If the root letters for example are ع ل م then the word will most likely have to do with knowlege. Sometimes the immidiate meaning would have a slightly more distant meaning, but it eventually relates to the core meaning.

عِلم Means Science, Knowlege, field of study... and so forth. It has the three root letters that relate to the general meaning.
عَلَم however means "Flag", and in Classical Arabic (circa 500 CE) was also used for "Mountain"... Doesn't look like it's related to science much, does it?

It turns out that a flag's ancient purpose was to tell the troops where the leader is, and wether or not the leader was alive. Should the commander die, the flag falls, and normally, whoever picks it up becomes the leader. At least, that is my understanding.

A mountain was also known by the same word because mountains were often used by travelers as navigation points that help them know where they are in relation to a third point... (I believe that is known as triangulation.. I do that when I'm walking around the city, where I try to fiture out where I am by looking at the orientation of very two tall buildings far away.)

I will post some examples later on about some examples for that.