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Arabic_language (including recent related patents.)
Arabic language
The expressions Arabic and Classical Arabic usually refer
to ?al luGat ul?\arabi:yat ulfus'X\a: ( Literally: the pure Arabic language - اللغة العربية؛الفصحى ) which is, according to Arabic speakers, both the language
of present-day media across North Africa and the Middle East (from
Morocco to Iraq) and the language of the Qur'an. The expression media includes not only television, radio, newspapers
and magazines, but also all written matter, including all books,
documents of every kind, and reading primers for small children.
The term Modern Standard Arabic is sometimes used in the West to refer to the language of the media as opposed to the language of "classical" Arabic literature; Arabs make no such distinction, and regard the two as identical. The word "Arabic" also refers to the many national or regional dialects/languages derived from Classical Arabic, spoken daily across North Africa and the Middle East, which sometimes differ enough to be mutually incomprehensible. These dialects are not frequently written, although a certain amount of literature (particularly plays and poetry) exists in many of them, notably Lebanon and Egypt.
It is sometimes difficult to translate Islamic concepts, and concepts specific to Arab culture, without using the original Arabic terminology. The Qur'an is expressed in Arabic and traditionally Muslims deem it impossible to translate in a way that would adequately reflect its exact meaning - indeed, until recently, some schools of thought maintained that it should not be translated at all. A list of Islamic terms in Arabic covers those terms which are too specific to translate in one phrase. While Arabic is strongly associated with Islam (and is the language of salat), it is also spoken by Arab Christians, Oriental Jews, and indeed Iraqi Mandaeans; and, of course, the vast majority of Muslims do not speak it.
The English word algorithm is derived from the name of the inventor of algebra - an Arabic word like alchemy, alcohol, azimuth, nadir, zenith, and oasis. See a List of English Words from Arabic. Arabic numerals are what we use in English - but, except in some North African countries, modern Arabs generally use what they call "Hindi numerals". Spanish is the European language with the most borrowings from Arabic. See a List of the Arabic loan-words in Spanish.
Arabic is a Semitic language, fairly closely related to, for instance, the Hebrew language and the Aramaic language. Many dialects are spoken in modern Arabic states such as Egypt, Lebanon, and Morocco, but all of these countries use Modern Standard Arabic for printed media. Its function however is different from that of Western standard languages: it is used for practically all writing, but is spoken only on formal or academic occasions. Consequently, prestigious vernacular varieties fulfill some of the functions that standard languages have in Western countries (see Chambers, Sociolinguistic Theory).
Table of contents showTocToggle("show","hide")
1 Dialects
2 Alphabet
3 Phonology
4 Grammar
1 Calligraphy
2 Arabic Script
3 External links
Dialects
"Colloquial Arabic" is a collective term for the spoken languages or dialects of people throughout the Arab world, which, as mentioned, differ radically from the literary language. The main dialectal division is between the Maghreb dialects and those of the Middle East, followed by that between sedentary dialects and the much more conservative Bedouin dialects. However, some dialects, such as the extinct dialect of Andalus or the creole Arabic of Juba and Ki-Nubi, are said to fall outside these classifications. Maltese, though descended from Arabic, is considered a separate language. Probably the most divergent of non-creole Arabic dialects is Cypriot Maronite Arabic. Speakers of some of these dialects are unable to converse with speakers of another dialect of Arabic; in particular, while Middle Easterners can generally understand one another, they often have trouble understanding North Africans (although the converse is not true, due to the popularity of Middle Eastern films and other media.) One factor in the differentiation of the dialects is influence from the languages previously spoken in the areas, which have typically provided a significant number of new words, and have sometimes also influenced pronunciation or word order; however, a much more significant factor for most dialects is, as among Romance languages, retention (or change of meaning) of different classical forms. Thus Iraqi aku, Levantine fiih, and North African kayen all mean "there is", and all come from Arabic (yakuun, fiihi, kaa'in respectively), but now sound very different.
List of major dialects:
Alphabet
The Arabic alphabet derives from the Aramaic script (which variety, Nabataean or Syriac, is a matter of scholarly dispute), to which it bears a loose resemblance like that of Coptic or Cyrillic script to Greek script. Traditionally, there were several differences between the Western (Maghrebi) and Eastern version of the alphabet - in particular, the fa and qaf had a dot underneath and a single dot above respectively in the Maghreb, and the order of the letters was slightly different (at least when they were used as numerals.) However, the old Maghrebi variant has been abandoned except for calligraphic purposes in the Maghreb itself, and remains in use mainly in the Quranic schools (zaouias) of West Africa. Arabic, like Hebrew, is written from right to left.
note the "â" is inbetween "a" (car) and "e" (bed).
Arabic alphabet:
Letter
Standard
Name
Typical SAMPA value
ا
âlef
alif
a
ب
style="line-height: 1.6;">bâ
ba:?
b
ت
t style="line-height: 1.6;">â
ta:?
t
ث
th style="line-height: 1.6;">â
Ta:?
T
ج
j style="line-height: 1.6;">îm
dZi:m
dZ
ح
h. style="line-height: 1.6;">â
X\a:?
X\
خ
khaa
xa:?
x
د
d style="line-height: 1.6;">âl
da:l
d
ذ
th style="line-height: 1.6;">âl
Da:l
D
ر
r'aa
ra:?
r
ز
zai
za:j
z
س
si'n
si:n
s
ش
sh style="line-height: 1.6;">în
Si:n
S
ص
s'aad
s_ea:d
s_e
ض
d'aad
d_ea:d
d_e
ط
t' style="line-height: 1.6;">â
t_ea:?
t_e
ظ
D' style="line-height: 1.6;">â
D_ea:?
D_e
ع
'ayn
?\ajn
?\
غ
gha style="line-height: 1.6;">în
Gajn
G
ف
faa
fa:?
f
ق
qâf
qa:f
q
ك
k style="line-height: 1.6;">âf
ka:f
k
ل
l style="line-height: 1.6;">âm
la:m
l
م
style="line-height: 1.6;">mîm
mi:m
m
ن
nuun
nu:n
n
ه
h style="line-height: 1.6;">â
ha:?
h
و
waau
wa:w
w
ى
y style="line-height: 1.6;">â
ja:?
j
ء
(hamza)
hamza
?¹
hamza typically occurs as a small superscript over ا, و, or ى. There are also two variants, each used in special contexts: ٱ , آ.
Arabic special characters:
Commonly-used variants:
ى alif maksura; word-final variant of ا; has value of ى elsewhere
ﻻ ligature of ل and ا
ة teh marbuta; nominally feminine ending /at/, but the /t/ is dropped except in special cases; changes to ت when suffixes are added
ّ shadda; marks gemination of a consonant; kasra (see below) moves to between the shadda and the geminate consonant when present; not used consistently in modern texts
Short vowels are indicated only in the Qur'an and in children's reading primers:
ْ suku:n; marks a consonant with no following vowel
َ fatX\a; short /a/ vowel
ِ kasra; short /i/ vowel
ُ d'am:a; short /u/ vowel
tanwiin letters:
ً , ٍ , ٌ used to produce the grammatical endings /an/, /in/, and /un/ respectively. ً is usually used in combination with ا ( اً ).
Phonology
Standard Arabic has only three vowels, in long and short variants, namely /i, a, u/. Naturally, considerable allophony occurs.
Arabic consonant phonemes
Bilabial
Inter-dental
Dental
Emphaticdental
(Alveo-)Palatal
Velar
Uvular
Pharyn-geal
Glottal
Stops
Voiceless
t
t'
k
q
?
Voiced
b
d
d'
dZ¹
Fricatives
Voiceless
f
T
s
s'
S
x
X\
h
Voiced
D
z
D'
G
?\
Nasals
m
n
Laterals
l²
Rhotic (trill)
r
Semi-vowels
w
j
/dZ/ is /g/ for some speakers, i.e. a plosive
/l/ becomes [l'] only in /?alla:h/, the name of God, i.e. Allah.
/'/ is used to indicate velarization and pharyngalization (=emphatic consonants; usually transcribed as dotted consonants). The other symbols are SAMPA.
In the dialects there are more phonemes, one occurs in the Maghreb as well in the written language mostly for names: /v/.
Vowels and consonants can be (phonologically) short or long.
Grammar
Like many Semitic languages the grammar is based on a (usually) triconsonantal root, which is not a word in itself. The consonants k t b together indicating 'write', q r ? indicate 'read', ? k l indicate 'eat'. The pattern of vowels and affixes gives the exact meaning. The simplest form of the verb is the perfect, third person masculine singular: kataba 'he wrote', qara?a 'he read'. From this the other persons and numbers form:
- katabtu I wrote
- katabta you (masc.) wrote
- katabti you (fem.) wrote
- katabat she wrote
- katabna we wrote
- katabu: they (masc.) wrote
- etc., there also being dual forms
The imperfect has a different shape and different affixes:
- jaktubu he is writing
- taktubu she is writing; you (masc.) are writing
- taktubi:na you (fem.) are writing
- ?aktubu I am writing, etc.
Derived verbs are variations on the shape of the primary kataba stem, such as kattaba, ka:taba, inkataba, takattaba, etc., with senses such as intensive, reflexive, and causative, though the exact meaning varies from verb to verb and needs to be recorded in a lexicon.
In Arabic, a word is classified as one of three: a noun, a verb, and a preposition. There are simply no separate categories for adjectives, adverbs, etc.; all are fulfilled by either a noun or a verb, or in some cases, a preposition. For example, to say in Arabic the sentense "the man ran slowly", one would say in Arabic a sentense whose word-for-word translation is "the man ran with slowness", or "the man ran (with) a slowness". Similarly, the Arabic word for "quick" would be treated as a noun, thus it is more properly translated not as the English word "quick", but as the English phrase "quick one".
This concept of using nouns and verbs to fulfill other linguistic functions is different from other languages, such as English, where usually there are words dedicated to fulfilling these functions. Note, though, that in English, this method is sometimes used with respect to adjectives, as in "the city hall", "the town meeting", etc.
Besides these rules, there are a number of other grammar and literary rules that dictate such things as what position in the sentense is the most proper for a certain word, advanced grammatical rules, word morphology, etc. These rules are known collectively in Arabic as an-naX\u (Arabic النحو), which means "the orientation", as it is viewed as the science that defines the proper orientation (rules) of the Arabic language.
Like many Semitic languages, Arabic has a dual grammatical number.
Calligraphy
In the beginnings of Islam, the Qur'an was mostly recorded in the memory of those who memorized the entire text; they were known as the Huffaz. After witnessing the unreliability of such a form of transmission, mostly because of the untimely death of many of those Huffaz in battle, it was decided to record it in written form and compile it into one book instead of several pieces.
Given its sacred nature to Muslims, as the Qur'an is considered the word of Allah, the book would be made with great attention to quality and readability. Given Islam's taboo against pictural representation, however, drawings could not be used to illustrate the book, as was done in the Christian world. Thus, the art of calligraphy became very important in the Muslim world, and today it is still a major art form; calligraphers are held in great esteem. The aesthetic of their art, which allows for the teaching of the Qur'an, is a unifying aspect of Islam.
After the definitive fixing of the Arabic script around 786, by Khalil ibn Ahmad al Farahidi, many styles were developed, both for the writing down of the Qur'an and other books, and for inscriptions on monuments as decoration.
The first of those to gain popularity was known as the Kufic script; it was angular, made of square and short horizontal strokes, long verticals, and bold, compact circles. It would be the main script used to copy the Qur'an for three centuries; its static aspect made it suitable for monumental inscriptions, too. It would develop many serifs, small decorations added to each character.
More often used for casual writing was the cursive Naskh script, with rounder letters and thin lines; with refinement of its writing techniques it would come to be preferred to Kufic for copying the Qur'an. Most children are taught the Naskh font first, and at a later stage they are introduced to the Riq'a font. Almost all printed material in Arabic is in Naskh so, to avoid confusion, children are taught to write in the same script. It is also clearer and easier to decipher.
In the 13th century, the Thuluth would take on the ornamental role formerly associated with the Kufic script. Thuluth meaning "one third", it is based on the principle that one third of each letter slides downward. As such it has a strong cursive aspect and is usually written in ample curves.
As Islam extended farther east, it converted the Persians, who took to using Arabic script for their own language. They contributed to Arabic calligraphy the Taliq and Nastaliq styles. The later is extremely cursive, with exaggeratedly long horizontal strokes; one of its peculiarities is that vertical strokes lean to the right rather than (as more commonly) to the left, making Nastaliq writing particularly well flowing.
The Diwani script is a cursive style of Arabic calligraphy developed during the reign of the early Ottoman Turks (16th-early 17th century). It was invented by Housam Roumi and reached its height of popularity under Süleyman I the Magnificent (1520-66). As decorative as it was communicative, Diwani was distinguished by the complexity of the line within the letter and the close juxtaposition of the letters within the word.
A variation of the Diwani, the Diwani Al Jali, is characterized by its abundance of diacritical and ornamental marks.
Finally, the most commonly used script for everyday use is Riq'a. Simple and easy to write, its movements are small, without much amplitude. It is the one most commonly seen. It's also considered a step up from the Naskh script, and as children get older they are taught this script in school.
The traditional instrument of the Arabic calligrapher is the qalam, a pen made of dried reed; the ink is often in color, and chosen such that its intensity can vary greatly, so that the greater strokes of the compositions can be very dynamic in their effect.
Indeed, Arabic calligraphy hasn't fallen out of use as in the western world. Being cursive by nature, unlike the Latin alphabet, Arabic script is used to write down a verse of the Qur'an, a Hadith, or simply a proverb, in a spectacular composition that is often indecipherable. The composition is often abstract, but sometimes the writing is shaped into an actual form such as that of an animal. One of the current masters of the genre is Hassan Massoudy.
Arabic Script
Arabic script is not used solely for writing Arabic, but for a variety of languages. In each languege it is used for, it has been modified to fit the language's sound system. There are phonemes not found in Arabic, but found in, for instance, Farsi and Malay and Urdu - especially since those three languages are not related to Arabic. For example, the Arabic language lacks a "P" sounding letter, so many languages add their own "P" in the script, though the symbol used may differ between languages. These modifications tend to fall into groups; so all the Indian and Turkic languages written in Arabic tend to use the Persian modified letters, whereas West African languages tend to imitate those of Ajami, and Indonesian ones those of Jawi.
Arabic script is currently used for:
- Dari, Pashto, and Uzbek in Afghanistan
- Farsi (Persian) and Azerbaijani in Iran (though Azerbaijani is written in Latin and Cyrillic scripts in Azerbaijan)
- Malay, known as Jawi, in Brunei, and formerly in Malaysia and Indonesia as well
- Urdu, Kashmiri, Sindhi, and Baluchi in Pakistan
- Punjabi in Pakistan, where it is known as Shahmukhi
- Kurdish and Turkmen in Northern Iraq, while in Turkey Roman script is used for Kurdish.
- Uyghur and Kazakh in northwest China (Xinjiang)
- Wolof (at zaouias), known as wolofal
- Hausa for many purposes, especially religious (known as Ajami)
In the past, it has also been used to represent other languages:
External links
Web references and examples:
This article is adapted from from Wikipedia All Wikipedia article text is available under the terms of the GNU Free Documentation License
The Arabic Alphabet: How to Read & Write It by Nicholas Awde
Arabic-English Dictionary: The Hans Wehr Dictionary of Modern Written Arabic by Hans Wehr
The Holy Quran: An English Translation by Allamah Nooruddin
Your First 100 Words in Arabic : Beginner's Quick & Easy Guide to Demystifying Non-Roman Scripts by Jane Wightwick
Arabic Verbs and Essentials of Grammar: A Practical Guide to the Mastery of Arabic by Jane Wightwick
Cities of Salt by Abdelrahman Munif
The Concise Oxford English-Arabic Dictionary of Current Usage by N.S. Doniach
Teach Yourself Beginner's Arabic Script by John Mace
El Cor'an : (The Koran, Spanish-Language Edition) by Julio Cortes
Lonely Planet Egyptian Arabic Phrasebook (Egyptian Arabic Phrasebook, 2nd Ed) by Siona Jenkins
The Oxford Picture Dictionary: English/Arabic by Norma Shapiro
Mastering Arabic (Hippocrene Master Series) by Jane Wightwick
Al-Kitaab fii Ta'allum al-'Arabiyya: A Textbook for Beginning Arabic, Part One by Kristen Brustad
Lonely Planet Moroccan Arabic Phrasebook (2nd Ed) by Dan Bacon
201 Arabic Verbs: Fully Conjugated in All the Forms by Raymond P. Scheindlin
Recent Arabic_language related patents
From USPTO:
6373965: Apparatus and methods for authentication using partially fluorescent graphic images and OCR characters
6370269: Optical character recognition of handwritten or cursive text in multiple languages
6056552: Language analysis instrument
5867586: Apparatus and methods for fluorescent imaging and optical character reading
5862251: Optical character recognition of handwritten or cursive text
5835912: Method of efficiency and flexibility storing, retrieving, and modifying data in any language representation
5784071: Context-based code convertor
5719948: Apparatus and methods for fluorescent imaging and optical character reading
5687386: Character input apparatus
5407355: Letter display
5327170: Image recording apparatus capable of forming image outputs in various formats
5091950: Arabic language translating device with pronunciation capability using language pronunciation rules
4782270: CRT raster reversal board
4710877: Device for the programmed teaching of arabic language and recitations
4415766: Recognizer/converter for arabic and other language codes
4400697: Method of line buffer loading for a symbol generator
4262291: Arabic numerical displays using segmented patterns
4252452: Arabic language typewriter
4176974: Interactive video display and editing of text in the Arabic script
4137425: Bialphabetic teleprinter for texts in latin and arabic characters
4005539: Peg boards
3968583: Numeric display for Arabic speaking people
3938099: Electronic digital system and method for reproducing languages using the Arabic-Farsi script
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