Lesson 3: The Arabic Language

Question 1

Arabic Language Origins

Answer 1

• Unknown how long ago it was spoken
• Spoken long before it was assigned an alphabet - namely in the southern Arabian Peninsula (today’s Yemen and Saudi Arabia)
• Alphabet has the same origins as most of the scripts in the world

Question 2

Afro-Asiatic Languages

Answer 2

• Berber
• Chadic
• Cushitic
• Egyptian: Coptic
• Semitic: Arabic, Aramaic, Syriac, Amharic, Hebrew, Maltese

Question 3

Common characteristics of Semitic languages

Answer 3

• common vocabulary
• common grammatical rules
• almost same conjugation structure
• same derivation structure (3 letter verb stem)

Question 4

Development of Arabic Alphabet

Answer 4

Phoenician alphabet transmitted to Arabs through Nabateans in Petra

Question 5

First known Arabic text (1st century AD)

Answer 5

• Discovered in Faw (South of Arabian Peninsula)
• Letters look more like Petra/Phoenician alphabet but definitely Arabic because of:
  -> vocab
  -> syntax
  -> grammatical elements

Question 6

The Koran - First Versions

Answer 6

• First ever Arabic book
• Transmitted orally by Prophet Muhammad
• Verses later gathered and written after his death
• Absence of dots and diacritical marks (for short vowel sounds) - double letters instead caused confusion

Question 7

The Koran - Later Versions

Answer 7

~ 700 AD: caliph asked scholars to find solution to confusion wrought by double letters
Solutions:
Creation of new letters by adding dots to existing ones
Addition of diacritical marks [harakat] to letters as vowel sounds

Question 8

Sibawayh & Al-Kitaab (late 8th century)

Answer 8

• Converted Persian
• Established first and only Arabic grammar (> 150 years after Islam - 1,300 years old)
• Still same used today though syntax and vocabulary have changed

Question 9

Hierarchy of Sibawayh’s Grammar Bases

Answer 9

1. Daily Bedouin language
2. Poetry
3. Koran
4. Hadith
5. Proverbs and idiomatic expressions
6. Ad-hoc grammarian creations