Questions tagged [arabic]

The literary language and language varieties spoken from the Middle East to North Africa of the Afro-Asiatic language family

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How and when was the name of Somalia written with س in Iran?

In Arab world Somalia is written with ص. They call it صومال. But in Iran where people use so many Arabic words in a daily basis without misspelling them, write Somalia with س. They write it سومالی. ...
Snack Exchange's user avatar
4 votes
3 answers
153 views

What types of Arabic word were never adopted in Persian?

The Persian lexicon has a very large number of Arabic borrowings, including a small portion of very frequently used ones, and a larger portion of Arabic vocables seemingly spanning across all semantic ...
earlyinthemorning's user avatar
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2 answers
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Do we know how many distinct syllables are there in Arabic?

This answer cites some numbers for the count of distinct syllables of a couple of languages. And I read on brilliant.org that more distinct syllables mean more knowledge transfered per second. Is ...
Saeed Neamati's user avatar
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Multiple plurals per inflectional paradigm slot (Arabic)

Lexemes are generally associated with inflectional paradigms; let us take a nominal for the purpose of this discussion, and more specifically an Arabic nominal. Let's say that we are dealing with a ...
chriscay's user avatar
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Determining factor for the default inflection of a noun

In Arabic, a noun can have three different inflections depending on its role in a given sentence. For example, for the word "book", it can be kitabun, or kitaban, or kitabin. The default ...
blackened's user avatar
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How to "remove diacritics" from Arabic text in unicode? [closed]

I have put together this CodePen with a rendering demonstrating how I am "stripping diacritics" from Arabic text. Here is the main code doing the stripping: const map = { 'آ': 'ا', 'أ': '...
Lance's user avatar
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What are the high and low letters in the Unicode Arabic block?

For example, we have: ٴ : high hamza, as opposed to regular hamza ء ء: small high meem, as opposed to regular meem م U+0616: ARABIC SMALL HIGH LIGATURE ALEF WITH LAM WITH YEH U+0615: ARABIC SMALL ...
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Strange vowel harmony in Arabic loanwords within Turkish—why could it be?

Some Arabic loanwords have a palatalised, for example, /lʲ/ in final position, and it is more understandable in the case of those words. However, some others go against vowel harmony for no apparent ...
murshad's user avatar
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What tribal/regional Yemeni arabic dialects and/or modern south Arabian languages or crioles do SFO and OAK Bay Area Yemeni imigrants speak most?

I think I've noticed near-homogeneity, in SF and Oakland bodegas. But there are reasons to doubt that. I'm interested in: The most common Yemeni lects (or three most commonly natively used, for ...
Ayer AGG'TDd'E-A's user avatar
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1 answer
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How did so many Arabic letters converge to hold the same shape?

Here one can see that the letter groups خ ح ج and several others are identical if not for the dots. In this pair, two are vaguely H-sounding, the other was formerly some form of palatalised G, which I ...
murshad's user avatar
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Numbers in Arabic Netspeak

I came across this list of numbers to represent sounds in Arabic netspeak: 2 is A 3 is a heavy (so heavy) A, sure you can't even pronounce it but you could replace with a regular A, no one would care ...
Mou某's user avatar
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In Arabic what is the difference in the usage of the perfect tense negative and imperfect tense jussive.(as their translation is same in English.) [closed]

For eg : لَمْ يَكْتُبْ and مَا کَتَبَ both means "he did not write." So how would I know which one i should use?
Rumi Shaikh's user avatar
4 votes
1 answer
361 views

Do classical Arabic verb forms have a passive-active relationship like some Hebrew "buildings" do?

In Hebrew, the 7 verb forms (or "buildings") can be associated into passive-active pairs, e.g. Pa'al - Nif'al, Hef'il-Huf'al, Pi'el-Pu'al (and Hitpa'el on its own). So we can say e.g. "...
Amos Joshua's user avatar
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What is the evidence that pre-Islamic Arabic had a plural of majesty?

I'm starting to read the Quran and I've found many theologians argue about God referring to himself in the plural, mainly claiming it is a plural of majesty (example: M. A. S. Abdel Haleem's ...
K Pomykala's user avatar
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2 answers
160 views

With the use of diacritics, is the Arabic abjad a shallow orthography?

The Arabic script is an abjad. Without diacritics, short vowels are inferred and so pronunciation may be different to what is expected. But if diacritics are used, they signify exactly how each word ...
VideoCarp's user avatar
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How is "mim(م)" letter connected to "dal(د)"?

Whenever I go to mosque, there is always the following image near "ﷲ" name. However, I don't understand how "mim" letter is there. I know "mim" letter as "م". ...
Soner from The Ottoman Empire's user avatar
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1 answer
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Origin of بطريق

I read here that the Arabic word بطريق (penguin) ultimately derives from Latin patricius (patrician), through Greek and Aramaic, but I couldn't find any explanation of how and why the shift in meaning ...
UndefinedBehavior's user avatar
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2 answers
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Does موجود is a Modern Standard Arabic word? [closed]

Does موجود is a Modern Standard Arabic word which is originated from وَجَدَ after the revelation of Quran because موجود is not mentioned anywhere in Quran?
Bilal Khan's user avatar
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Why some triphthongs are retained orthographically in Arabic, but not others

According to Ahmad Al-Jallad's "A manual of the historical grammar of Arabic", a sound change from old to classical Arabic was the collapse of triphthongs. These triphthongs are sometimes ...
Quintus Caesius - RM's user avatar
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1 answer
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Reading suggestions on the historic development of the Arabic language

Specifically, I am looking for something: That isn't just an introduction, but neither a comprehensive "everything we can currently say on the topic" kind of text. That goes back to about ...
Quintus Caesius - RM's user avatar
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1 answer
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What is the etymology of the Maghrebi interjection "شاه" (chah or cheh)?

At least in the Maghreb, there is a word to say "serves [somebody] right!", i.e. "!شاه" or "ccah!" in Berber form. I'm struggling to find its etymology. Although it might ...
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How many *Non-Native* speakers of Egyptian Arabic are there world wide?

Every time I try to look this up, it always gives me the number for native speakers. I'm not looking for that. I specifically want to know how prevalent Egyptian Arabic is as a second language around ...
RexxiA's user avatar
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2 answers
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What is the difference between ðˤ and ðʕ in Arabic?

I am wondering if the emphatic and pharyngealized sounds of Arabic are the same thing as the letter followed by /ʕ/. So ðˤ, sˤ, tˤ, and dˤ would be ðʕ, sʕ, tʕ, and dʕ. If it's not the case, can you ...
Lance's user avatar
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What does this engraving say? [closed]

This is some text engraved in a grill, and I was wondering what it says. https://i.stack.imgur.com/aeakL.jpg
Wonderingwhale's user avatar
7 votes
1 answer
174 views

Distinction between Chemistry and Alchemy in Arabic and Farsi languages

According to Wikipedia, in Europe the semantic distinction between the rational science of chimia and the occult alchimia arose in the early 18th century. So it seems like there was a need to separate ...
ali's user avatar
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Would it be correct to replace ۃ with ہ in Urdu?

What would be the right way to normalize the Arabic Tāʼ marbūṭah character in Urdu loan words from Arabic/Farsi? Would it be correct to replace ۃ with ہ (gōl hē)? Or can we replace ۃ with ط (t̤oʼē) ? ...
Gōkúl NC's user avatar
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1 answer
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How is the Filipino expression “salamat” related to the Arabic?

Salamat in Filipino means “thank you”. In the Arabic form, the word is in the feminine plural salāmat سلامت from the singular salāmah . Salamat in Arabic is equivalent to peace and blessings (a ...
Ere's user avatar
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The connection between ركن and corner [closed]

The arabic word ركن /rukn/ and the English word corner /ˈkɔɹnɚ/. Is there any connections between them?
Hesham Haroon's user avatar
1 vote
2 answers
134 views

Does this rule apply to reading in Arabic in general or only to reading the Qur'an?

The lam at the beginning of words is of two types: the lam that accepts the sukun and is clearly read and the lam that does not accept the sukun and is not read but simply written. Does this rule ...
edmond90 desert's user avatar
15 votes
5 answers
6k views

Why do Arabic names still have their meanings?

As someone born in Britain whose first language is English, but with origins in Pakistan and an understanding of both Punjabi and Arabic, it's always seemed to me that most modern Arabic names are ...
Hashim Aziz's user avatar
2 votes
2 answers
260 views

Is this Wikipedia Arabic dialects map correct about Badawi Arabic, and what is Badawi Arabic?

This map is from Wikipedia's Varieties of Arabic page. On the northern half of the western Red Sea coast, as well as most of Sinai and Israel, it seems to indicate that "Badawi" Arabic is ...
Gabi's user avatar
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1 answer
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Arabic grammar: The difference between the terms raf` and marfu'

I have begun to learn Arabic, and the difference between following terms confuse me. There is this topic of ʾirāb—the science which deals with how the Arabic noun inflects with respect to its ...
blackened's user avatar
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10 votes
1 answer
668 views

Can or has the comparative method be used in current Arabic dialects to reconstruct Classical Arabic?

The comparative method has been used in modern Romance languages to piece together Vulgar Latin and Proto Romance. Has the same been done for the modern Arabic dialects to recreate the last descendant ...
LS_115's user avatar
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1 answer
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Is Arabiv ی is romanized/transliterated as u with a line above it?

As you can see in this link, Banu Hashem is not بنوهاشم, but بنی هاشم in Arabic. But u is used mostly for و and not for ی. I'm puzzled here and I can't find a good answer for this. Could you please ...
Saeed Neamati's user avatar
0 votes
1 answer
115 views

How to differenciate the long vowels from the actual letters in arabic?

I'm learning beginner in arabic and I can't find a proper grammar rule to figure it out. There is a lot of lessons on long vowels but they are totally disjointed from the question "How to ...
Axiome's user avatar
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2 votes
2 answers
275 views

Amharic Emphatics vs Arabic pharyngeals

I grew up speaking Arabic, and I am very comfortable with sounds like ص,ط,ض, etc. However, I was looking at Amharic out of curiosity, and noticed that in place of these pharyngeals, Amharic has ...
Breaking Bioinformatics's user avatar
1 vote
1 answer
364 views

What is the origin of the word assassin?

I discussed this recently with some friends and different explanations regarding the words etymology were mentioned. I did some research and confirmed these two: from Arab. aššāšīn "hashish ...
Matthias Mohr's user avatar
5 votes
1 answer
139 views

Is there evidence for accentuation in Classical Arabic?

Wright's A grammar of the Arabic language lays out claims for where the stress should be in §§28-31. Most of the claims are connectable (in my experience) to contemporary renditions of Classical ...
user6726's user avatar
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4 votes
1 answer
596 views

Origin of the ا that ends the past tense of Arabic verbs for هُم?

Arabic has a lot of intricate (finicky) qualities, but one of the things that's very nice about it is that spelling is usually phonemic (with the consonants and long vowels, anyway). But the وا at the ...
Breaking Bioinformatics's user avatar
6 votes
1 answer
345 views

Can Semitic (Hebrew & Arabic) roots have vowels?

To the best of my knowledge, roots in Semitic, both Arabic & Hebrew, do not contain vowels. They are purely consonantal at the base. I read this a couple of years ago about Hebrew in Levin & ...
Tsutsu's user avatar
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2 votes
1 answer
379 views

Does my fictional use of Arabic honorifics match real-word usage?

I asked this question on the World Building Stack Exchange yesterday. My question was closed fairly quickly, but people seemed to think that, nevertheless, it was an interesting question, and someone ...
Tom Hosker's user avatar
5 votes
0 answers
136 views

Etymology of initial "g-" in Sicilian "giurana" (frog)

Most Romance words for "frog" derive from Latin rana (e.g. es. rana, it. rana, pt. rã. See also va. renoc ("toad")). However, an unexpected initial g- appears in the cognates of several Gallo-: fr. ...
iacobo's user avatar
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-2 votes
2 answers
136 views

Is it straightforward to map Arabic script to romanized pronunciation?

I am not concerned with the exact IPA pronunciation, which might depend on dialect and culture and other factors. Instead I'm wondering if it's relatively straightforward to "transliterate" Arabic ...
Lance's user avatar
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1 answer
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I read the Quran syllable by syllable but I don't know where a word begins and where it ends.If I knew that I could translate them from the dictionary [closed]

Salaam aleikum. I have learned the entire Arabic alphabet. And also the harakat and long vowels. But I have a big problem. I read the Quran syllable by syllable but I don't know where a word begins ...
edmond90 desert's user avatar
-2 votes
2 answers
141 views

Is saying or typing "one-hundred and twenty two" using Arabic numbers? [closed]

While thinking just now, it struck me that it's not immediately obvious to me whether "one-hundred and twenty two", spoken or written, can be considered using Arabic numbers (122). Is there something ...
Raymond's user avatar
1 vote
1 answer
148 views

Where can I find the letters of documented writing systems, as text, online?

I was looking for the letters of the Safaitic writing system of Ancient North Arabian (ANA) as text, online. Safaitic is a well documented and researched writing system that was a prominent (if not ...
user avatar
2 votes
2 answers
274 views

How similar are the prototype writing systems of Ugarit-Tyre ("Phoenician") and Safaitic?

I understand that that in the ancient Levant, two main writing system patterns were used by the different peoples of the region: Phoenician and Ancient North Arabian. I further understand that both ...
user avatar
-2 votes
1 answer
190 views

Is there is a theory according to which both West Asian and East Asian form a sprachbund?

I have noticed that Southwest Asian Languages (SWAL) such as Arabic and Hebrew and Southeast Asian languages (SEAL) such as Thai and Vietnamese and maybe also others, tend to share usage of different ...
user avatar
1 vote
1 answer
114 views

Spoken Arabic dictionary/corpus?

Is there an existing corpus or dictionary for different spoken Arabic dialects? I'd like to look up a word (in English or MSA or in a spoken dialect) and find where this word or phrase is spoken (and ...
VirtualValentin's user avatar
2 votes
2 answers
566 views

Is there a name for the form "فعلان" (faʿlan)?

I've noticed the form فعلان (faʿlan) seems to imply emphasis, like in رحمان (raḥmân) which seems to means "All-Merciful". This form seems to exist in other Semitic languages like Hebrew (maybe רַבָּן, ...
Amessihel's user avatar
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