Classical Arabic (CA), also known as Qur'anic or Koranic Arabic, is the form of the Arabic language used in literary texts from Umayyad and Abbasid times (7th to 9th centuries). It is based on the Medieval dialects of Arab tribes. Modern Standard Arabic (MSA) is the direct descendent used today throughout the Arab World in writing and in formal speaking, for example, prepared speeches, some radio broadcasts, and non-entertaining content.[1] While the lexis and stylistics of Modern Standard Arabic are different from Classical Arabic, the morphology and syntax have remained basically unchanged (though MSA uses a subset of the syntactic structures available in CA).[2] The vernacular dialects, however, have changed more dramatically.[3] Both CA and MSA are normally called al-Fuṣ-ḥā (الفصحى‎) in Arabic, meaning 'the clearly spoken one' or the 'language of eloquence'.

Because the Qur'an is written in Classical Arabic, the language is considered by most Muslims to be sacred.[4] It is the only language in which Muslims recite their prayers, regardless of what language they use in everyday life.

Contents

History

Classical Arabic has its origins in the central and northern parts of the Arabian Peninsula, and is distinct from Old South Arabian languages that were spoken in the southern parts of the peninsula, modern day Yemen.[5] The oldest inscription so far discovered in Classical Arabic goes back to 328 CE and is known as the Namārah inscription, written in the Nabataean alphabet and named after the place where it was found in southern Syria in April 1901 by two French archaeologists, René Dussaud and Frédéric Macler.[6]

With the spread of Islam, Classical Arabic became a prominent language of scholarship and religious devotion as the language of the Qur'an (at times even spreading faster than the religion).[7] Its relation to modern dialects is somewhat analogous to the relationship of Latin and the Romance languages or Middle Chinese and the modern Chinese languages.

Morphology

Classical Arabic is one of the Semitic languages, and therefore has many similarities in conjugation and pronunciation to Hebrew, Akkadian, Aramaic, and Amharic. Its use of vowels to modify a base group of consonants resembles similar constructions in Biblical Hebrew.

For example:

These words all have some relationship with writing, and all of them contain the three consonants KTB. This group of consonants k-t-b is called a "root." Grammarians assume that this root carries a basic meaning of writing, which encompasses all objects or actions involving writing, and so, therefore, all the above words are regarded as modified forms of this root, and are "obtained" or "derived" in some way from it.

Grammar

Main article: Arabic grammar

Grammar in Arabic (قواعد‎, meaning "rules"), underwent development in the late 700s.[8][9] The earliest known Arabic grammarian is ʻAbd Allāh ibn Abī Isḥāq. The efforts of three proceeding generations of grammarians culminated in the book of the Persian scholar Sibāwayhi.

Phonology

See also: Arabic phonology

Classical Arabic had three pairs of long and short vowels: /a/, /i/, and /u/. The following table illustrates this:

Vowels Short Long
High /i/ /u/ /iː/ /uː/
Low /a/ /aː/

Like Modern Standard Arabic, Classical Arabic had 28 consonant phonemes:

Classical Arabic consonant phonemes[10]
Bilabial Inter- dental Dental Palatal Velar Uvular Pharyn- geal Glottal
plain emphatic
Nasal m n
Plosive voiceless t tˤ k q ʔ
voiced b d ɟ2
Fricative voiceless f θ s1 sˤ ç χ ħ h
voiced ð z ðˤ ʁ ʕ
Lateral l3 ɬˤ
Trill r
Approximant j w
  1. Non-emphatic /s/ may have actually been [ʃ],[11] shifting forward in the mouth before or simultaneously with the fronting of the palatals (see below).
  2. As it derives from proto-semitic *g, /ɟ/ may have been a palatalized velar: /gʲ/
  3. /l/ is emphatic ([lˁ]) only in /ʔalˁːɑːh/, the name of God, i.e. Allah,[12] except after i or ī when it is unemphatic: bismi l-lāh /bismillaːh/ ('in the name of God').

The consonants traditionally termed "emphatic" /tˤ, ɬˤ, sˤ, ðˤ/ were either velarised [tˠ, ɬˠ, sˠ, ðˠ] or pharyngealised [tˤ, ɬˤ, sˤ, ðˤ].[13] In some transcription systems, emphasis is shown by capitalizing the letter, for example, /sˁ/ is written ‹S›; in others the letter is underlined or has a dot below it, for example, ‹ṣ›.

There are a number of phonetic changes between Classical Arabic and modern Arabic dialects. These include:[14]

See Arabic alphabet for further details of the IPA representations of contemporary Arabic sounds.

Special symbols

A variety of special symbols exist in the Classical Arabic of the Qur'an that are usually absent in most written forms of Arabic. Many of these serve as aids for readers attempting to accurately pronounce the Classical Arabic found in the Qur'an. They may also indicate prostrations (Sujud), surahs (Ayah), or the ends of chapters (Rub al Hizb).

Qur'anic annotation signs
Code Glyph Name
06D6 ۖ SMALL HIGH LIGATURE SAD WITH LAM WITH ALIF MAKSURA
06D7 ۗ SMALL HIGH LIGATURE QAF WITH LAM WITH ALIF MAKSURA
06D8 ۘ SMALL HIGH MEEM INITIAL FORM
06D9 ۙ SMALL HIGH LAM ALIF
06DA ۚ SMALL HIGH JEEM
06DB ۛ SMALL HIGH THREE DOTS
06DC ۜ SMALL HIGH SEEN
06DD ۝ END OF AYAH
06DE ۞ START OF RUB AL HIZB
06DF ۟ SMALL HIGH ROUNDED ZERO
06E0 ۠ SMALL HIGH UPRIGHT RECTANGULAR ZERO
06E1 ۡ SMALL HIGH DOTLESS HEAD OF KHAH = Arabic jazm • used in some Qur'ans to mark absence of a vowel
06E2 ۢ SMALL HIGH MEEM ISOLATED FORM
06E3 ۣ SMALL LOW SEEN
06E4 ۤ SMALL HIGH MADDA
06E5 ۥ SMALL WAW
06E6 ۦ SMALL YAA
06E7 ۧ ARABIC SMALL HIGH YAA
06E8 ۨ SMALL HIGH NOON
06E9 ۩ PLACE OF SAJDAH
06EA ۪ EMPTY CENTRE LOW STOP
06EB ۫ EMPTY CENTRE HIGH STOP
06EC ۬ ROUNDED HIGH STOP WITH FILLED CENTRE
06ED ۭ SMALL LOW MEEM
From: Unicode Standard - Arabic

Notes

  1. ^ (Bin-Muqbil 2006, p. 14)
  2. ^ (Bin-Muqbil 2006, p. 15)
  3. ^ (Watson 2002, p. 8)
  4. ^ "Arabic Language," Microsoft Encarta Online Encyclopedia 2009. "Classical Arabic, which has many archaic words, is the sacred language of Islam..."
  5. ^ "The Collapse of the Marib Dam and the Origin of the Arabs". Arabia Felix. March 30, 2005. Archived from the original on February 9, 2008. http://web.archive.org/web/20080209193302/http://www.arabia-felix.com/printer_20.html.
  6. ^ James A. Bellamy (1985). "A New Reading of the Namārah Inscription". Journal of the American Oriental Society (American Oriental Society) 105 (1): 31–51. doi:10.2307/601538. http://www.jstor.org/stable/601538.
  7. ^ (Watson 2002, p. 8)
  8. ^ Goodchild, Philip. Difference in Philosophy of Religion, 2003. Page 153.
  9. ^ Sayce, Archibald Henry. Introduction to the Science of Language, 1880. Page 28.
  10. ^ (Watson 2002, p. 13)
  11. ^ (Watson 2002, p. 15)
  12. ^ (Watson 2002, p. 16)
  13. ^ (Watson 2002, p. 2)
  14. ^ (Watson 2002, p. 15-17)

References

See also

External links

Links to related articles
Arabic · العربية
Overviews Language · Alphabet · History · Transliteration · Numerology · Influence on other languages
Alphabet Western numerals · Eastern numerals · Diacritics · Hamza
Letters ʾAlif · Bāʾ · Tāʾ · Ṯāʾ · Ǧīm · Ḥāʾ · Ḫāʾ · Dāl · Ḏāl · Rāʾ · Zayn · Sīn · Šīn · Ṣād · Ḍād · Ṭāʾ · Ẓāʾ · ʿAyn · Ġain · Fāʾ · Qāf · Kāf · Lām · Mīm · Nūn · Hāʾ · Wāw · Yāʾ
Eras Ancient North Arabian · Classical · Modern
Major varieties Modern Standard Arabic (formal) · Maghrebi · Egyptian · Sudanese · Levantine · Arabian · Iraqi · Judeo-Arabic
Academic Literature · Names
Calligraphy and scripts Naskh · Kufic · Thuluth · Ruq'ah · Diwani · Muhaqqaq · Maghrebi · Hejazi · Mashq · Jawi
Linguistics Phonology · Sun and moon letters · ʼIʻrab (inflection) · IPA · Grammar · Triliteral root · Mater lectionis
Varieties of Arabic
Pre-Muslim conquests Ancient North Arabian† (Safaitic†, Lihyanitic†, Thamudic†, Hasaitic†) · Classical Arabic
Modern Literary Variety Modern Standard Arabic
Maghreb Moroccan Arabic · Algerian Arabic · Tunisian Arabic · Andalusian Arabic† · Libyan Arabic · Jebli Arabic · Jijel Arabic · Saharan Arabic · Hassānīya · Darija
Levant Lebanese Arabic · Syrian Arabic · North Syrian Arabic · Palestinian Arabic · Bedawi Arabic · Cypriot Maronite Arabic
Mesopotamia Iraqi Arabic (Baghdad Arabic) · North Mesopotamian Arabic
Arabia Gulf Arabic · Bahrani Arabic · Najdi Arabic · Hejazi Arabic · Sharqi Arabic · Yemeni Arabic · Hadhrami Arabic · Dhofari Arabic · Omani Arabic · Shihhi Arabic
Nile Valley Egyptian Arabic · Sa'idi Arabic · Sudanese Arabic
Peripheral Nigerian Arabic . Chadian Arabic · Khuzestani Arabic · Shirvani Arabic† · Central Asian Arabic · Tajiki Arabic · Uzbeki Arabic
Judeo-Arabic Judeo-Moroccan Arabic · Judeo-Yemeni Arabic · Judeo-Iraqi Arabic (Baghdad Arabic (Jewish)) · Judeo-Tripolitanian Arabic · Judeo-Tunisian Arabic
Italo-Maltese Maltese · Siculo-Arabic†
Creoles Nubi language · Babalia Creole Arabic · Juba Arabic
† Extinct

Categories: Arabic languages | Classical languages

 

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