Spread of the Arabic language in the world. Arabic is one of the most difficult languages ​​in the world

MacawbskylanguagesTo (Arab. اللغة العربية‎‎, al-luġa al-ʿarabiyya) - Belongs to the Semitic branch of the Afroasiatic family of languages. One of the most basic languages ​​of religion and literature in the world. The language of the greatest book of the Islamic world, the QURAN and a monument of medieval Arabic literature, “Tales of the Thousand and One Nights” (الف ليلة وليلة‎‎ alf laila wa-laila), united by the story of King Shahryar and his wife named Shahrazada (Scheherazade, Scheherazade). The numbers we are all familiar with from 0, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8 and 9 are in Arabic. These figures originated in India (no later than the 5th century), and became known to Europe in the 10th-13th centuries. based on Arabic works (hence the name).

Arabic in the broadest sense of the word - unification large quantity various oral forms (dialects) formed over the last fifteen hundred years.

The first epigraphic (mainly on stone) monuments Arabic- These are messages about the movement of fellow tribesmen, shepherds with herds of camels, as well as gravestone and dedicatory inscriptions. IN pre-Islamic period such inscriptions used the Nabataean script (derived from Aramaic) or a variation of the South Arabian (Mabean) script. During this period, the Arabian Peninsula had an expressive poetic language transmitted only orally. Partially based on this poetic language Koran. And to this day, he conveyed to us a picture of what a text consisting of only consonants can look like, subsequently supplemented with vowels located above and below the text. In its final form, the Arabic script was based on the Nabataean script in mid 7th century AD. during the period of recordings of the Koran (the first written monument of the common Arabic language).

Period 8-12 centuries. in history Arabic characterized by its unification, standardization, development of literary and written genres and styles, development of classical poetry, artistic and scientific prose. Arabic is becoming the international language of literature and science in the Near and Middle East. The greatest scientists of the medieval East created their works on it: al-Farabi (870-950) from Tupkestan, Avicenna (Ibn Sina, 980-1037) originally from Bukhara, al-Biruni (973-c. 1050) from Khorezm, Averroes (Ibn Rushd, 1126-1198), native of Andalusia.

The next period in development and modernization Arabic became turn of the 18th-19th centuries., when economic contacts between the Arab East and the West intensified. The development of printing, the emergence of the press and, accordingly, new genres of journalism, the emergence of new fiction, drama and poetry become the most important factor in the development Arabic and its adaptation to new requirements of social, cultural and scientific life. Development of new means mass media and communications in the 20th century contribute to further modernization Arabic.

Modern period characterized by the active penetration of Western European technical terminology into the Arabic vocabulary. Despite the purist activities of Arabic language academies in many countries, in modern Arabic New international scientific and technical terms penetrate, tracings of standard phrases and phrases characteristic of the press and mass media are formed.

Modern colloquial Arabic falls into 5 groups of dialects, which are actually separate languages ​​from a linguistic point of view:

Maghreb group of dialects (these are the countries located to the west of Egypt: from west to east: Mauritania, Western Sahara, Morocco, Algeria, Tunisia, Libya. Translated from Arabic, Al-Maghrib means “the country where the sun sets” or “The West” .

Egyptian-Sudanese group of dialects;

Syro-Mesopotamian group of dialects;

Arabian group of dialects;

Central Asian group of dialects;

The first one belongs to the Western group, the rest - to the Eastern group of Arabic languages/dialects.

But the concept spoken Arabic"(PARADY) does not exist, but they use the concept of "Arabic literary language" ( ALYA). ALYA is the language of communication and writing; radio and television broadcasts are conducted in it, newspapers are published, books are published (in Tunisia, Morocco and Algeria, along with French), it is the language of the intelligentsia. Without it it is impossible to imagine the life of a civilized Arab society. Often Arabs from different countries when talking among themselves, they switch to ALA to avoid misunderstandings. ALA grammar is based on formulas. With some effort, Arabic writing can be studied, and the grammar of ASL is simpler and more logical than many Western languages, especially the Finno-Ugric family of languages: Finnish, Hungarian). For students you should know that the main advantage ALYA is that it is understandable in any Arab country. No matter what Arab country you are in, you will always be able to explain yourself. A person who speaks ALA or any dialect of Arabic commands great respect from native speakers.

ALA in its ideal form is practically not used in speech at home or in the family, between friends or in informal situations; this area is almost exclusively assigned to the local dialect. ALA remains predominantly a written language; in oral speech it can be considered a variant Spoken Standard Arabic(RAYA) (one of the Arabic names عامية المثقفين ʻāmmiyat al-"muthaqqafīn lit. "speak of the educated"). The term itself has not yet been established in Arabic studies. This variety is a grammatically simplified version of ALA with some elements of local dialects. Colloquial standard more common in the countries of the Persian Gulf and the Levant (the dialects of the Levant are themselves very close to AL), but sometimes the speech of educated Egyptians and residents of the Maghreb is also called this way. Some special radio programs, television, cinematography, taking into account the audience, refer to PARADISE.

Cultural and historical influence Arabic can be traced in many languages ​​of Asia and Africa. This was facilitated by the spread of Islam and the high cultural status of ALYA.

The question is which option ( ALA or dialect) is more preferable for study by foreigners does not have a clear answer. Depending on the specific needs and applied purpose of training, everyone decides this issue individually. In Russia, teaching Arabic mainly begins with the literary language.

P.S. Classical By and large, it is not very different from Old Arabic. When comparing the roots of Semitic languages, it is clear that they are all the same as classical Arabic. Therefore, Arabic occupies a central place among all Semitic languages. For a long time Many Semitic scholars viewed Classical Arabic as the original Semitic language. Only over time, through comparison with other Afroasiatic languages, it was established that much in classical Arabic is not as original as was thought.

About the features of writing. Based on the Arabic alphabet. Arabic is written from right to left. Moreover, in Arabic, unlike languages ​​​​with Latin and Cyrillic graphics, there is no capital letters- therefore, proper names are written with a small letter, as well as the first word in a sentence. Punctuation marks are written upside down, that is, from left to right. Instead underlining, italics or détente Arabs usually use underlining. Fractional word wrapping to another line is not allowed; empty space in a line is eliminated by stretching the letter. In cursive writing, an unwritten word ends with an upward turn. The Arabic alphabet is derived from the Phoenician alphabet, incorporating all its letters and adding letters that reflect specifically Arabic sounds. These letters are sa, ha, zal, dad, for, gain.

Interesting facts. There are a considerable number of Arabic words in the Russian language, where they came through intermediary languages: Latin, Western European, Persian, Turkish. In addition to exoticisms like genie, jihad, vizier, qadi, some names are Arabic in origin stars and constellations: Aldebaran, Altair; a number of scientific terms: algebra and alcohol via Spanish, number and zero(sifr, Arabic - zero) through European, algorithm from the Latinized form of the name of the mathematician al-Khwarizmi, the name military rank admiral from Dutch and going back to Arabic emir of the sea (amiriI=bahri), and from seas nothing remained in the form of words, but sound appeared d as a result of "folk etymology" linking the word to Latin admirer(to be amazed).

Most of us love coffee. One of the ways to prepare it is Turkish coffee. They cook it in cezve, another name Turk. Word cezve Arabic origin: tour. Cezve from Arabic جذوة . Traditionally made from hammered copper.

P.S. We apologize to specialists in the field of language for a simplified presentation of some issues of the origin of language, its development and characteristics. It is written for a “non-linguistic” audience with an interest in foreign languages.

The modern world is conventionally divided into several parts, characterized by certain features. Western and Eastern, European and Arab cultures have their own geopolitical “link”. Today, the term “Arab countries” refers to states where the bulk of the population speaks Arabic.

Unification of Arab States

22 such countries united into an international organization - the League of Arab States. The total area of ​​the territory where the Arabic-speaking population lives is approximately 13 million km 2. This formation is located in the zone of connection of three continents - Asia, Africa and Europe. Thus, the Arab countries represent practically a single geocultural space, located from the Persian Gulf to the Atlantic Ocean, the majority of the population of which has Arab roots.

Linguistic and cultural characteristics

The main formative element of any Arab state is the language and culture developing on its basis. Today such a culture is open and exposed to others, such as Indian, Mongolian, Andalusian. However, Western traditions have the strongest influence.

Religion

In the Arab community, religion such as Islam plays a dual role. On the one hand, it unites Arabs in social and political life, and on the other, it causes disagreements and even armed conflicts between supporters of different movements within. It should be understood that Arab and Muslim countries are not identical concepts. Not all Arab states in the world profess Islam; in some, several religious denominations coexist at the same time. In addition, it should be remembered that Muslim countries also include those where the majority of residents are not Arabs.

Islam is a powerful cultural factor, thanks to which, along with language, the entire Arab world is united, but it can also divide and lead to bloody wars.

Countries of the Arab world

There are 23 Arab countries in total, a list of which is presented below:

• Republic of Djibouti;
• Algerian Republic;
• Kingdom of Bahrain;
• Kingdom of Jordan;
• Arab Republic of Egypt;
• Republic of Yemen;
• Republic of Iraq;
• Lebanese Republic;
• Union of Comoros;
• State of Kuwait;
• State of Qatar;
• Syrian Arab Republic;
• State of Libya;
• Islamic Republic of Mauritania;
• Kingdom of Morocco;
• Oman;
• Saudi Arabia;
• Republic of South Sudan;
• Federal Republic of Somalia;
• Republic of Tunisia;
• Sahrawi Arab Democratic Republic (Western Sahara);
• Autonomous region of Palestine.

It should be noted that not all Arab countries, the list of which is presented, are recognized by other states. Thus, the Sahrawi Arab Democratic Republic, which is not part of the League of Arab States (LAS), is officially recognized by only fifty countries in the world. Moroccan authorities exercise control over most of its territories.

In addition, the state of Palestine, which is part of the Arab League, is recognized by 129 states. In this country there are two without common border areas: Gaza Strip and West Bank.

The countries of the Arab world are geographically divided into three large groups:

African (Maghreb);

Arabian;

Eastern Mediterranean.

Let's briefly look at each of them.

Arabic or Maghreb

In the strict sense, only those states located to the west of Egypt are called Maghreb (West). However, today it is customary to call all North African Arab countries such as Mauritania, Libya, Morocco, Tunisia and Algeria. Egypt itself is considered the center, the heart of the entire Arab world and is part of the Great Maghreb Arc. Besides it, it includes such countries as Morocco, Tunisia, Algeria, Mauritania, Libya and

Countries of the Arabian Peninsula

The largest peninsula on our planet is the Arabian. It is where most of the oil supplying countries are located. For example, consisting of seven independent states. In addition, it is on its territory that countries leading in oil production such as Yemen, Saudi Arabia, Oman, Kuwait, Bahrain, and Qatar are located. In earlier times, countries located on the Arabian Peninsula acted only as transit and intermediate points on trade routes leading to Iraq and Iran. Today, thanks to the huge oil reserves discovered in the middle of the last century, each of the Arab countries of the Arabian region has its own significant political, strategic and economic weight.

In addition, the countries located in the Persian Gulf are historical centers of the birth and development of Islam, from where it spread to other regions.

Eastern Mediterranean countries

The East Mediterranean Asian region, called Mashriq, includes such countries of the Arab East as the Republic of Iraq, the Kingdom of Jordan, Syria, Libya and Palestine, which has only autonomous status. Since the formation of the State of Israel in the late forties of the twentieth century, Mashriq has been the most restless, almost constantly warring zone of the Arab world. Throughout the twentieth century, Arab-Israeli wars and conflicts constantly took place here. Let us dwell in more detail on such Eastern Mediterranean states as Iraq, Jordan and Palestine.

Republic of Iraq

This Arab state is located in the valleys of the Euphrates and Tigris rivers, in the Mesopotamian lowland, and is washed from the southeast by the waters of the Persian Gulf. The country borders Kuwait, Iran, Turkey, Syria, Saudi Arabia and Jordan. Armenians are located in the north and northeast of Iraq and are characterized by high seismic activity.

The country of Iraq, of which Baghdad is the capital, is the second largest Arab country in the Eastern Mediterranean and Middle Eastern region, with a population of more than 16 million people.

The revolution of 1958 led to the fall of the monarchy in this country, and since 1963, the Arab Socialist Renaissance Party (PASV) began to gain increasing political power. As a result of a fierce struggle in the sixties of the last century, this party came to power in 1979, led by S. Hussein. This event became a significant stage in the life of the state. It was this politician who managed to eliminate all his rivals and establish a regime of totalitarian power. Hussein, by liberalizing economic policy and uniting the nation around the idea of ​​a “common enemy,” managed to ensure the growth of his own popularity and gain almost unlimited power.

Under his leadership, Iraq launched a war against Iran in 1980, which lasted until 1988. The turning point was 2003, when US-led coalition forces invaded Iraq, resulting in the execution of Saddam Hussein. The consequences of this invasion are still felt today. The once strong country has become a huge battlefield, in which there is neither developed industry nor peace.

Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan

In southwest Asia, at the northwestern tip of the Arabian Peninsula, west of Iraq and south of the Syrian Republic, the Kingdom of Jordan is located. A map of the country clearly shows that almost its entire territory consists of desert plateaus and various hills and mountains. Jordan borders Saudi Arabia, Iraq, Syria, Israel and the autonomous region of Palestine. The country has access to the Red Sea. The capital of the state is Amman. In addition, we can highlight the large cities of Zarqa and Irbid.

From 1953 to 1999, until his death, the country was ruled by King Hussein. Today the kingdom is led by his son, Abdullah II, who is a representative of the Hashemite dynasty and, as is commonly believed, one of the direct descendants of the Prophet Muhammad in the 43rd generation. As a rule, the ruler in Arab countries has unlimited influence, but in Jordan the power of the monarch is regulated by the Constitution and Parliament.

Today this is the most peaceful territory of the Arab East in all respects. The main income of this country comes from tourism, as well as assistance from other, wealthier Arab states.

Palestine

This autonomous region The eastern Mediterranean consists of two non-adjacent regions: the Gaza Strip, bordering Israel and Egypt, and which only touches Jordan on the east, and is surrounded on all other sides by Israeli territory. Naturally, Palestine is divided into several regions: a fertile lowland located along the Mediterranean coast, and a hilly highland to the east. In the very east of the country the steppes begin, gradually turning into the Syrian Desert.

In 1988, after many Arab-Israeli military conflicts and the abandonment of claims to Palestinian territories by Jordan and Egypt, the Palestinian National Council declared the creation of an independent state. The first president of the autonomy was the legendary Yasser Arafat, after whose death, in 2005, Mahmoud Abbas, who is still in power today, was elected to this post. Today, the ruling party in the Gaza Strip is Hamas, which came to power as a result of winning the elections in this autonomy. In the West Bank he controls the entire government activities Palestinian National Authority.

Relations between Palestine and Israel are in an extremely tense state and are permanently turning into armed confrontation. The borders of the Palestinian state are controlled from almost all sides by the Israeli armed forces.

Mentions of the peoples of the Arabian Desert, called “Arabs,” are found in Assyrian military chronicles of the 8th–7th centuries. BC, in biblical texts of the 9th century. BC, in epigraphic texts of the ancient states of South Arabia (1st millennium BC - mid-1st millennium AD), in ancient authors (for example, in Herodotus, 5th century BC .). Among the native speakers themselves, the name “Arabs” and “Arabic” for themselves and their language has been fixed since the emergence and spread of Islam. The first use of the name “Arabic language” in Arabic sources is noted in the Koran (mid-7th century AD).

Arabic is spoken in Iraq, Syria, Lebanon, Israel, Jordan, Kuwait, Saudi Arabia, United Arab Emirates, Oman, Yemen, Egypt, Sudan, Libya, Tunisia, Algeria, Morocco, Mauritania, Western Sahara, Somalia, Djibouti, Republic of Chad . "Islets" Arabic dialects They are also found in the territories of neighboring African states, in Turkey, Cyprus, Iran, Afghanistan, and Central Asia (Uzbekistan).

Literary form of Arabic(LAY) is the official language of all Arab countries, one of the official and working languages ​​of the UN. The Maltese dialect of Arabic has a literary and written form that is different from LAYA, and is the only Arabic dialect that is considered an independent language; in Malta it has state status. The total Arabic-speaking population currently stands at different sources, from 190 to 250 million people.

The first written monument of the common Arabic language is the Koran, written down in the mid-7th century. AD The sacred nature of the text of the Koran has determined the preservation of all its linguistic features without significant changes to the present day. In the 8th–9th centuries. AD Monuments of oral tribal poetry were also recorded. Literary form of the language during the 8th–10th centuries. AD improves in the written field in scientific and educated circles of society. In connection with the consolidation of Arab society, the formation of the Muslim community, the spread of Islam, the formation of the state, administration and army, a colloquial common Arabic language such as Koine was formed. However, over the centuries, the spoken form of the language gradually acquires territorial characteristics and breaks up into many different dialects.

Currently Arabic dialects are classified according to two main parameters – social and territorial. According to social characteristics, they are divided into nomadic and sedentary, and the latter, in turn, into urban and rural. The social division of dialects is superimposed by geographical division. Geographically modern Arabic dialects are divided into two large groups: eastern (Mashriq), consisting of four subgroups - Mesopotamian, Arabian, Central Arab and Egyptian-Sudanese - and western (Maghrebian, or North African). The eastern group also includes the “island” Arabic dialects of Central Asia.

The oral-conversational form (RAYA), represented in each case by the local dialect, serves everyday spheres of communication at all levels: family, production, trade, households and on the street; it has long been used in oral folk art (for example, the texts of the fairy tales of 1001 nights, recorded in the 14th–16th centuries in Egypt, are characterized by signs of urban spoken language).

A similar relationship existed for several centuries between Church Slavonic and Russian in Rus' and exists in a number of other regions of the world.

The cultural and historical influence of the Arabic language can be traced in many languages ​​of Asia and Africa. This was facilitated by the spread of Islam, as well as the high cultural status of LAYA, which has a developed system of general and special terminology for many areas of social, scientific and cultural life.

A considerable number of words of Arabic origin are also in the Russian language, where they came, as a rule, through intermediary languages: Latin, Western European, Persian, Turkish. In addition to exoticisms such as genie, jihad, vizier, qadi, etc., some names of stars and constellations are Arabic in origin (Aldebaran, Altair - from Arabic 'al=Dabaran, 'al=Ta'ir), a number of scientific terms (algebra, alcohol - through Spanish, number zero - through European, from Arabic 'zero'; algorithm - from the Latinized form of the name of the mathematician al-Khorezmi).

In turn, already early monuments of the Arabic language testify to a wide layer of cultural borrowings from the neighboring Semitic languages ​​of South Arabia, from the Aramaic languages ​​of Syria and Mesopotamia, from Middle Persian, Greek and Latin. Later, borrowings from Persian and Turkish appeared. The modern period is characterized by the active penetration into the Arabic vocabulary of Western European technical terminology, new international scientific and technical terms, tracings of standard phrases and phrases of mass communication.

From all of the above it is clear that the work Arabists-translators is complicated by the fact that in addition to texts written in the common Arabic literary language, it is also necessary to translate nationally colored oral speech. When selecting a translator to fulfill a particular order, our translation agency Ramses tries to take into account Which Arabic dialect does the translator speak?.

Today, many translators study or improve the language in Arab countries, which gives them the opportunity to master not only literary Arabic, but also the spoken dialect characteristic of the region. It is this knowledge that helps the translator in the future to perform both written and oral translations quickly and efficiently.

About 240 million people speak Arabic as their native language. It is distributed in more than 30 countries around the world. It is spoken in Afghanistan, Algeria, Morocco, Egypt, Tunisia, UAE, Saudi Arabia, Bahrain, Chad, Somalia, Cyprus, Eritrea, Iran, Iraq, Israel, Lebanon, Libya, Kuwait, Syria, Oman, Qatar, Yemen and more many other countries.

As you can see, this is a very common language. Despite the fact that it is considered one of the most. But this, naturally, is from the point of view of Europeans, although it is not easy for the Arabs themselves.

The Arabic language seems unusual and incredibly complex to Europeans due to some of its features. The first thing that catches your eye is the writing is from right to left, and not vice versa, as is customary in our country. The letter itself, the so-called “Arabic script,” is also unusual.

It is interesting that Arabs write letters from right to left, but vice versa, from left to right. And the numbers themselves also differ from those we use. For the first time, when I came across the fact that in Arab countries they use other numbers, I was very surprised, because all my life I thought our numbers were Arabic, because that’s what they are called. But it turned out that the Arabs themselves use completely different ones and call them Indian. This is such a paradox.

Interestingly, each country has its own dialect. Therefore, Arabs from different countries may not understand each other at all.

The Arabic language has more than 30 dialects, including:

Maghreb dialects (the Maghreb includes: Morocco, Algeria, Tunisia, Mauritania, Western Sahara, Libya), Egyptian-Sudanese Arabic, Arabian dialects, Syro-Mesopotamian dialect, Central Asian dialects.

But there is classical Arabic, the language in which the Koran is written. This language differs from spoken dialects in that it has a more complex structure and is somewhat archaic. He was protected from modern changes, so he remained the same as he was thousands of years ago. Not everyone understands it, although, in theory, every Muslim should read the Koran in its original source.

There is also a standard literary Arabic language, which is understandable in all Arab countries. It is in this language that official documents are written, television programs are broadcast, and books are published.

The Arabic language has changed interestingly in Malta, where one of the Maghreb dialects has developed into a separate independent Maltese language. This happened largely because Christianity, not Islam, is the main religion there, so there is no such reverent attitude towards the “language of the Koran.”

Arabic has 28 letters and no capital letters, all letters are the same. Words cannot be tolerated. Punctuation marks are written from left to right. Short vowels are not written, but are indicated by dots. Abjad writing type of Arabic. Most letters change shape depending on where they are in the word.

Not so long ago, in many languages ​​(where Islam predominated) the Arabic script was used, then it was replaced by the Latin and Cyrillic alphabet. These are, for example, Turkish, Kyrgyz, Kazakh, Tajik, Tatar, etc. At the beginning of the 20th century, Latinization and Cyrillization of languages ​​were carried out.

In all Arab countries, Arabic is the state language; there are countries, for example the Maghreb countries, where, along with Arabic, the state language is French. Arabic is also the official language of countries such as Israel, Chad, Eritrea, Djibouti, Somalia, Comoros, Somaliland.

Arabic is one of the six official languages ​​of the UN. Well, and, of course, this is the language in which the Koran is written.

,
Comoros,
Kuwait,
Lebanon,
Libya,
Mauritania,
Morocco,
UAE,
Oman,
Eritrea,
Saudi Arabia,
Syria,
Somalia,
Sudan,
Tunisia,
Chad,
SADR
() ,
State of Palestine
(partially recognized state)
Somaliland
(unrecognized state).
Organizations:
UN,
African Union,
OIS,
LAG,
GCC,
Agadir Agreement
Regulatory organizations: Royal Moroccan Academy (Morocco), Academy of the Arabic Language (Egypt), Academy of the Arabic Language in Damascus (Syria), Jordan Academy of the Arabic Language (Jordan), Iraqi Scientific Academy in Baghdad (Iraq), Academy of the Arabic Language in Khurtum (Sudan), House of Wisdom Foundation (Tunisia), Academy of the Arabic Language in Jamahiriya (Libya), Israeli Academy of the Arabic Language (Israel).

from 260 to 323 million

Arabic (Arab. اللغة العربية ‎‎, al-luġa al-ʿarabiyya listen)) belongs to the Semitic branch of the Afroasiatic family of languages. The number of speakers of Arabic and its variants is approximately 240 million (mother tongue), and another 50 million use Arabic as a second language. Classical Arabic, the language of the Qur'an, is used to a limited extent for religious purposes by adherents of Islam around the world (total population of 1.57 billion people).

Dialects

Modern spoken Arabic falls into 5 groups of dialects, which are actually separate languages ​​from a linguistic point of view:

• Maghreb dialect group
• Egyptian-Sudanese Arabic
• Syro-Mesopotamian Arabic
• Arabian group of dialects (="language")
• Central Asian group of dialects (="language")

The Maghreb language belongs to the Western group, the rest - to the Eastern group of Arabic languages ​​and dialects. (See "language or dialect" problem); It is preferable to use the well-established term “dialect” in Arabic studies ( Arab. لهجة ‎‎)

Literary language (in Western Arabic studies the term English is used. Modern Standard Arabic- modern standard Arabic ) - unified. Literary Arabic combines the vocabulary for many things in the modern world or science, but at the same time, in some Arab countries it is quite rarely used in spoken language.

Place of Arabic in the Semitic language group

Classical Arabic differs little from Old Arabic. Many roots of Semitic languages ​​are also found in Arabic. In Semitic studies, there has in the past been a tendency to regard Classical Arabic as the most archaic of the Semitic languages. However, over time, through comparison with other Afroasiatic languages, it was found that much in classical Arabic is not so original.

Story

Over the centuries, the language has constantly changed, which, however, has had little effect on writing, because short vowel sounds, except in the Koran, are not written in the text.

Classical (high) Arabic is not the native language of Arabs today. However, even today, with a modified vocabulary, it is used in almost all newspapers and books, with the exception of Tunisia, Morocco and partly Algeria, where Arabic shares the role of a literary language with French. In scientific and technical literature in other Arab countries, English is often used in places where the necessary vocabulary is lacking. The language is sometimes ironically called Modern High Arabic.

Vocabulary composition

The vocabulary of the modern Arabic literary language is characterized by the fact that its main part is originally Arabic. “The Arabs highly value the word-formation capabilities of their language, seeing the richness and clarity of word-formation paradigms as the key to adapting the Arabic literary language to current state society. Moreover, it should be noted that in modern nomination processes, the most active models are those with a high generalization index. Thus, recently the vocabulary of the Arabic literary language has been significantly replenished by derivative names formed by adding the suffix ية-, which forms a derivative series with the meaning of generalized abstract qualities and properties: استقلالية independence; حركية dynamism, dynamics; شمولية maximalism; totalitarianism; اشكلالية - problem, etc.” . Some part of the vocabulary is general Semitic and only a small part is foreign, such as the words: “TV” - تِلِيفِزْيُونْ [tilifizyon], دكتورة title of doctor, سكرتير secretary, فيلم film. The total number of borrowings from European languages ​​is small and amounts to about one percent of the dictionary.

For the Arabic literary language, four large synchronous sections of vocabulary development are distinguished: the pre-Muslim vocabulary of the communal-tribal system (late 7th and early 8th centuries); expansion of the vocabulary associated with the origin, development and prosperity of the medieval Arabic-speaking civilization (until the 12th century); the period of stagnation and reduction in the range of use of the Arabic literary language (XIII-XVIII centuries) and the beginning of the modern period (from mid-19th V.) .

Synonymy, polysemy of words and homonymy have become widely developed in the Arabic language. The main methods of word formation are: morphological - according to word-formation models and formulas, syntactic and semantic.

Despite the fact that the vocabulary is very rich, it is often not sufficiently standardized and is often overloaded with linguistic background. For example, there is no word that quite accurately corresponds to the word nation. The word used to denote this concept is (أمة‎, umma) meaning in the past, and in a religious context to this day, “a community of believers (Muslims)”; or, for example, “nationality” (جنسية ‎, jinsiya) generally means “gender,” for example, sex life sounds like (حياة الجنسية ‎, haya: t al-jinsiyya). The word "nationalism" (قومية ‎, Qaumiyya), comes originally from vocabulary nomads kaum and means "tribe" in the sense of "nomadic tribe".

Phonetics

Phonetically, literary Arabic is characterized by a widely developed system of consonantal phonemes, especially glottal, emphatic and interdental.

“In the phonetic sections of grammatical works, either only the articulations of Arabic sounds were described, or also their combinatorial changes. The Indian system of sound classification, based on taking into account the place of articulation and other articulatory features, had a significant influence on the Arabs. The technique of comparing sounds in articulatory and functional terms was used. Avicenna introduced the concept of correlation to establish relationships between sounds. Cases of gemination were classified as the result of complete progressive or regressive contact assimilation. Partial and distant assimilation was described. Questions were studied about the interaction of consonants and vowels, about the replacement of consonants, about metathesis, about the loss of hamza, about elision, about the emergence of a connecting vowel, about palatalization, velarization, about sound symbolism.”

Pronunciation

In many Arab countries, efforts are currently being made to bring pronunciation closer to standard Arabic. The basis is the quotation norm (Ar. tilāwa تلاوة‎) of the Koran. This style of pronunciation is generally used only in religious contexts.

It can be said with certainty that the original pronunciation of High Arabic is not exactly known. For example, there is no consensus on the pronunciation of the ending un indefinite nouns ( kitabun Ave. kitab). There are arguments in favor of two options, and since there were no vowel marks (vowel marks) in the ancient handwritten script, it is impossible to say with certainty how it was pronounced.

Writing

Arabic is written from right to left. Moreover, in Arabic, unlike languages ​​​​with Latin or Cyrillic graphics, there are no capital letters, so proper names are written like any other word, as well as the first word in a sentence.

Anthroponymy

Arabic names are traditionally written in literal order.

Grammar

“Arab scholars usually divided grammar into syntax, morphology and phonetics and paid considerable attention to issues of word formation, and in connection with it etymology, thanks to which the root theory reached a high level in the 11th century. Syntax and morphology represent the most original parts of Arabic grammar, not having sources neither in Greek nor in Indian works and focused on the specifics of the Arabic language.

The task of syntax was the structural and semantic analysis of the sentence. It postulated subject-predicate relations between two names or between a name and a verb. There were small/elementary sentences and large ones forming a hierarchy; sentences are nominal, verbal and adverbial - depending on what word is at the beginning of the sentence, and accordingly there are different types of subjects and predicates. Secondary members of the sentence were identified and classified in detail (up to five types of additions, circumstances different types, "applications"). There were different cases of formal and virtual implementation of inflections. The concept of an implied term was introduced to explain the construction. The relationships of coordination, control and adjacency were also analyzed.

In morphology, parts of speech and features of their formation that are not determined syntactically were considered. This included questions such as parts of speech (noun, verb and particles of up to 27 types), root structure, names and their multidimensional classification on different grounds (explicit names - nouns, adjectives, hidden names - personal pronouns, common names - demonstrative and relative pronouns, etc.), verbs (with a detailed classification of their forms and meanings), two-case and three-case names, the formation of relative names, the formation of composites, the formation of number and gender forms, the formation of deminitives, changes in the form of a word due to the presence of weak root consonants , pause forms, etc. The issue of masdar was also discussed here.

Particularly great successes were achieved in phonetics (Khalil ibn Ahmad; Abu Ali ibn Sina - Avicenna, 980-1037; Sibavaihi).

The Arabic language is characterized by highly developed inflection. (The inflectivity and similarity of inflection of Semitic and Indo-European languages ​​has been questioned by some researchers. The inflection of Indo-European languages ​​is a different phenomenon from the inflection of Semitic languages, since it implies a stronger interaction of inflection with the root. The Arabic language is characterized by agglutination. Some scientists, in particular, A. A. Reformatsky, believe that the fusion of Semitic languages ​​is special shape agglutination, since the fusion of a Semitic word is a predictable process and follows relatively strict formulas, which Arabic authors like to present using the three-letter root فعل with the meaning do and the vowels themselves that form a fusion are, as a rule, independent of the root. A similar, but not analogous, phenomenon has been observed in a number of non-Semitic languages, in particular Germanic. These are, for example, pairs of singular and plural words in English like foot - feet, tooth - teeth or changes in root vowels in irregular verbs English or so-called strong verbs German language, but in Germanic languages ​​there is no regularity in the reproduction of so-called fusional formulas. Most words in Arabic can be traced back to the original form of the verb, which usually consists of three- or four- (rarely two- and five-) root consonants.

Although the root is indivisible for the speaker’s consciousness, some familiarity with parsing the root is useful for facilitating the memorization of such an extensive root vocabulary as the Arabic language is endowed with, and for the feasible interpretation of unfamiliar roots when reading without a dictionary.

Root word

The Arabic root is most often three-letter, less often two- or four-letter, and even less often five-letter; but already for a four-letter root there is a requirement that it contain at least one of the smooth consonants (vox memoriae (memory): مُرْ بِنَفْلٍ).

According to the famous domestic Arabist S. S. Maisel, the number of triconsonant roots in the modern Arabic literary language is 82% of the total number of Arabic roots.

Not just any consonants can participate in the composition of a root: some of them are compatible in the same root (more precisely, in the same cell; see below: b), others are incompatible.

Incompatible:

1. Laryngeal: غ ع خ ح (if ع and ء are compatible)
2. Non-laryngeal:

ب and فم

ت and ث

ث and س ص ض ط ظ

ج and ف ق ك

خ and ظقك

د and ذ

ذ and ص ض ط ظ

ر and ل

ز and ض ص ظ

س and ص ض

ش and ض ل

ص and ض ط ظ

ض and ط ظ

ط and ظ ك

ظ and غ ق

غ and ق ك

ق and كغ

ل and ن

This feature of the composition of the Arabic root makes the task somewhat easier for those reading the manuscript without dots; for example, the spelling of حعفر ‎ should be جَعْفَر ‎

It should be noted that the translation of the cases الرَّفْعُ, الجَرُّ and النَّصْبُ is very conditional, since the genitive and accusative cases of the Arabic language include names that, when translated, can appear in any of the remaining three cases of the Russian language:

قَطَعَ زَيْدٌ اَلْحَبْلَ بِالسِّكِّينِ - الجَرُّ Zeid cut the rope with a knife (instrumental case)

We talked about studying (prepositional case)

قُلْ لِمُحَمَّدٍ - الجَرُّ Tell Muhammad (dative case)

قَاوَمَ اَلشَّعْبُ اَلْمُسْتَعْمِرِينَ - اَلنَّصْبُ The people fought against the colonialists (instrumental case)

The signs by which the case is recognized are different and they depend on the morphological features of the name.

Noun

A noun in Arabic is characterized by such morphological concepts as gender, number - singular, dual (very rarely used in dialects) and plural, case and state, as well as the categories of definiteness, uncertainty and neutral status.

Genus. There are only two genders in Arabic: masculine and feminine. For names with a characteristic ending [atun], the feminine gender is often characteristic. In general, whether a name belongs to one gender or another is associated with meaning, for example, with gender.

For example, the noun أُمٌّ ["ummun]-(mother), despite its ending is feminine. For many nouns denoting the name of a profession or type of activity, the feminine gender is formed simply by adding the ending [-atun] to the corresponding masculine noun. For example:

To convey feminine endings in a letter, ﺓ [tā’ marbuta], a letter that is not in the alphabet, is used. It is a graphic variant of the usual ت [t], which is called [tā’], or “stretched t”. By connecting the ends of the “stretched t” to each other, we get ﺓ [tā’ marbuta]. In Semitic languages ​​[t] is one of the main indicators of gender. When agreeing with names, ت is used in verbs, and ﺓ in names. [tā’ marbuta] is written only at the end of a word and can have two styles: without a connection - ﺓ ‎ and with a connection on the right - ﺔ ‎.

Verb

The verb is characterized by a great development of verb forms, called breeds: a unified conjugation system for all verbs; a developed system of tense forms (three simple and three complex tenses); two voices (active and passive); five moods (indicative, subjunctive, conditional, imperative and reinforced); a system of verbal names associated with breeds (the so-called “masdars”).

A verb denotes an action or state of a person or thing and acts as a predicate in a sentence. The most common type of Arabic verb is the three-consonant verb. Three consonants standing next to each other and voiced by fatha (the middle radical can also be voiced by damma or kasra) represent a 3rd person masculine verb singular past tense. This verb form has the formula فَعَلَ. As the simplest, this form is taken as the initial one in the formation of derivative forms and is conventionally translated in dictionaries by the infinitive. When conjugating an Arabic verb, personal pronouns are omitted, since person, number and gender are quite fully expressed in personal endings.

Past tense of verb - The past tense of an Arabic verb serves to express an action that occurred before the moment of speech, and is formed by replacing the ending of the 3rd person singular masculine with the corresponding personal endings. The Arabic verb, unlike the Russian one, does not receive a clear aspectual meaning in the past tense form, and therefore, depending on the meaning of the sentence, it can be translated either by the perfect form or by the imperfect form of the Russian verb. For example:كَتَبَ “he wrote” or “he wrote.”

Present-future tense Arabic verb expresses an action that is incomplete in nature, occurring or beginning simultaneously with the moment of speech or with some other moment directly or indirectly indicated in this statement. The present-future form is formed from the past tense by adding the appropriate prefixes and endings; in this case, the first radical loses its vowel (a sukun appears above it), and the second receives fatha, damma or kasra, which is called a typical vowel and is indicated in dictionaries by the corresponding letter (a, i, y), placed in brackets after the verb.

Future verb tense is formed on the basis of the present tense form by adding the prefix سوف to it [saufa] or its abbreviated version س [sa]. Unlike س, written with verb form together, سوف is written with it separately. Both prefixes have no independent meaning. The conjugation of the verb in this tense form is basically similar to the conjugation in the present-future tense.

In modern Arabic, especially in periodicals, a verb of the second type, formed from the prefix سوف, is actively used, as well as masdar of this verb تسويف, in the meaning of “endless delay”, “constant postponement for an indefinite future” in relation to any plans, promises or obligations, for example, election ones, etc.].

Most common words

The three most common words are particles that are written together with the next word. These include الـ ‎ al(definite article), و ‎ va(conjunction “and”), and بـ ‎ bi(preposition “through”).

Eight Most Common Single Words

1. في ‎ fi(V)
2. من ‎ min(from, from)
3. على ‎ " ala(on)
4. أن ‎ Anna(what (conjunction))
5. إن ‎ Inna(truly)
6. إلى ‎ silt(to, to, to)
7. كان ‎ ka: on(be)
8. هذا، هذه ‎ ha:a, ha:pihi(this[t], this)