Classical Arabic

Encyclopedia : C : CL : CLA : Classical Arabic

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Classical Arabic is the form of the Arabic language used in the Qur'an as well as in numerous literary texts from the same period. Modern Standard Arabic is a modern version, differing minimally in morphology and only to a small degree in its syntax and lexicon.

Classical Arabic is often believed to be the parent language of all the spoken varieties of Arabic, but recent scholarship, such as Clive Holes (2004), questions this view, showing that other dialects were extant at the time and may be the origin of current spoken varieties.

History

Classical Arabic spread with the spread of Islam, becoming a language of scholarship and religious devotion as the language of the Qur'an. 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 Amharaic. It possesses similar conjugation to biblical Hebrew in its use of vowels to modify a base group of consonants. For example, k-t-b means write, so out of this cluster, we get:

• kataba, to write
• yaktubu, he writes
• kitāb, book
• kutub, some books
• maktaba, library
• miktāb, writing machine

Phonology

There are three short vowels and three long vowels in Arabic, being A, I, and U in two different lengths each. The following table illustrates this:

Vowels	Short		Long
High	[i]	[u]	[i:]	[u:]
Low	a [a]		ā [a:]

There are as many consonant phonemes in Classical Arabic as there are in the modern form. They are:

Classical Arabic consonant phonemes

		Bilabial	Inter- dental	Dental		Post- alveolar	Palatal	Velar	Uvular	Pharyn- geal	Glottal
				plain	emphatic
Stop	voiceless			{{IPA				{{IPA	{{IPA		{{IPA
	voiced	{{IPA		{{IPA
Fricative	voiceless	{{IPA	{{IPA	{{IPA		{{IPA		{{IPA		{{IPA	{{IPA
	voiced		{{IPA	{{IPA				{{IPA		{{IPA
Nasal		{{IPA		{{IPA
Lateral				{{IPA ²
Trill
Approximant		{{IPA

See Arabic alphabet for further explanation of the IPA phonetic symbols found in this chart.

1. In modern Arabic, [dʒ] is pronounced as [ɡ] by some speakers. This is especially characteristic of the Egyptian and southern Yemeni dialects. In many parts of North Africa and in the Levant, it is pronounced as [ʒ]. However, the true classical pronunciation is [dʒ].
2. /l/ is pronounced [lˁ] only in /ʔalˁːɑːh/, the name of God, i.e. Allah, when the word follows a, ā, u or ū (after i or ī it is unvelarised: bismi l-lāh /bɪsmɪlːæːh/).
3. /ʕ/ is usually a phonetic approximant.
4. In many varieties (if not most), /ħ, ʕ/ are actually epiglottal [ʜ, ʢ] (despite what is reported in many earlier works). However, in classical Arabic, they are pronounced as pharyngeals.

The consonants traditionally termed "emphatic" /tˁ, dˁ, sˁ, ðˁ/ are either velarised [tˠ, dˠ, sˠ, ðˠ] or pharyngealised [tˁ, dˁ, sˁ, ðˁ]. In some transcription systems, emphasis is shown by capitalizing the letter e.g. /dˁ/ is written ‹D›; in others the letter is underlined or has a dot below it e.g. ‹ḍ›.

Pronunciation of Saad

The main difference of pronunciation between classical Arabic and Modern Arabic is in the pronunciation of 'Saad', which is the emphatic "s" in Arabic. In Classical Arabic 'saad' was sometimes voiced making it an emphatic "z". The emphatic "z" is widely used in pronouncing the consonant 'DHaa', which in classical usage is correctly an emphatic "dh" sound.

Classical pronunciation

Overall, pronunciation of Classical Arabic differs from pronunciation of Modern Arabic in the following ways:

1. In Classical Arabic, different sounds are elided. Generally, Classical Arabic pronounces every letter, but there are exceptions governed by complex rules; for example, the final -r is silent in the words baḥr (بحر) and ǧisr (جسر).
2. Sentence-final -an (marking an indefinite noun in the accusative case) is pronounced -aa.
3. Post-vocalic n sounds are sometimes suppressed; when this happens, the previous vowel is nasalized. This is governed by various rules.
4. Classical Arabic is pronounced more slowly.
5. The letter ǧīm (ﺝ) is pronounced differently. It can be pronounced as /g/ in classicalisms, but usually this pronunciation is attributed to the non-traditional Arabs (to Spanish characters in Andalus-related dramas, or to Byzantine kings). It is never pronounced /ʒ/.
6. The letter kāf (ﻙ) is sometimes voiced, producing a /g/ sound; however, this is not done if ǧīm ﺝ is being pronounced /g/.

Bibliography

• Holes, Clive (2004) Modern Arabic: Structures, Functions, and Varieties Georgetown University Press. ISBN 1589010221

• Versteegh, Kees (2001) The Arabic Language Edinburgh University Press ISBN 0748614362 (Ch.5 available in link below)

See also

• Arabic Language
• Fusha (language)
• Modern Standard Arabic
• Egyptian Arabic

External links

• [The Development of Classical Arabic]

 

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