A History of the Arabic Language - Term Paper Example

?ARABIC LANGUAGE, NADJI ARABIC ARABIC: Arabic language is one of the most spoken languages around the world today. Its extensive growth is mainly dueto the spread of Islam. Before the emergence of Islam, Arabic was used by a small number of people, usually by the nomad tribes in the Arabic peninsula. But it was after the rise of Islam, that Arabic became the official language of the boundaries stretched between the Oxus River to the Iberian peninsula of Europe. ARABIC AND ISLAM Arabic as a major language became important after the rise of Islam. Thus the early form of Arabic can be gathered from the Quran, as it used to be written down in Arabic, the classical poetry and the descriptive work written on the life of the Prophet P.B.U.H. This classical Arabic later evolved into standard Arabic used today, however there is no much work done on the spoken language. ARABIC AS A SEMITIC LANGUAGE: Arabic Language belongs to the family of the Semitic language. The members of the Semitic language have history that dates back to thousands of years, and is enriches with knowledge. These languages prospered in the Mediterranean Basin, and it is therefore that Arabic language is sometimes taken as Proto- Semitic. Thus Arabic is considered to be the descendant of the Semitic Arabic language, used in the 6th century. The roots of the Arabic language lie between the Afro- Asiatic groups of languages. Since being a member of the Semitic family it is related to Hebrew and Neo- Aramaic language and is also associated with the south Semitic languages of Ethiopia, Yemen and Oman. There are many varieties and dialects of written and spoken Arabic language. There are many forms or states of the Arabic language, constituting mainly on ethnic and political backgrounds. If these varieties are considered as one single language then the Arabic language has around 340 million speakers. These varieties include Fusha or Standard Arabic, Mudaric Arabic, Namra, Quranic Arabic and many more (Brian Bishop, 1998). Arabic is the only remaining member of the Old North Arabic Dialect, having a rich background and inscriptions dating back to the 4th century. Arabic is written by using Arabic alphabet or fonts, which is written from right-to-left. Arabic language is a very old and rich language, which has formed the basis of many other languages such as Persian, Turkish, Urdu, Hindi etc. Because of the Muslim rule in Spain, which was for 700 years, the influence of Arabic language can be seen in Spanish and Roman languages. Not only that, Arabic has borrowed words from many languages such as Hebrew, Greek, and Syrian etc. The fast surfacing and spread of Arabic language was mainly due to the fact that the speakers of the Arabic language became political figures and thus unlike other Semitic languages which fossilized with time, Arabic language emerged as a leading language of the Arabian Peninsula. Arabic language is unique and important for many historians as it has preserved a large majority of the original Proto-Semitic features .According to many linguists, Arabic is important source of information as it is the only Semitic language which has preserved features of Proto-Semitic (i.e. Hebrew or Amharic) in the Afro-Asiatic group of languages).Hence, the Modern Arabic is also thought to be part of the Arabo-Canaanite sub-branch the central group of the Western Semitic languages. CHANGES WITH MODERN TIMES Arabic language has three cases, which are the nominative, the accusative and the genitive. While writing any Arabic word 28 letters are used along with some foreign words. The long vowels that are “a, i and u” are represented by the Arabic letters 'alif, ya' and waw respectively. From the modern standard Arabic to the earliest Proto Semitic Arabic many changes have occurred with time. These changes are mainly in terms of phonology, syntax and lastly morphology. Phonology is the sound or the pronunciation of a word. The proto –Semitic is characterized by a six vowel system composed of three long which are explained above and three short. Furthermore, it has pharyngeal fricative consonants which is the consonantal sound, used in many spoken languages, the use of the glottal stop as a phoneme, the addition of the semivowels as consonant and lastly the existence of three classes of consonants which are voiced, voiceless, and emphatic consonants. Modern Arabic has each of the above described Proto-Semitic features included (Bruce Ingham, 1994). When discussing about the changes happened in Proto- Semitic to modern Arabic in terms of morphology, many features needs to be discussed. Arabic contains many elements of Proto- Semitic languages. These included several points. The words had to be composed of a consonantal root on which a scheme of vowels would be made. An example of this would be the root ktb is one such root from many other words was derived. Like, maktaba means library or a place where all the writings are kept or stored or k_tib means writer. Using the same root, but varying the vowels and supplementary consonants many words can be created. Infixation is more regularly used rather than prefixes or suffixes. The singular, dual, and plural, were used with nouns, verbs, and adjectives and the use of the two grammatical genders i.e. masculine and feminine were always to be distinguished according to nouns and adjectives. The numbers of consonants utilized by the roots are mostly three rather than two. The modern standard Arabic follows these major principles of the proto- Semitic languages. The syntax of the proto Semitic are still unclear and according to many linguists the Proto- Semitic was the same as the modern Arabic language today. No major changes have been made, except for the minor in phonographs. An example to that can be that in Proto-Semitic o has become s and *th has been replaced with z. These changes happen because the Muslim or Arabic speakers travelled to many places conquered many lands and thus this language got the influence of many lands. The native languages of that land influenced Arabic language and thus created many dialects such as Egyptian Arabic, Maghrebi Arabic, Mesopotamian Arabic, Levantine Arabic, gulf Arabic and many others. There are several thousand spoken dialects of modern Arabic, which may not preserve the features of Proto- Semitic languages. NAJD A GEOGRAPHICAL BACK GROUND The Arabian Peninsula has been populated by the Arabs since 1000 BC. The Arabian Peninsula is made up of various regions depending upon geographical or ethnical changes between them. These include Hijaz, Yemen, Oman, East Arabia and Najid. Hijaz is the mountainous range on the west and is important because it is considered to be the Land of Holy Cities of Islam. To the south west is Yemen, which too has mountainous range but enjoys monsoon season as well. Thus it makes it one of the most agricultural lands of the area. In the south east of Yemen is yet another mountainous range of Oman, having rich culture and history. The East Arabia is also known as the Gulf Coast and has always held an important place in history. Between these, in the centre lie the oases of Nejed (or Najd). The word Najid means “Highlands”. Geographically, it was an archipelago in the desert, having concentration wells which provided permanent settlement to the people. Surround this oases was the desert, thus this land became important for the little agriculture and trade (Kusters, 1996). Nomads began to settle in this place, initially being 600 in number. These Bedouins or Nomads travelled long distances in search for pasture land. Thus this tribe became the basic unit for trade and power in Najid. They had their own sheep and goats, which would graze on the green land. The life style and the culture of this land is closely related to that of Bedouins. The territory of Najid has always been isolated from any outer influence. The people of this land would send merchants to other parts such as Egypt, Mesopotamia and Syria. The native population of Najid was mostly Arabic Tribes constituting on Nomads or traders and merchants, who would travel on their camels to various places to sell goods. The remaining population consisted of Arabs who did not belong to any particular tribe, but had settled down and were worked as craftsmen. A small population was built on Africans or south Europeans, which worked as slaves. DIALECTS OF NAJDI ARABIC The people of the Najd tribe spoke Arabic. The dialect of Arabic differed from the rest as the Arabian Peninsula had different dialects of Arabic spoken. The Najdi Arabic is the descendant of Bedouin Arabic, i.e. the dialect of the nomads and the Bedouins. The Najdi dialect or Najdic Arabic has no major foreign influence on it. Because of its geographical isolation it has maintained its true essence and originality to this date. GROUPS OF NAJDIC ARABIC: Najdi Arabic can be classified into four groups, which are as follows: 1. The northern Najdi, which is spoken in regions of Najd especially in Zulfi, Qaseem and Jabal Shammar 2. Central Najdi commonly known as urban Najdi which is spoken in Riyadh and towns and villages surrounding it. 3. The southern Najdi that is used in the city of Kharj and its nearby towns. 4. Lastly, the Badawi Najdi which is spoken by the nomadic tribes of Najd. Badawi Najdi is also spoken in neighboring countries of Jordan, Syria, and Iraq. NAJDI PHONOLOGY: As we have discussed above that the classical or standard Arabic consists of root as a major part, to which infixes, suffixes or prefixes are inserted. The root act as the basic body, which is built up later according to the gender or number. The modification in the verb or conjugations depends upon the consonants used (Al-Sweel, 1987). PHONOLOGICAL PRELIMINARIES In Najdi Arabic, the phonology has varied a little from the classical or modern Arabic. These phonemic changes are basically inventions that have been made over the time. An example to that will be the d_ad and z_a have merged, and the i - u difference is often counterbalanced. These new phonemes act mostly as allophonic variants, although in some instances they have phonemic status. In Najdic Arabic we observe that only a few phonological changes are present, which do not exist in the classical Arabic. It is by principle that blocks forms with a word-final consonant cluster ending on /r, l, w, y, or n/. In these cases a vowel is introduced, for example in the word ts_abri/ s_abur, which means ‘my patience’/ ‘patience’. In bordering dialects i.e. in the dialect of the neighboring area this rule applies in more contexts. But the limited use of this rule is an indication of the Najdi Arabic. Studying the phonological rules of Najdi Arabic we find that it includes the vowel quality and affect voice and expression. These principles effectively make an i in an open syllable which is to be always a derived I However, the exact circumstances differ regionally like in the central Arabian dialects the conditions are more strict and conservative. The similar velar and post-velar fricatives are also not acceptable to appear syllable-finally when preceded by an a. Hence the results are as follows in, ya-ktib, ‘he writes’, but y-h_afir, ‘he digs’. AUGMENTATIONS In Najdi Arabic the categories of the syntax have remained the same, even the voices which are active and passive are still used. Three persons can still be distinguished and the use of genders is still done. The general structure of word build in Najdi Arabic is same as that of classical Arabic. But it is a fact that phonological rules differ in terms of quality of infixal vowels, employed in argumentation patterns. Versteegh is of the opinion that Najdi Arabic do differ from Classical patterns in terms of productivity. The productivity pattern is very much unknown in other dialects. There are various examples in this regard. When a t-prefix to verbs is added: C1v1:C2C3 _ tC1v1:C2C3. Its gives meaning of reciprocal e.g. ‘understand’_ tifa:himaw ‘they mutually understood each other’. It has been observed that in many dialects, the augmentation combinations are very twisting in their meanings. In a perfect form, it becomes a complete passive maker while in imperfect form, it shows complete potentiality just like Classical Arabic e.g. d_ibah_, ‘he killed’ _ yind_ibih_ ‘he is killed, he is killable’. In Najdi Arabic the extension of the root capitulate ten types of effectively derived forms, which are in correspondence with the classical Arabic augmentation. The basic patterns are same as that of the classical Arabic, however due to the phonological rules they tend to variate in the quality of infixal vowels. In Najdi, like in Classical Arabic there are almost four-consonantal verbs which develop analogously to the patterns. Najdi Arabic has its own productive pattern which is unfamiliar in other dialects or even in the Classical language. These are the, pre-fixation of n- and ta- (Kusters, 1996). USE OF ASPECT AND VOICE In many of the Arabic dialects such as that of Gulf or Iraq and even in classical Arabic, there is no internal passive, even though they are very closely related to the Najdi Arabic. Najdi Arabic, nonetheless, still exhibits voice and aspect due to the vowel quality of its stem vowels. However, as the vowel distinctions have reduced resulting in strong verbs that have also substituted an aspectual alternation of vowels e.g. sk_n/ yskon, PERF/ IMPERF, ‘he lived’. Active voice in Njadi Arabic is similar to classical Arabic where it is expressed as a low v1 vowel. It is raised in a lot of forms in the perfect with the help of the phonological short vowel raising rule, as in sakan -t _ sikan -t ‘dwell’, 1SG.ACT.PERF, or it is deleted when the CaC rule comes into application as in sakan -at _ skan -at, ‘dwell’. As far as v2 is concerned in active voice, it depends on the stem class and aspect as well. In imperfect intransitive and perfect transitive, v2 is always low while in all other cases v2 is high in its pitch. V2 has also been seemed to appear as sensitive in phonological rules e.g. the CiC rule yields s_arib -at _ s_arb -at, ‘drink’ the short vowel raising rule yields ti-h_bas-e:n _ ti-h_bis-e:n, ‘imprison’. Prochazka (1988: 33) says that CiC rule is morphologically and lexically sensitive e.g. ya-ktb-u:n versus yaktib-in, and ya-jils-u:n. MOOD SYSTEM: The mood system in which the Classical Arabic operated is has completely disappeared from Najdi Arabic. It has been replaced by the range of particles, modal elements and various other proverbs. Hopper and Traugott (1993) said that the items present today are generalized in nature and have converged into reduced forms by extending their meanings so far. The most grammaticalised form today being used is yabi ‘(future/intent) will’ is sometimes prefixed to the verb in a reduced form: tabi tru:h_i:n _ bi tru:h_i:n ‘you will go’. However, it is a fact that it has never been obligatory and yabi has not been used as a prefix with the forms of perfect aspect and mood has not been categorized as a verbal inflection. USE OF PERSON AND GENDER There are two sets of affixes, which are used to express first, second and third person i.e. masculine and feminine; singular and plural. The basic structure of Najdi Arabic has remained very similar to that of the Classical Arabic structure. Going in detail we see that in Classical Arabic the variation depends on the quality of the verb i.e. it’s weak or strong. Still, the Classical Arabic suffix which may differ only in phonology creates semantic changes in Najdi Arabic. An example to that be the suffix, -aw, that was only used in weak verbs in Classical Arabic, but in Najdi Arabic it is used in all verbs. In describing gender, the maintenance of a gender distinction in the plural a classic feature of the conservative Bedouin speech used in Arabic (Kusters, 1996) OBJECT CLITICS: Object clitics is another important aspect of northern Najdi Arabic. The system so far, of pronominal objects suffixes has been the same in all these years. However, the merger into phonological forms of verbs has been seen that has been initiated by vowel lengths and stress modifications. But the suffixes have changed so far, a little, in Najdi dialect. The singular clitics have something different symmetry where a vowel appears behind a consonant while the plural object clitics are connected to verbs and open up an epenthetic vowel when a verb ends on a consonant. Consonant-initial allomorph comes into contact for 1st and 2nd person when a verb ends on a vowel while for the 3rd person, when a verb ends on ‘a’, w appears otherwise there comes ‘h’ e.g. _sa:f-uh _sa:f-a-na, ‘he saw him’, ‘he saw us’; jib-tu _ jibtwah, ‘you brought her’ (Kusters, 1996). STEM CLASSES: Stem classes vary to some extent from classical Arabic to Najdi Arabic. Variations in consonantal structures induce allophony and allomorphy in the conjugation. It has been observed that in classic Arabic, the sequence that is observed is C2vC3. In which C2=C3 are totally neglected and v is eliminated at all. While comparing their non-doubled counterparts, these double verbs appear because of the fact that they are production of metathesis e.g. sakan-aw _ (CaC) skan-aw, ‘dwell’, versus sabab-aw _ sabbaw, ‘curse’. An ‘e’ is inserted in active sentences while ‘i’ is inserted for passive ones, when consonantal suffix follow the structure e.g. sabbe:na, but if there are no suffixes to follow the structure then degemination takes place. The verbs which have invincible consonants in the beginning, it makes the verb strong when a vowel follows C1 e.g. _MR, ‘command’, _amar. But what happens when there is a consonant to follow, it kicks the weak consonant out and the vowel gets lengthy. If C2 is weak in the structure, the weak consonant comes into interaction with phonological rules that produces a weak and unclear relationship between a phonological structure and invincible consonants (Kusters, 1996). CONCLUSION Thus from the above discussion, following conclusion can be derived. Najdi Arabians or Arabic is hardly influenced by any change or by the fear of survival. It has maintained its originality and uniqueness, without losing its affect. It has the same fundamental nature and the quintessence since its days during the spread out of Islam. There were no abrupt changes made in the dialect, if any changes were made they were merely a slow diffusion with other Arabic settlements (DeYoung, 1999). Through trade with Mesopotamia or with other regions, many nomads, merchants and settlers of other Arabic dialect came in contact. Nonetheless they did not mark any permanent change in this basic dialect. Even those who were a part of Najd, the Africans, the non Najdi Arabic speakers, came for pilgrimage only. Najdi Arabic has always held a high position in the dialects of the Arabian Peninsula. It is considered to be a language of high esteem, used for expression of the Arab culture of nomads and Bedouins. IT is a reservoir of information and knowledge of the past. It is used to study the history of Arab culture mainly because no major changes have been made in its syntax, phonology morphology etc. It has preserved itself with the passage of time and has made close connection with the classical Arabic dialect. The main reason for the originality in the Najdi Arabic is that it was used by Najd, which was isolated, and had a very outside contacts. Thus unlike other tribes or other dialects Najdi Arabic is still in its original form, spoken in the regions of Saudi Arabia. REFERENCES 1. Brian Bishop, A History of the Arabic Language. Linguistics 450. April 24, 1998 2. Bruce Ingham, Najdi Arabic Central Arabia. .John Benjamin Publication Company, 1994 3. Christiaan Wouter Kusters, Linguistic Complexity, The Influence of Social Change on Verbal Inflection, 1996 < http://www.lotpublications.nl/publish/articles/000501/bookpart.pdf> 4. Aziz I. Al-Sweel Anthropological Linguistics, Verbal and Nominal Forms of Najdi Arabic, Vol. 29, No. 1 (Spring, 1987) < http://www.jstor.org/stable/30028090> 5. Terri DeYoung, Arabic Language & Middle East/ North African Cultural Studies, Spring 1999 Read More