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Question regarding Arabic article ال | ||
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 Language Learning Forum : Specific Languages |  | |
| Grammatiker Diglot Newbie United States jabbernut.comRegistered users can see my Skype Name Joined 5211 days ago 17 posts - 18 votes Speaks: English*, German Studies: Armenian, French, Arabic (classical), Esperanto | Message 1 of 4 19 January 2011 at 3:57am | IP Logged |
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Forgive me if this is a topic that has been posted before, or if this is a really
simple or silly question, but I wanted to be sure about this. I've just begun studying Arabic at my university, and I have always had a tendency to delve far deeper into a language I am studying than the course material generally warrants or provides. That said, I had a question regarding ال. By my understanding, the alif of ال is not pronounced when the previous word ends in a vowel. Similarly, the laam of ال is elided if the word to which it is attached begins in a so-called 'sun letter' حروف شمسية (huruuf shamsiyya) (e.g. الشمس ash-shams, 'the sun,' the word for which the sun letters are named). My question, then, is what happens when the article encounters a preceding word that ends with a vowel and the following consonant is a sun letter? Is the alif not pronounced AND the lam elided into the consonant? Does one take precedence over the other? Am I completely off my rocker? Edited by Grammatiker on 19 January 2011 at 2:04pm 1 person has voted this message useful | |
| strikingstar Bilingual Tetraglot Senior Member United States Joined 5174 days ago 292 posts - 444 votes  Speaks: English*, Mandarin*, Cantonese, Swahili Studies: Spanish, Arabic (Written) | Message 2 of 4 19 January 2011 at 5:15am | IP Logged |
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You still pronounce the sun letter.
أنت الطالب (Anta at-taalib) is pronounced Antattaalib after eliding the hamza. The more interesting question is what happens when the article encounters a preceding word that does NOT end with a vowel? هل الطالب جميل (Hal at-taalib jamiil?) is pronounced Halittaalib jamiil after eliding the hamza. You always add a kasra except with the word من (min), in which case you'll add a fatah. Good luck with Arabic grammar. Have fun. Don't kill yourself. PS: I'm no authority on Arabic. If I've made any mistakes, please feel free to correct me. شكرا 3 persons have voted this message useful | |
| Grammatiker Diglot Newbie United States jabbernut.comRegistered users can see my Skype Name Joined 5211 days ago 17 posts - 18 votes Speaks: English*, German Studies: Armenian, French, Arabic (classical), Esperanto | Message 3 of 4 19 January 2011 at 6:30pm | IP Logged |
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شكرا for your very informative answer! I suspected that that was how it worked, but I was
unsure. Just so I'm clear, when the article is preceded by a word that ends in a consonant, does the alif change to an 'i' sound? I've seen this a lot, but I'm unsure how that works. 1 person has voted this message useful | |
| aldous Diglot Groupie United States Joined 5243 days ago 73 posts - 174 votes Speaks: English*, French | Message 4 of 4 19 January 2011 at 10:53pm | IP Logged |
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Technically an initial alif doesn't have its own sound. It serves as a carrier for a hamza. There are two kinds of hamza. The more famous one indicates a glottal stop (the term for it is hamzat al-qat`, "the hamza of cutting", and it's shaped like a truncated ayn). The hamzat al-qat` carries its own vowel. The other one, called hamzat al-waṣl, "the hamza of connection" (shaped sort of like the letter ṣad), indicates that you elide the preceding vowel. It's often called waṣl or waṣla for short.
So whenever there's a vowel before it, it has to elide that vowel. When it's preceded by a consonant, then the consonant takes a vowel to ease pronunciation. To be technical, it's not the alif that takes kasra or fatha, it's the consonant preceding the waṣla. The added vowel is usually kasra but there are exceptions. Basically what it boils down to is you insert the easiest vowel to pronounce in that place. Kasra is usually the easiest, but for min it's easier to say fatha after it. In speaking, you can't go wrong by pronouncing a schwa. The standard work on Arabic grammar in English is A Grammar of the Arabic Language by Caspari, translated by Wright. It's in the public domain and you can read the full text online. Pages 20—21 talk about waṣla preceded by a consonant. If you have access to David Cowan´s Modern Literary Arabic, it gives the same information on pages 7—8. 2 persons have voted this message useful |
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