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Koranic Arabic and modern standard arabic

  Tags: Arabic
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28 messages over 4 pages: 1 2 3 4  Next >>
zamie
Groupie
Australia
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Studies: German, Modern Hebrew

 
 Message 1 of 28
18 December 2010 at 2:22pm | IP Logged 
Hello, I would like to know the opinions of natives who can speak a dialect of Arabic or
people who have learned Arabic, on what they think the difference is between 'Koranic
Arabic' and 'Modern Standard Arabic.' Is Koranic Arabic incomprehensible, or only
partly incomprehensible , or is it completely understandable? And also, is there a
dialect of Arabic used today that is very similar to 'Koranic Arabic', or have all the
dialects changed greatly?

Thanks.

Edited by zamie on 18 December 2010 at 2:23pm

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Andrew C
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naturalarabic.com
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 Message 2 of 28
19 December 2010 at 12:53am | IP Logged 
It is almost completely understandable - MSA is essentially the same as the language of the Qur'an. Just the occasional obscure word might cause difficulty.

As regards which Arabic dialect is most similar to the language of the Quran - that is a difficult question which I have never seen a conclusive answer to.
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arturs
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 Message 3 of 28
19 December 2010 at 7:52am | IP Logged 
If I remember correctly then they say that Gulf Arabic is the closest to MSA.
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zamie
Groupie
Australia
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 Message 4 of 28
19 December 2010 at 8:29am | IP Logged 
Thanks for the answers, i was just curious -)
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clumsy
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 Message 5 of 28
19 December 2010 at 2:52pm | IP Logged 
According to Islam it was sin to translate Koran, so I think "updating" it would be considered a sin too, consequently everybody must speak it, I think.
But maybe now it's OK to translate it, there are some foregin language versions of it.
By the fact of banning translation Arabic spread so fast, similarly like Latin has spread by the use of Bible.
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Doitsujin
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 Message 6 of 28
19 December 2010 at 4:31pm | IP Logged 
clumsy wrote:
According to Islam it was sin to translate Koran

Says who?

It's not a sin. It's certainly true that Muslims are supposed to read the Quran in Arabic, but only because Muslims believe for various reasons that it's next to impossible to translate it into any language.
BTW, Muslims only condone translations of the meaning of the Qur'an for those who don't speak Arabic. Literal translations are generally frowned upon but are not considered sinful.

For more information on this from a Muslim perspective see: Why can the Quran not be translated?

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Huliganov
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 Message 7 of 28
19 December 2010 at 11:28pm | IP Logged 
Doitsujin wrote:
clumsy wrote:
According to Islam it was sin to translate Koran

Says who?

It's not a sin. It's certainly true that Muslims are supposed to read the Quran in Arabic, but only because Muslims believe for various reasons that it's next to impossible to translate it into any language.
BTW, Muslims only condone translations of the meaning of the Qur'an for those who don't speak Arabic. Literal translations are generally frowned upon but are not considered sinful.

For more information on this from a Muslim perspective see: Why can the Quran not be translated?


That was a very interesting article about it, and I was interested to note where he quotes a high authority in saying

"The issue of translating the Qur'an has been much debated since the first third of the 20th century. However, the translation of the Qur'an can never be considered as a Qur'an in itself, in its rulings and sacredness. The reason for this is that translation is not the word of Allah which was revealed to the Prophet"

So in fact, if we go back to that big brouhaha in Florida earlier this year about this pastor who was going to be burning Korans, they were not even really Korans that he was going to burn! Why did nobody point this out at the time? I can't imagine those hicks actually had a bunch of Arabic originals.

Just a thought.
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CaucusWolf
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United States
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 Message 8 of 28
20 December 2010 at 12:03am | IP Logged 
Doitsujin wrote:
clumsy wrote:
According to Islam it was sin to translate Koran

Says who?

It's not a sin. It's certainly true that Muslims are supposed to read the Quran in Arabic, but only because Muslims believe for various reasons that it's next to impossible to translate it into any language.
BTW, Muslims only condone translations of the meaning of the Qur'an for those who don't speak Arabic. Literal translations are generally frowned upon but are not considered sinful.

For more information on this from a Muslim perspective see: Why can the Quran not be translated?

Yea I really don't understand this idea about how all Muslims think and agree on everything. There's different types of beliefs and sects(i.e Sunnis, Shiites and Sufis.) just like Christians or Jewish sects.


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