UnlockingtheAjrmiyya


BeingaCommentaryintheEnglishLanguageonIbnAjrmsPrimer,andDrawing
ExtensivelyfromtheSupplimentof(a))b



By


Al-faqirilRabbihil-Ghan

KhalidWilliams



















KhalidWilliams2011

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W

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1
TheDefinitionofSpeech





ThisistheclassicaldefinitionofwhatconstitutesspeechinArabic.Initslinguisticmeaning,
speech is wider, including as it does other means of communication such as gestures or
writing.

Asforitstechnicalusage,thegrammarianshavedefinedspeechasanythingthatsatisfiesthe
followingfourconditions:

1

Thatitbeenunciatedvocally()

Thatitbecomposedofatleasttwowords()

Thatitgiveanintelligiblemeaning()

ThatitbeArabic;or,thatitbeintentional(thereisadifferenceofopinion,aswe
shallsee,Allahwilling.)()



Somethingsbeingsenunciatedmeansthatitisasoundcomposedofalphabeticletters,such
asor or .Thegrammariansdonotconsideranythingthatisnotenunciatedtobe
speechforgrammaticalpurposes.




As grammaticallydefined,speech must be composed oftwo or more words. For example,

 is speech, because it is composed of two words, a verb and a noun. This includes
, which is considered to be 
phrases which include words that are elided, such as
eventhoughitappearstobeonlyoneword,becausethesubjectpronounisconcealed(),
asisseenbyitsonlypossibleEnglishtranslation:Hewent.



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Speechmustgiveanintelligiblemeaning,wherebyifoneweretoceasespeaking,themeaning
wouldbeplaintothehearer,withouttheirneedingtowaitformore.Forexample,thephrase

is speech, because it gives a complete, intelligible meaning. If one were to say
simply andthenstop,thiswouldnotbeconsideredspeech,eventhoughitiscomposed
of two words, because it gives no complete meaning; the listener will no doubt be left
wonderingexactlywhere,orinwhat,Zaydmightbe.




Grammaticallyspeaking,speechmustbeArabic;thereisnosenseattemptingtoanalysea
work in the Persian language according the conventions and rules of the Arabic tongue.
Otherscholarshavestatedthatthemeaningoftheauthorswordsisthatinordertobe
consideredspeech,itmustbeutteredbyasentientbeingwithintention:thevocalizationsof
asleepingperson,andtheimitationofhumandiscourseperformedbyparrots,andsoon,are
notfitforgrammaticalanalysisaccordingtothisview.

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2
ThePartsofSpeech



:

ThisistheclassicaldefinitionoftheArabicpartsofspeech,asissaidtohavebeenoriginally
putforwardbyImmAlibnAbDlib
.ModernArabicstudieshasatendencytoadvance
many other parts of speech, such as and , but these classifications are generally
derivedfromotherlanguages,andwhilesometimesuseful,canoftenresultinconfusion.It
remainsthecasethatallArabicwordscanbeplacedinoneofthefollowingthreecategories:

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TheNoun()

TheVerb()

TheParticle()



Anounisawordthatembodiesameaninginandofitself,andisnotcontextualisedbytime.
Thewordembodiesaspecificmeaning,namelyalion,sothatifitisheard,themindwill
conjureuptheappropriateimageaccordingtoitsunderstandingandexperience.Timehasno
bearing on the word, that is, there is no indication as to whether the reference is to the
present,thepast,orthefuture.

Nouns()areofthreekinds:1

(i)

:Thatwhichindicatesitsmeaningwithoutneedforcontext,suchas.


1

TheEnglishgrammaticalterms substantive,demonstrativeetchaveintentionallybeenavoidedhere,

astheyarenotperfectequivalentsfortheArabicterms,andthereissomeoverlap.Bearinginmindthe
many difficulties that arose with the attempts by English grammarians to apply Latin rules and
preceptstoEnglish,alanguagewhichispatentlyneitherLatinnoraderivativeofit,itwouldseemwise
toavoidwhereverpossiblethetemptationtoapplytoomuchEnglishgrammaticalterminologytothe
Arabiclanguage.Inthecaseofsuchclear-cuttermsasnounfor ,verbfor andsoon,thisdanger
maybehopedtobeaverted.

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(ii)

(iii)

:Thatwhichindicatesitsmeaningonlyinthecontextoffirst,secondor
thirdperson,suchas,,,andsoon.
:Thatwhichisambiguousinmeaning,suchas,,andsoon.



A verb is a word that embodies a meaning in and of itself, and is contextualised by time,
whetherpast,present,orfuture.Theword  embodiesaspecificmeaninginitself,namely
thatofreading,anditiscontextualisedbytime,inthiscasethepast.

Verbsarealsoofthreekinds:2

(i)

(ii)

(iii)

:Thatwhichindicatesaneventoractionthattookplaceinthepast,andwas
, ,and 
completedbeforethetimeofspeaking,suchas
: That which indicates an event or action that takes place at the time of
,
,and 
speaking,orwhichwilltakeplaceafterit,suchas
:Thatwhichwilltakeplaceafterthetimeofspeaking,suchas , ,and




Particles are words whose meaning does not become apparent until they are coupled with
another part of speech. The particle may be described vaguely as having the meaning
from, suggesting the concept of origin or beginning, yet its shades of meaning defy plain
definition or translation; its meaning is known only through context. Consideration of the
followingsentences,andtheroleofinthem,sufficestoillustratethis:


2

ItmaybenotedthatthisdoesnotcorrespondwiththeEnglishconventionofgroupingverbsintopast,

present, future and imperative. The future tense is absent in Arabic, being as it is included with the
present. It may therefore be appropriate to group Arabic verbs according to the same classification
oftenaffordedbyEnglishspeakerstoJapaneseverbs:Past(),non-past(),andimperative
().

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Particlesarealsoofthreekinds:

(i)

Thosewhichcanbeappliedtonounsonly,suchas
,,,etc.

(ii)

,
,etc.
Thosewhichcanbeappliedonlytoverbs,suchas ,

(iii)

Thosewhichcanbeappliedtobothnounsandverbs,suchas,
, ,etc.

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3
TheHallmarksoftheNoun


:













Nounsaredistinguishedfromverbsandparticlesbyseveralhallmarks.Theauthormentions
fourofthese:3

1

Thegenitivecase()

Tanwin()

Thedefinitearticle(

)
Genitiveparticles()



Thegenitivecaseisparticulartonouns.4Nounsaresaidtobeinthegenitivecasewhentheir
caseendingiskasraoranyofitssubstitutes.Forexample,inthesentence

,theword

isinthegenitivecase.

Nounsaremadegenitiveeitherbyothernounsorbyparticles,notbyverbs(accordingtothe
mainstreamposition).Thedifferentwaysthisoccurswillbeseeninduecourse,Allahwilling.






3

Thesearenottheonlyhallmarksofanoun.Anotherimportantoneis

,thatis,theabilityto

bethesubjectofasentence,whetherverbalornominal.
4

 The term was the term used by the Kufa school of grammarians. In Basra, the term was

preferred;thelattertermisnowthemorefrequentlyused.

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Tanwin5isalsoparticulartonouns.6Itmeanstheadditionoftheletter nnattheendofa
word,representedorthographicallybyadoublingofthefinalvowel.Therearefourkindsof
tanwin:7

(i)

: This is added to the end of declinable nouns, reflecting
their nature as true nouns, resembling neither verbs in their being
partially declinable, or particles in their being indeclinable. This
includesmostindefinitesingularnouns,suchas
and ,aswell

 and .
asmanyindefiniteplurals,suchas
(ii)

:Thisisaddedtotheendofindeclinablepropernamesin
order to distinguish between a well-known individual and someone
elsewhosharesthesamename.Forexample,thenameofthefamous
grammarianSbawayhiisindeclinable,andconsidereddefinite.Ifwe
wanttomakethisnameindefiniteinordertomentionsomeoneelse
withthisname(i.e.aSbawayhi,nottheSbawayhi),weaddtanwin,so
itbecomes withtanwin.

(iii)

:Thisisaddedtotheparticleinsuchphrasesas and
inordertoreplaceasentencedefiningtheperiodoftimemeant.
It is equivalent to the that in the phrase On that day, where the
that refers to some description of the day in question that
distinguishes it from all other days. When Allah says: 

,8thetanwinin referstoeverythingthathascomebefore,
describing the moment when the soul leaves the body. The tanwin
serves to avoid repeating a whole phrase that has just been
mentioned,orthatisunderstoodbycontext.
(iv)

:thisisaddedtofemininesoundpluralsastheequivalentof
the nnthatisaddedtotheendofmasculinesoundplurals.Thatis,


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NunationseemsawhollyunnecessaryAnglicisation.

OntheoccasionsintheQuranwhenvernsendintanwin(forexample96:15),thisisnottanwinbut

ratherthe nnofemphasis,whichhistoricallywasoccasionallywrittenwithadoubledvowel,although
itslexicalpurposediffersentirelyfromthatoftanwin.
7

 These are not the only kinds of tanwin: al-Ahdal mentions a total of ten in his commentary on

(a))bs Mutammimaal-Ajurmiyya;butmostscholarssufficethemselveswithmentionofthesefour,
astheothersaresubjecttoscholarlydifferenceastotheirapplicability.
8

56:84

9


thetanwinontheword
isequivalenttothe nnontheword

.




Theadditionofthedefinitearticleisalsoparticulartonouns,e.g.,,,andso
on.





Only nouns are preceded by genitive particles, such as

, where the word is

precededbythegenitiveparticle.


, ,,
,
, , and .Theirmeaningsarewell-known,
Thegenitiveparticlesare,,
andvaryaccordingtotheircontext.

Afurtherthreeparticlesareusedasmeansofdeclaringoaths.Theseare ,
 and
.


isonlyusedbeforesubstantivenouns,e.g.
, ,or
.Itcannotbe
usedwithpronouns.Itisnotprecededbyaverb,sowecannotsay

.


 can be used with both substantives and pronouns, e.g.

or . It can be preceded by a
,or
.
verb,e.g.


isonlyusedwiththename,e.g.
.Itisnotprecededbyaverb.



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4
TheHallmarksoftheVerb









Verbsaredistinguishedfromnounsandparticlesbyseveralhallmarks.Theauthormentions
fourofthese:

1
2
3
4








Thisparticlecomesbeforeboth and verbs.Whenitprecedesthe ,itserves
eithertosignifythecloseproximityofanevent,asin

,orelsetogiveemphasisto
an event that has already occurred, as in . When it precedes the , it
signifieseitheremphasis,asin ,orrarity,asin .9




Thesetwoparticlesgiveafuturesensetoaverbwhentheyprecedeit.Itissaidthatthe
useof impliesthattheeventwillhappenlaterthanisimpliedbytheuseof ;other
scholarssaythatthereisnodifferencebetweenthetwoparticles.







9

ItissaidthatwhenAllahorHisMessengeruse,italwayssignifiesemphasis.

11


Anvowellesslettertaisaddedtotheendofaverbtoshowthatthesubjectisfeminine,
andisuniquetoverbs.Forexample:

,
,
,etc.

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5
TheHallmarksoftheParticle






Particles are distinguishedfrom nouns andverbs by the factthat they donot accept anyof
theirrespectivehallmarks.Theycannotbeprefixedby ;theycannotbesuffixedbytanwin;

or
or ;
theycannotbeprecededbygenitiveparticles;theycannotbeprecededby
;theyhavenocase,whethergenitiveorotherwise.
theydonotacceptthesuffix



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6
Irb






Irb10 means the process by which the ends of words are changed because of their
grammaticalfunction;thischangemayeitherbeexplicit(),orimplicit()whichisto
say,thechangemaybeapparentontheendoftheword,oritmaybesomethingwecannot
seebecauseoftheparticularformoftheword,butmustunderstandtobetherenonetheless.


(NBBy

,wemustnotunderstandthattheworditselfactuallychanges;what

changes is the vowel or letter at the end of the word, which does not affect the radicals
themselvesbutisaddedtothem,asweshallsee.Theworditselfneverchanges.)

Whydothesechangesoccur?Becauseofthegrammaticalfunctionoftheword(

)literally, this means the agents that influence them. The grammatical case of most
wordscanbeseenclearlybyhowtheyarepronounced(orwritten);thesecasesareassigned
tothewordsbasedonwhattheirpurpose
purposeinthesentenceis.
purpose

Forexample,considerthesentence:




Inthissentence, is ( thatis,inthecaseof )becauseitsgrammaticalfunctionis
thatofsubjector.Whatistheagentorthatmakesitasubject?Theverb.

Nowifwesay:






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Inordinaryspeech,theverb/meanstomakeplain,toannounceclearly,toexpressopenly;

initstechnicalsense,itmaybetranslatedasinflection.

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Theword nowhasadifferentending:a fatQa insteadofa Ramma.Thisisbecauseitis

nowinthecaseof,becauseitistheobjectoftheverb,whichisthehere.

Andagain,ifwesay:




Thewordnowhasadifferentending:akasra.Thisisbecauseitisprefixedbya

,

whichisthehere.

Noticethatinallthreecases,theword remainsthesame:itsfinalletterisstill .What

haschangedisthevowelaffixedtoitsend.Thisiswhatourauthormeansby

.

Andthischangeattheendofthewordiswhatourauthorcalls.

As we have seen, our author divides into two kinds when he says

. This

meanstherearetwoformsof:,and.

1 

means explicit inflection or pronounced inflection; it describes those

situationswhereinthegrammaticalcaseofthewordisclearlypronouncedatitsend,suchas
with the letter in the word , as we saw above. This is the normal situation for most
Arabicwords.

2 

means implicit inflection or imagined inflection; it describes those

situationswherethereissomethingtopreventthegrammaticalcaseofthewordfrombeen

,and .
clearlyshownatitsend.Therearethreethingswhichcancausethis: ,

(a) means11thatthelastletterofthewordisan alifmaqTraprecededbya fatQa,(this
kindofwordiscalled ),suchas  and .Thereisnowaytoputavowelontothe
endofthisword,sincetheletteralifcannottakeavowel.Thuswehavenochoicebuttosay:



11

Literallythewordmeanimpossibility.

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In each case, the ending of the word does not change; we must simply understand (or
imagine) that the vowel showingthe grammatical case is there.12 The same is the case for

verbswhichendinalif,suchasand:



(b) means13thatthelastletterofthewordisa yprecededbya kasra(thiskindof
wordiscalled),suchasor.ToputakasraoraRammaontotheendofsuch
a word would be possible, but the Arabs do not do it because it would be difficult and
unnaturaltopronounce.Thuswemustsay:




TheArabs,however,doputa fatQaontheendofsuchwords,becausethisismorenaturalto
pronounce;thuswemaysay:





verbswhichendinwworyalsobelonginthiscategory.
(c) means14thatanounissuffixedbyfirstpersonpossessive y(whichmeansmy),as
in mybook.Becausethepossessiveisaffixeddirectlytotheendofthenoun,itisnot
possibletoputthevowelofthere,aswell.15Thuswesay:


12

 We can still tell the grammatical case of each in our examples through the context, but

sometimesitcanbemoredifficulttodothis.Consider:


.

DidtheboycometoMs,ordidMscometotheboy?
13

Literallyitmeansuncomfortabledifficulty.

14

Literallyitmeanscoincidence.

16


.

Themotheristheobjectofthelove,butwemustdeducethisfromthecontext,sincethereis
nowheretoputthefatQawhichwouldotherwiseshowthewordtobe.


15

Manybeginningstudentsmakethemistakeofputtingthevowelontheendofthey,asin:

.

Thismustbeavoided;whateverthemeritsofitslogic,itisnotArabic.

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7
ThePartsofInflection









.


:






There are a total of four parts of inflection in Arabic, concerning both nouns and vowels.
Theyare:



1

2

3

4



or





meanstoraiseortoberaised;technicallyspeakingitmeansaninflectionrepresented
byaRamma,aww,analiforann.16Bothnounsandverbscanbe(thatis,inastateof
).





means to set up straight or to be set up straight; technically speaking it means an
inflection represented by a fatQa, an alif, a kasra, a y, and the omission of a nn.17 Both
nounsandverbscanbe.





meanstobelow;technicallyspeaking,itmeansaninflectionrepresentedbyakasra,a
yorafatQ.18Onlynounscanbe.

16

TheseareoftentermedRammaanditsdeputies.

17

FatQaanditsdeputies.

18


meanstocut;technicallyspeaking,itmeansaninflectionrepresentedbya sukn,orby
omissionofaletter.19Onlyverbscanbe.

Thustherearethreekindsofinflections:

(1)Onecommontonounsandverbs( and)
(2)Onepeculiartonouns()
(3)Onepeculiartoverbs()



Anoteon

Althoughourauthorexplainswhatis,hedoesnottouchon.Whileapplies
tothosewordswhoseendingschangedependingontheirgrammaticalfunction,describes
those words whose endings never change, regardless of their grammatical function. 
literally means to build, and these words are built in one way only. occurs in nouns,
verbsandparticles.

Nouns


 and .
Somenounsarebuilton20 sukn(thatis,theyalwaysendwith sukn),suchas
Othersarebuilton fatQa,suchas
and
.Othersarebuilton Ramma,suchas
and

.Finally,othersarebuiltonkasra,suchas
and .

Verbs



18

Kasraanditsdeputies.

19

Suknanditsdeputy.

20

19


All verbsarebuilton fatQa,unlesstheyaresuffixedbytheplural ww,suchas or

anyvowelledsubjectpronoun,suchas

or
.

Allparticlesarebuilt;theirendsneverchangeforanyreasonpertainingtoinflection.21


21

Thoughtheymaychangeforotherreasons,pertainingmostlytopronunciation.

20