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Dealing with extremities.

al-Salāmu ‘alaykum wa rahmatullāh, There are certain noun forms in Arabic known as siyagh al-mubaalaghah (‘forms of intensification/hyperbolic forms’) that are used to put across a more intense meaning than the original noun form. For example, a liar ‘kaadhib’ كاذب may also be known as a kadhoob كذوب or a kadhdhaab كذّاب – all carrying …

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Purity in corruption.

al-Salāmu ‘alaykum wa rahmatullāh, There is a long standing disagreement between supporters of classical Arabic الفصحى vs. supporters of colloquial Arabic العامية with regards which should prosper. The former group sought to avoid colloquial words at all cost, regardless of how correct they were or how well they expressed the intended meaning, while the latter …

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Words are sounds of the heart.

al-Salāmu ‘alaykum wa rahmatullāh, I thought that my previous entry on Ishtiqaaq marked the end of the linguists’ theories on this phenomenon, but it turns out there is more. Rather than looking at the roots as individual units, some scholars of Arabic viewed them according to their articulation points (makhaarij) or phonological characteristics (sifaat), and …

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