Arabic
Spoken in:	Historically in the Middle East, now used as a liturgical language of Islam
Total speakers:	—
Language family:	Afro-Asiatic  Semitic   West Semitic    Central Semitic     Arabic
Language codes
ISO 639-1:	ar
ISO 639-2:	ara
ISO 639-3:	ara
Verses from the Qur'an in Classical Arabic, written in the cursive Arabic script. The Middle East is a Subcontinent with no clear boundaries often used as a synonym to Near East, in opposition to Far East. For other meanings including people named 'Islam' see Islam (disambiguation. List of language familiesA language family is a group of Languages related by descent from a common ancestor called the Proto-language of that family The Afro-Asiatic languages constitute a Language family with about 375 languages ( SIL estimate and more than 300 million speakers spread throughout North Africa The Semitic languages are a Language family whose living representatives are spoken by more than 467 million people across much of the Middle East, The West Semitic languages are a proposed major sub-grouping of Semitic languages. The Central Semitic languages are an intermediate group of Semitic languages, comprising Arabic and Northwest Semitic (including Canaanite ISO 639-1 is the first part of the ISO 639 international-standard language-code family ISO 639-2 is the second part of the ISO 639 standard, which lists codes for the representation of the names of languages ISO 639 -3 (ISO 639-32007 is an international standard for Language codes The standard describes three‐letter codes for identifying languages The Qur’an ( القرآن, literally "the recitation" also sometimes transliterated as Qur’ān, Koran, Alcoran The Arabic alphabet is the script used for writing several languages of Asia and Africa such as Arabic, Persian, and Urdu.
Note: This page may contain IPA phonetic symbols in Unicode. In Computing, Unicode is an Industry standard allowing Computers to consistently represent and manipulate text expressed in most of the world's

Classical Arabic, also known as Qur'anic (or Koranic) Arabic, is the form of the Arabic language used in literary texts from Umayyad and Abbasid times (7th to 9th centuries). Arabic (ar الْعَرَبيّة (informally ar عَرَبيْ) in terms of the number of speakers is the largest living member of the Semitic language It is based largely on the Medieval language of Hijazi tribes of Qurayš (which contrasted somewhat with the speech of Najdi and adjoining tribal areas). al-Hejaz (also Hijaz, Hedjaz; الحجاز al-Ḥiǧāz, literally "the barrier" is a region in the west of present-day Saudi Arabia Quraish is also the name of a Surah in the Qur'an. Quraysh or Quraish (Arabic ar قريش Nejd or Najd (literally "highland" نجد) is the central region of the Arabian Peninsula. Modern Standard Arabic is a modern version used in writing and in formal speaking, for example, prepared speeches and radio broadcasts. Literary Arabic (ar اللغة العربية الفصحى "the Eloquent Arabic language" or Standard Arabic is the literary and standard variety While the lexis and stylistics of Modern Standard Arabic are different from Classical Arabic, the morphology and syntax have remained basically unchanged. In Linguistics, lexis (in Greek λέξις = word describes the storage of language in our mental Lexicon as prefabricated patterns ( Lexical units Stylistics is the study of varieties of Language whose properties position that language in context. Morphology is the field of Linguistics that studies the internal structure of words In Linguistics, syntax (from Ancient Greek grc συν- syn-, "together" and grc τάξις táxis, "arrangement" is the The vernacular dialects, however, have changed more dramatically. See Arabic languages for the historical family of dialects The Arabic language is a Semitic language with many varieties ^[1]

Because the Qur'an is written in classical Arabic, the language is considered by most Muslims to be a sacred language and a divine language ^{[Qur'an 16:113] [Qur'an 20:103]}. The Qur’an ( القرآن, literally "the recitation" also sometimes transliterated as Qur’ān, Koran, Alcoran A sacred language, or liturgical language, is a Language that is cultivated for religious reasons by people who speak another language in their daily life For the fictional language used in the 1997 film The Fifth Element see Divine Language (The Fifth Element. The Qur’an ( القرآن, literally "the recitation" also sometimes transliterated as Qur’ān, Koran, Alcoran The Qur’an ( القرآن, literally "the recitation" also sometimes transliterated as Qur’ān, Koran, Alcoran It is the only language in which orthodox Muslims recite their prayers, regardless of what language they use in everyday life.

Classical Arabic is often believed to be the parent language of all the spoken varieties of Arabic, but recent scholarship, such as Clive Holes (2004), questions this view, showing that other dialects were extant in the 7th century and may be the origin of current spoken varieties. See Arabic languages for the historical family of dialects The Arabic language is a Semitic language with many varieties

History

Arabic was originally spoken in the central and northern regions of the Arabian Peninsula. With the spread of Islam, Arabic become a prominent language of scholarship and religious devotion as the language of the Qur'an (at times even spreading faster than the religion). ^[2] Its relation to modern dialects is somewhat analogous to the relationship of Latin and the Romance Languages or Middle Chinese and the modern Chinese languages. Latin ( lingua Latīna, laˈtiːna is an Italic language, historically spoken in Latium and Ancient Rome. The Romance languages (sometimes referred to as Romanic languages, or Neolatin languages) are a branch of the Indo-European language family comprising all Middle Chinese ( or Ancient Chinese as used by linguist Bernhard Karlgren, refers to the Chinese language spoken during Southern and Northern

Morphology

Classical Arabic is one of the Semitic languages, and therefore has many similarities in conjugation and pronunciation to Hebrew, Akkadian, Aramaic, and Amharic. The Semitic languages are a Language family whose living representatives are spoken by more than 467 million people across much of the Middle East, Aramaic is a Semitic language with Amharic (አማርኛ amarəñña) is a Semitic language spoken in North Central Ethiopia by the Amhara. Its use of vowels to modify a base group of consonants resembles similar constructions in Biblical Hebrew.

For example:

• kataba, he wrote
• yaktubu, he writes
• kitāb, book
• kutub, books (plural)
• maktaba, library
• miktāb, writing machine

These words all have some relationship with writing, and all of them contain the three consonants KTB. This group of consonants k-t-b is called a "root. " Grammarians assume that this root carries a basic meaning of writing, which encompasses all objects or actions involving writing, and so, therefore, all the above words are regarded as modified forms of this root, and are "obtained" or "derived" in some way from it.

Grammar

Main article: Arabic grammar

Phonology

There are three short vowels and three long vowels in Arabic, being A, I, and U in two different lengths each. Arabic is a Semitic language See Arabic language for more information on the language in general The following table illustrates this:

Like Modern Standard Arabic, Classical Arabic had 28 consonant phonemes:

1. Non-emphatic /s/ may have actually been [ʃ],^[4] shifting forward in the mouth before or simultaneously with the fronting of the palatals (see below). In Phonetics, a vowel is a Sound in spoken Language, such as English ah! or oh!, pronounced with an open Vocal tract A close vowel is a type of Vowel sound used in many spoken Languages The defining characteristic of a close vowel is that the tongue is positioned as close as An open vowel is a Vowel sound of a type used in most spoken Languages The defining characteristic of an open vowel is that the tongue is positioned as far as In Phonetics, a bilabial consonant is a Consonant articulated with both Lips The bilabial consonants identified by the International Phonetic Alphabet Interdental consonants are produced by placing the blade of the Tongue against the upper Incisors This differs from a Dental consonant in that the In Linguistics, a dental consonant or dental is a Consonant that is articulated with the tongue against the upper teeth such as /t/ /d/ /n/ and Palatal consonants are Consonants articulated with the body of the tongue raised against the Hard palate (the middle part of the roof of the mouth Uvulars are Consonants articulated with the back of the Tongue against or near the uvula, that is further back in the mouth than Velar consonants Pharyngealization is a Secondary articulation of Consonants or Vowels by which the Pharynx or Epiglottis is constricted during the articulation A nasal consonant (also called nasal stop or nasal continuant) is produced with a lowered velum in the mouth allowing air to escape freely through the A stop, plosive, or occlusive is a Consonant sound produced by stopping the airflow in the Vocal tract. Voice or voicing is a term used in Phonetics and Phonology to characterize speech sounds, with sounds described as either voiceless Voice or voicing is a term used in Phonetics and Phonology to characterize speech sounds, with sounds described as either voiceless Fricatives are Consonants produced by forcing air through a narrow channel made by placing two articulators close together Voice or voicing is a term used in Phonetics and Phonology to characterize speech sounds, with sounds described as either voiceless Voice or voicing is a term used in Phonetics and Phonology to characterize speech sounds, with sounds described as either voiceless Laterals are "L"-like Consonants pronounced with an occlusion made somewhere along the axis of the tongue while air from the lungs escapes at one side or both In Phonetics, a trill is a Consonantal sound produced by vibrations between the articulator and the Place of articulation. Approximants are speech sounds ( Phonemes) that could be regarded as intermediate between Vowels and typical Consonants In the articulation of approximants
2. As it derives from proto-semitic *g, /ɟ/ may have been a palatalized velar: /gʲ/
3. /l/ is emphatic ([lˁ]) only in /ʔalˁːɑːh/, the name of God, i. Proto-Semitic is the hypothetical Proto-language of the Semitic languages. e. Allah,^[5] except after i or ī when it is unemphatic: bismi l-lāh /bismillaːh/ ('in the name of God'). Allah ( Arabic: الله, ʔalˤːɑːh) is the standard Arabic word for '

The consonants traditionally termed "emphatic" /tˤ, ɬˤ, sˤ, ðˤ/ were either velarised [tˠ, ɬˠ, sˠ, ðˠ] or pharyngealised [tˤ, ɬˤ, sˤ, ðˤ]. Velarization is a Secondary articulation of Consonants by which the back of the Tongue is raised toward the velum during the articulation of the Pharyngealization is a Secondary articulation of Consonants or Vowels by which the Pharynx or Epiglottis is constricted during the articulation ^[6] In some transcription systems, emphasis is shown by capitalizing the letter, for example, /sˁ/ is written ‹S›; in others the letter is underlined or has a dot below it, for example, ‹ṣ›.

There are a number of phonetic changes between Classical Arabic and Modern Standard Arabic. These include:^[7]

• The palatals /ɟ/ /ç/ (<ج> <ش‎>) became postalveolar: /dʒ/ /ʃ/
• The uvular fricatives /χ/ /ʁ/ (<خ> <غ>) became velar or post-velar: /x/ /ɣ/
• /ɬˤ/ (<ض‎>) became /dˤ/ (Certain Tajweed traditions actually preserve the original value of this sound synchronically. Postalveolar consonants are Consonants articulated with the tongue near or touching the back of the Alveolar ridge, placing them a bit further back in the )

See Arabic alphabet for further details of the IPA representations of contemporary Arabic sounds. The Arabic alphabet is the script used for writing several languages of Asia and Africa such as Arabic, Persian, and Urdu. The International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA is a system of phonetic notation based on the Latin alphabet, devised by the International Phonetic

Special symbols

A variety of special symbols exist in the classical Arabic of the Qur'an that are usually absent in most written forms of Arabic. Many of these serve as aids for readers attempting to accurately pronounce the classical Arabic found in the Qur'an. They may also indicate prayers (Sujud), miracles (Ayah), or the ends of chapters (Rub El Hizb). Sajdah (ُسجدة sæʤədæh or sujūd (سُجود sʊʤʊːdə is an Arabic word meaning prostration to God in the direction of the Kaaba Ayah (ar آية, plural Ayat ar آيات) is the Arabic word for sign or Miracle, cognate with Hebrew ot, The Rub El Hizb ( رب الحزب) is an Islamic Symbol which is found on a number of emblems and flags

References

Bibliography

• Holes, Clive (2004) Modern Arabic: Structures, Functions, and Varieties Georgetown University Press. Classical Arabic (CA also known as Qur'anic or Koranic Arabic, is the form of the Arabic language used in literary texts from Umayyad Classical Arabic (CA also known as Qur'anic or Koranic Arabic, is the form of the Arabic language used in literary texts from Umayyad Classical Arabic (CA also known as Qur'anic or Koranic Arabic, is the form of the Arabic language used in literary texts from Umayyad Classical Arabic (CA also known as Qur'anic or Koranic Arabic, is the form of the Arabic language used in literary texts from Umayyad Classical Arabic (CA also known as Qur'anic or Koranic Arabic, is the form of the Arabic language used in literary texts from Umayyad Classical Arabic (CA also known as Qur'anic or Koranic Arabic, is the form of the Arabic language used in literary texts from Umayyad Classical Arabic (CA also known as Qur'anic or Koranic Arabic, is the form of the Arabic language used in literary texts from Umayyad ISBN 1-58901-022-1
• Versteegh, Kees (2001) The Arabic Language Edinburgh University Press ISBN 0-7486-1436-2 (Ch. 5 available in link below)
• Watson, Janet (2002), written at New York, The Phonology and Morphology of Arabic, Oxford University Press

See also

• Arabic language
• Literary Arabic
• Arabic English Lexicon

External links

• The Development of Classical Arabic
• Classical Arabic Blog
• Arabic grammar online