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.This article contains Arabic text, written from right to left in a cursive style with some letters joined. Without proper rendering support, you may see unjoined Arabic letters written left-to-right instead of right-to-left or other symbols instead of Arabic script.^ You may not see it as that. Ben Smith's Blog: White House: No bow to Saudi - POLITICO.com 19 September 2009 2:02 UTC www.politico.com [Source type: General] ^ Allah only forbids you with regard to those who fight you for (your) Faith and drive you out of your homes and support (others) in driving you out from turning to them (for friendship and protection)... The Exclusion of the Jews and Christians 3 February 2010 14:24 UTC debate.org.uk [Source type: Original source] ^ Wake up and realize that you have been played with the classic left/right paradigm of control. Ben Smith's Blog: White House: No bow to Saudi - POLITICO.com 19 September 2009 2:02 UTC www.politico.com [Source type: General]

Arabic العربية al-ʿarabīyah al-ʿArabīyyah in written Arabic (Naskh script) Pronunciation /alˌʕaraˈbiːja/ Spoken in Primarily in the Arab states of the Middle East and North Africa; liturgical language of Islam. Total speakers Approx. 280 million native speakers[1] and 250 million non-native speakers[2] Ranking 5 (native speakers, Ethnologue estimate) Language family Afro-Asiatic Semitic West Semitic Central Semitic Arabic Arabic Writing system Arabic alphabet, Syriac alphabet (Garshuni), Bengali script [1] [2] Official status Official language in Official language of 25 countries, the third most after English and French[3] List  Algeria  Bahrain  Comoros  Chad  Djibouti  Egypt  Eritrea  Iraq  Israel  Jordan  Kuwait  Lebanon  Libya  Mauritania  Morocco  Oman  Palestine  Qatar  Saudi Arabia  Somalia  Sudan  Syria  Tunisia  United Arab Emirates  Western Sahara  Yemen  African Union  Arab League  OIC  United Nations Regulated by Algeria: Supreme Council of the Arabic language in Algeria Egypt: Academy of the Arabic Language in Cairo Iraq: Iraqi Academy of Sciences Jordan: Jordan Academy of Arabic Libya: Academy of the Arabic Language in Jamahiriya Morocco: Academy of the Arabic Language in Rabat Sudan: Academy of the Arabic Language in Khartum Syria: Arab Academy of Damascus (the oldest) Tunisia: Beit Al-Hikma Foundation Language codes ISO 639-1 ar ISO 639-2 ara ISO 639-3 ara – Arabic (generic) (see varieties of Arabic for the individual codes) Map of majority Arabic speakers (green) and minority Arabic speakers (light green) Distribution of Arabic as sole official language (green) and one of several official languages (blue) Note: This page may contain IPA phonetic symbols in Unicode.

.Arabic (العربية al-ʿarabīyah, ( Arabic pronunciation (help·info)) or عربي ʿarabi) is a Central Semitic language, thus related to and classified alongside other Semitic languages such as Hebrew and the Neo-Aramaic languages.^ In his introduction to S. Al-Hashr, he notes that the Jewish tribes were not on good relations with each other: '...

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In terms of speakers, Arabic is the largest member of the Semitic language family. .It is spoken by more than 280 million^[1] people as a first language, most of whom live in the Middle East and North Africa, and by 250 million^[2] more as a second language.^ Most Americans do not believe that certain people are inherently better than others due to the family or class they were born into.

• Ben Smith's Blog: White House: No bow to Saudi - POLITICO.com 19 September 2009 2:02 UTC www.politico.com [Source type: General]

^ So he's taking a step to improving relations with the Middle East, that's A BADDDD THING! No wonder progression is so slow when people care about something so stupid.

• Ben Smith's Blog: White House: No bow to Saudi - POLITICO.com 19 September 2009 2:02 UTC www.politico.com [Source type: General]

Arabic has many different, geographically-distributed spoken varieties, some of which are mutually unintelligible.^[4] Modern Standard Arabic is widely taught in schools, universities, and used in workplaces, government and the media.

Classical, Modern Standard, and colloquial Arabic

Influence of Arabic on other languages

Arabic and Islam

History

Dialects and descendants

Different Dialects of Arabic in the Arab World

• Egyptian Arabic, spoken by around 76 million in Egypt. It is one of the most understood varieties of Arabic, due in large part to the widespread distribution of Egyptian films and television shows throughout the Arabic speaking world. .Closely related varieties are also spoken in Sudan.
• Gulf Arabic, spoken by around 34 million people in Arab states of the Persian Gulf and eastern Saudi Arabia.
• Iraqi Arabic, spoken by about 29 million people in Iraq.^ So he's taking a step to improving relations with the Middle East, that's A BADDDD THING! No wonder progression is so slow when people care about something so stupid.
  • Ben Smith's Blog: White House: No bow to Saudi - POLITICO.com 19 September 2009 2:02 UTC www.politico.com [Source type: General]
  
  ^ He told Abu Talib about his dream that, "A caravan would come with a boy who would be commissioned by God for Prophecy among the Arab and would instruct them in Arabic".
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  ^ Were the Najran Christians still around we could settle the issue once for all, and possibly still could if Saudi Arabia allowed free archaeological access to investigate.
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  With significant differences between the Arabian-like dialects of the south and the more conservative dialects of the north. .Closely related varieties are also spoken in Iran, Syria, and Turkey.
• North Mesopotamian Arabic, spoken by around 7 million people in northern Iraq, northern Syria and southern Turkey.
• Levantine Arabic includes North Levantine Arabic, South Levantine Arabic, and Cypriot Arabic.^ Finding it impossible to stay in Makkah, he left the Hijaz and went as far as Mosul in the north of Iraq and from there southwest into Syria.
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  .It is spoken by almost 35 million people in Lebanon, Syria, Jordan, Palestine, Israel, Cyprus, and Turkey.^ They were merchants doing business in Sham (Syria, Palestine, Lebanon and Jordan), at the time when Allah's Apostle had truce with Abu Sufyan and Quraish infidels.
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  It is also called Mediterranean Arabic.
• Maghrebi Arabic includes Moroccan Arabic, Algerian Arabic, Algerian Saharan Arabic, Tunisian Arabic, and Libyan Arabic, and is spoken by around 45 million North Africans in Morocco, Western Sahara, Algeria, Tunisia, Libya, Niger, and western Egypt; it is often difficult for speakers of Middle Eastern Arabic varieties to understand. The Berber influence in these dialects varies in degree.^[13]

• Andalusi Arabic, spoken in Spain until 15th century, now extinct.
• Bahrani Arabic, spoken by Bahrani Shia in Bahrain, where it exhibits some differences from Bahraini Arabic. .It is also spoken to a lesser extent in Oman.
• Central Asian Arabic, spoken in Uzbekistan, Tajikistan and Afghanistan, is highly endangered
• Hassaniya Arabic, spoken in Mauritania, some parts of Mali and Western Sahara
• Hejazi Arabic, spoken in Hejaz, western Saudi Arabia
• Judeo-Arabic dialects
• Maltese, spoken on the Mediterranean island of Malta, is the only one to have established itself as a fully separate language, with independent literary norms.^ This was accomplished by adopting and adapting ideas and stories from a well-established pool of Judeo-Christian religious themes, the inception of which could then be placed in seventh-century Arabia.
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  In the course of its history the language has adopted numerous loanwords, phonetic and phonological features, and even some grammatical patterns, from Italian, Sicilian, and English. It is also the only Semitic tongue written in the Latin alphabet.
• Najdi Arabic, spoken in Nejd, central Saudi Arabia
• Shuwa Arabic, spoken in Chad, Cameroon, Niger, Nigeria, and Sudan
• Siculo Arabic, spoken on Sicily, South Italy until 14th century, developed into Maltese^[14]
• Sudanese Arabic, spoken in Sudan
• Yemeni Arabic, spoken in Yemen, southern Saudi Arabia, Djibouti, and Somalia

Sounds

Vowels

Consonants

1. [dʒ] is pronounced [ɡ] by some speakers. This is especially characteristic of the Egyptian, Omani and some Yemeni dialects. .In many parts of North Africa and in the Levant, it is pronounced [ʒ].
2. /l/ is pronounced [lˁ] only in /ʔalːaːh/, the name of God, q.e.^ According to this part the Prophet said to Mu'adh: "You have pronounced God's judgement upon them [as inspired] through Seven Veils."
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   Allah, when the word follows a, ā, u or ū (after i or ī it is unvelarized: bismi l–lāh /bismilːaːh/).
3. In many varieties, /ħ, ʕ/ are actually epiglottal [ʜ, ʢ] (despite what is reported in many earlier works).
4. /x/ and /ɣ/ are often post-velar though velar and uvular pronunciations are also possible.^[15]

Syllable structure

Stress

• Only one of the last three syllables may be stressed.
• Given this restriction, the last "superheavy" syllable (containing a long vowel or ending in a consonant) is stressed.
• If there is no such syllable, the pre-final syllable is stressed if it is 'heavy.'^ I think you may have been the only one there!!
  • Ben Smith's Blog: White House: No bow to Saudi - POLITICO.com 19 September 2009 2:02 UTC www.politico.com [Source type: General]
  
  ^ Allah is the third of three; when there is no God save the One God.'
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  ^ They take their priests and their anchorites to be their lords in derogation of Allah and (they take as their Lord) Christ the son of Mary; Yet they were commanded to worship but one Allah: there is no god but He.
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  Otherwise, the first allowable syllable is stressed.
• In Standard Arabic, a final long vowel may not be stressed. (This restriction does not apply to the spoken dialects, where original final long vowels have been shortened and secondary final long vowels have arisen.)

.For example: ki-TAA-bun "book", KAA-ti-bun "writer", MAK-ta-bun "desk", ma-KAA-ti-bu "desks", mak-TA-ba-tun "library", KA-ta-buu (Modern Standard Arabic) "they wrote" = KA-ta-bu (dialect), ka-ta-BUU-hu (Modern Standard Arabic) "they wrote it" = ka-ta-BUU (dialect), ka-TA-ba-taa (Modern Standard Arabic) "they (dual, fem) wrote", ka-TAB-tu (Modern Standard Arabic) "I wrote" = ka-TABT (dialect).^ A modern Christian writer suggests that they were Nestorians.

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Doubled consonants count as two consonants: ma-JAL-la "magazine", ma-HALL "place".

Some dialects have different stress rules. .In the Cairo (Egyptian Arabic) dialect, for example, a heavy syllable may not carry stress more than two syllables from the end of a word, hence mad-RA-sa "school", qaa-HI-ra "Cairo". In the Arabic of Sana, stress is often retracted: BAY-tayn "two houses", MAA-sat-hum "their table", ma-KAA-tiib "desks", ZAA-rat-hiin "sometimes", mad-RA-sat-hum "their school". (In this dialect, only syllables with long vowels or diphthongs are considered heavy; in a two-syllable word, the final syllable can be stressed only if the preceding syllable is light; and in longer words, the final syllable cannot be stressed.^ MORE THAN JUST A BOW Obama's alleged non-bow may actually have been MORE THAN JUST A BOW. If you watch the video closely, Obama's left hand is at his side until nearly the end of the bow.

• Ben Smith's Blog: White House: No bow to Saudi - POLITICO.com 19 September 2009 2:02 UTC www.politico.com [Source type: General]

^ Having watched the video again myself, it makes more sense than a "two handed" hand shake that didn't happen.

• Ben Smith's Blog: White House: No bow to Saudi - POLITICO.com 19 September 2009 2:02 UTC www.politico.com [Source type: General]

^ For there to be more than one God, or "degrees of divinity" are both contradictions which cannot be defended, either by divine revelation or by logical thinking.

• The Exclusion of the Jews and Christians 3 February 2010 14:24 UTC debate.org.uk [Source type: Original source]

)

Dialectal variations

Further information: Varieties of Arabic

.In some dialects, there may be more or fewer phonemes than those listed in the chart above.^ We may have more guns than any other nation...

• Ben Smith's Blog: White House: No bow to Saudi - POLITICO.com 19 September 2009 2:02 UTC www.politico.com [Source type: General]

^ An examination of the table, listing some narrations pertinent to Khaybar demonstrates that there is no agreement between the traditions with regard to the permanence of the Jewish presence there.

• The Exclusion of the Jews and Christians 3 February 2010 14:24 UTC debate.org.uk [Source type: Original source]

^ There is, indeed, more than a mere similarity.

• The Exclusion of the Jews and Christians 3 February 2010 14:24 UTC debate.org.uk [Source type: Original source]

For example, non-Arabic [v] is used in the Maghrebi dialects as well in the written language mostly for foreign names. Semitic [p] became [f] extremely early on in Arabic before it was written down; a few modern Arabic dialects, such as Iraqi (influenced by Persian and Turkish) distinguish between [p] and [b].

Interdental fricatives ([θ] and [ð]) are rendered as stops [t] and [d] in some dialects (such as Egyptian, Levantine, and much of the Maghreb); some of these dialects render them as [s] and [z] in "learned" words from the Standard language. Early in the expansion of Arabic, the separate emphatic phonemes [dˁ] and [ðˁ] coallesced into a single phoneme, becoming one or the other. Predictably, dialects without interdental fricatives use [dˁ] exclusively, while dialects with such fricatives use [ðˁ]. Again, in "learned" words from the Standard language, [ðˁ] is rendered as [zˁ] (in Egypt & the Levant) or [dˁ] (in North Africa) in dialects without interdental fricatives.

Another key distinguishing mark of Arabic dialects is how they render the original velar and uvular stops /q/, /dʒ/ (Proto-Semitic /ɡ/), and /k/:

• ق /q/ retains its original pronunciation in widely scattered regions such as Yemen, Morocco, and urban areas of the Maghreb. It is pronounced as a glottal stop [ʔ] in several prestige dialects, such as those spoken in Cairo, Beirut and Damascus. But it is rendered as a voiced velar stop [ɡ] in Gulf Arabic, Iraqi Arabic, Upper Egypt, much of the Maghreb, and less urban parts of the Levant (e.g. Jordan). Some traditionally Christian villages in rural areas of the Levant render the sound as [k], as do Shia Bahrainis. In some Gulf dialects, it is palatalized to [dʒ] or [ʒ]. It is pronounced as a voiced uvular constrictive [ʁ] in Sudanese Arabic. .Many dialects with a modified pronunciation for /q/ maintain the [q] pronunciation in certain words (often with religious or educational overtones) borrowed from the Classical language.
• ج /d͡ʒ/ retains its pronunciation in Iraq and much of the Arabian Peninsula, but is pronounced [ɡ] in most of North Egypt and parts of Yemen, [ʒ] in Morocco and the Levant, and [j] in some words in much of Gulf Arabic.
• ك /k/ usually retains its original pronunciation, but is palatalized to [tʃ] in many words in Palestine, Iraq and much of the Arabian Peninsula.^ It is not impossible that if the bishop restricted his oversight to the Monophysite Christians of the Arabian Peninsula, he may have had some sort of political arrangement with the Byzantine ruler [ 60 ].
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  ^ For example, according to Bukhari Hadith 4.288, identifying the borders of the Arabian Peninsula, Yemen is included in its bounds.
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  ^ Undoubtedly, one barrier to improved Christian-Muslim relations is the prohibition on the existence of free and public Christian worship, especially with respect to religious buildings, in the Arabian Peninsula.
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  Often a distinction is made between the suffixes /-ak/ (you, masc.) and /-ik/ (you, fem.), which become [-ak] and [-itʃ], respectively. In Sana Arabic, /-ik/ is pronounced [-iʃ].

Grammar

Main article: Arabic grammar

Visualization of Arabic grammar from the Quranic Arabic Corpus

Compared with other Semitic language systems, Classical Arabic is distinguished by, "its almost (too perfect) algebraic-looking grammar, i.e. root pattern and morphology."^[17] Nouns in Literary Arabic have three grammatical cases (nominative, accusative, and genitive [also used when the noun is governed by a preposition]); three numbers (singular, dual and plural); two genders (masculine and feminine); and three "states" (indefinite, definite, and construct). The cases of singular nouns (other than those that end in long ā) are indicated by suffixed short vowels (/-u/ for nominative, /-a/ for accusative, /-i/ for genitive). The feminine singular is often marked by /-at/, which is reduced to /-ah/ or /-a/ before a pause. Plural is indicated either through endings (the sound plural) or internal modification (the broken plural). Definite nouns include all proper nouns, all nouns in "construct state" and all nouns which are prefixed by the definite article /al-/. .Indefinite singular nouns (other than those that end in long ā) add a final /-n/ to the case-marking vowels, giving /-un/, /-an/ or /-in/ (which is also referred to as nunation or tanwīn).^ In other words, the command was absolute, rather than conditional, yet the reference to usury implies that the fate of the Najran Christians was indeed conditional.

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.Verbs in Literary Arabic are marked for person (first, second, or third), gender, and number.^ God, the Son is the second Person begotten of the only Father, the Spirit is the third hypostasis who proceeds from the only Father whom He has as the cause of his own eternal existence.

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They are conjugated in two major paradigms (termed perfective and imperfective, or past and non-past); two voices (active and passive); and five moods in the imperfective (indicative, imperative, subjunctive, jussive and energetic). There are also two participles (active and passive) and a verbal noun, but no infinitive. .As indicated by the differing terms for the two tense systems, there is some disagreement over whether the distinction between the two systems should be most accurately characterized as tense, aspect or a combination of the two.^ An examination of the table, listing some narrations pertinent to Khaybar demonstrates that there is no agreement between the traditions with regard to the permanence of the Jewish presence there.

• The Exclusion of the Jews and Christians 3 February 2010 14:24 UTC debate.org.uk [Source type: Original source]

^ This story should be updated to show that the Presidential aid was absolutely lying in saying there was a "two handed" hand shake.

• Ben Smith's Blog: White House: No bow to Saudi - POLITICO.com 19 September 2009 2:02 UTC www.politico.com [Source type: General]

^ There is also uncertainty as the fate of Zaynab, some narrations indicating she was executed, others implying she was left alive.

• The Exclusion of the Jews and Christians 3 February 2010 14:24 UTC debate.org.uk [Source type: Original source]

The perfective aspect is constructed using fused suffixes that combine person, number and gender in a single morpheme, while the imperfective aspect is constructed using a combination of prefixes (primarily encoding person) and suffixes (primarily encoding gender and number). The moods other than imperative are primarily marked by suffixes (/u/ for indicative, /a/ for subjunctive, no ending for jussive, /an/ for energetic). The imperative has the endings of the jussive but lacks any prefixes. The passive is marked through internal vowel changes. .Plural forms for the verb are only used when the subject is not mentioned, or precedes it, and the feminine singular is used for all non-human plurals.^ In the Trinity there is none that precedes and none that follows; none that is elder and none that is younger, none that is ruler and none that is subject; the Three are One, in all things equal (Jn.

• The Exclusion of the Jews and Christians 3 February 2010 14:24 UTC debate.org.uk [Source type: Original source]

Adjectives in Literary Arabic are marked for case, number, gender and state, as for nouns. .However, the plural of all non-human nouns is always combined with a singular feminine adjective, which takes the /-ah/ or /-at/ suffix.^ He readily enough recognized the Prophet ....and said while taking his hand: "This is the master of all humans.

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Pronouns in Literary Arabic are marked for person, number and gender. There are two varieties, independent pronouns and enclitics. Enclitic pronouns are attached to the end of a verb, noun or preposition and indicate verbal and prepositional objects or possession of nouns. .The first-person singular pronoun has a different enclitic form used for verbs (/-ni/) and for nouns or prepositions (/-ī/ after consonants, /-ya/ after vowels).^ The use of the first person plural for God, and of Jesus being made a 'sign' is found in Surah 23 Al-Muminun 50 'And We made the son of Mary and his mother as a Sign'.

• The Exclusion of the Jews and Christians 3 February 2010 14:24 UTC debate.org.uk [Source type: Original source]

.Nouns, verbs, pronouns and adjectives agree with each other in all respects.^ After all, this is the mutual accusation Sunnis and Shi'ites hurl against each other in regard to both Hadith and Sira, especially with respect to the succession to Muhammad.

• The Exclusion of the Jews and Christians 3 February 2010 14:24 UTC debate.org.uk [Source type: Original source]

However, non-human plural nouns are grammatically considered to be feminine singular. Furthermore, a verb in a verb-initial sentence is marked as singular regardless of its semantic number when the subject of the verb is explicitly mentioned as a noun. Numerals between three and ten show "chiasmic" agreement, in that grammatically masculine numerals have feminine marking and vice versa.

.The spoken dialects have lost the case distinctions and make only limited use of the dual (it occurs only on nouns and its use is no longer required in all circumstances).^ Personally I lost all respect for our President the day he said that he was going to make Veterans pay for their own health insurance AFTER he said he was going to GIVE us all health insurance.

• Ben Smith's Blog: White House: No bow to Saudi - POLITICO.com 19 September 2009 2:02 UTC www.politico.com [Source type: General]

^ Not only did he bow - but when he bowed he shook King Abdulla's hand with only one hand and the King had his hand extended for a hand shake first or the President may have bowed with no handshake at all.

• Ben Smith's Blog: White House: No bow to Saudi - POLITICO.com 19 September 2009 2:02 UTC www.politico.com [Source type: General]

They have lost the mood distinctions other than imperative, but many have since gained new moods through the use of prefixes (most often /bi-/ for indicative vs. unmarked subjunctive). They have also mostly lost the indefinite "nunation" and the internal passive. Modern Standard Arabic maintains the grammatical distinctions of Literary Arabic except that the energetic mood is almost never used; in addition, Modern Standard Arabic sometimes drop the final short vowels that indicate case and mood.

As in many other Semitic languages, Arabic verb formation is based on a (usually) triconsonantal root, which is not a word in itself but contains the semantic core. The consonants k-t-b, for example, indicate write, q-r-ʾ indicate read, ʾ-k-l indicate eat, etc. Words are formed by supplying the root with a vowel structure and with affixes. (Traditionally, Arabic grammarians have used the root f-ʿ-l, do, as a template to discuss word formation.) From any particular root, up to fifteen different verbs can be formed, each with its own template; these are referred to by Western scholars as "form I", "form II", and so on through "form XV". These forms, and their associated participles and verbal nouns, are the primary means of forming vocabulary in Arabic. Forms XI to XV are incidental.

Writing system

Main article: Arabic alphabet

An example of a text written in Arabic calligraphy.

The Arabic alphabet derives from the Aramaic script through Nabatean, to which it bears a loose resemblance like that of Coptic or Cyrillic script to Greek script. .Traditionally, there were several differences between the Western (North African) and Middle Eastern version of the alphabet—in particular, the fa and qaf had a dot underneath and a single dot above respectively in the Maghreb, and the order of the letters was slightly different (at least when they were used as numerals).^ It is noteworthy that there are several versions of the text.

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^ Then the Prophet ordered them to do three things saying, 'Turn out all the pagans from the Arabian Peninsula, show respect to all foreign delegates by giving them gifts as I used to do.'"

• The Exclusion of the Jews and Christians 3 February 2010 14:24 UTC debate.org.uk [Source type: Original source]

^ So Allah's Apostle excused him, for the Prophet and his companions used to forgive the pagans and the people of Scripture as Allah had ordered them, and they used to put up with their mischief with patience.

• The Exclusion of the Jews and Christians 3 February 2010 14:24 UTC debate.org.uk [Source type: Original source]

However, the old Maghrebi variant has been abandoned except for calligraphic purposes in the Maghreb itself, and remains in use mainly in the Quranic schools (zaouias) of West Africa. .Arabic, like all other Semitic languages (except for the Latin-written Maltese, and the languages with the Ge'ez script), is written from right to left.^ First of all, slow motion reveals Obamas left hand is across his waist as he is grasping the saudi hand with his right hand (no two handed shake) .

• Ben Smith's Blog: White House: No bow to Saudi - POLITICO.com 19 September 2009 2:02 UTC www.politico.com [Source type: General]

There are several styles of script, notably Naskh which is used in print and by computers, and Ruq'ah which is commonly used in handwriting.^[18]

Calligraphy

Main article: Arabic calligraphy

.After Khalil ibn Ahmad al Farahidi finally fixed the Arabic script around 786, many styles were developed, both for the writing down of the Qur'an and other books, and for inscriptions on monuments as decoration.^ Sahih Al-Bukhari Hadith 8.747 Narrated by Ali We have no Book to recite except the Book of Allah (Qur'an) and this paper.

• The Exclusion of the Jews and Christians 3 February 2010 14:24 UTC debate.org.uk [Source type: Original source]

^ How can he be leaning over to grab his hands if the king and the other people around him are looking down at his head.

• Ben Smith's Blog: White House: No bow to Saudi - POLITICO.com 19 September 2009 2:02 UTC www.politico.com [Source type: General]

^ It is then that both the Qur'an and the Hadith receive their final redactions, and only thereafter that Sira literature emerges in its final redaction.

• The Exclusion of the Jews and Christians 3 February 2010 14:24 UTC debate.org.uk [Source type: Original source]

Arabic calligraphy has not fallen out of use as calligraphy has in the Western world, and is still considered by Arabs as a major art form; calligraphers are held in great esteem. .Being cursive by nature, unlike the Latin alphabet, Arabic script is used to write down a verse of the Qur'an, a Hadith, or simply a proverb, in a spectacular composition.^ How the Muslims would know this is not revealed, still less is it clear how someone writing generations after the event would be aware of it in the absence of any reference in the Qur'an or Hadith .

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^ To kill such a large number is diametrically opposed to the Islamic sense of justice and to the basic principles laid down in the Qur'an - particularly the verse.

• The Exclusion of the Jews and Christians 3 February 2010 14:24 UTC debate.org.uk [Source type: Original source]

^ Waraqa had been converted to Christianity in the Pre-Islamic Period and used to write Arabic and write of the Gospel in Arabic as much as Allah wished him to write.

• The Exclusion of the Jews and Christians 3 February 2010 14:24 UTC debate.org.uk [Source type: Original source]

The composition is often abstract, but sometimes the writing is shaped into an actual form such as that of an animal. One of the current masters of the genre is Hassan Massoudy

Transliteration

Main article: Arabic transliteration

There are a number of different standards of Arabic transliteration: methods of accurately and efficiently representing Arabic with the Latin alphabet. There are multiple conflicting motivations for transliteration. .Scholarly systems are intended to accurately and unambiguously represent the phonemes of Arabic, generally making the phonetics more explicit than the original word in the Arabic alphabet.^ Having watched the video again myself, it makes more sense than a "two handed" hand shake that didn't happen.

• Ben Smith's Blog: White House: No bow to Saudi - POLITICO.com 19 September 2009 2:02 UTC www.politico.com [Source type: General]

These systems are heavily reliant on diacritical marks such as "š" for the sound equivalently written sh in English. .In some cases, the sh or kh sounds can be represented by italicizing or underlining them – that way, they can be distinguished from separate s and h sounds or k and h sounds, respectively.^ You replied that they were increasing, and in fact this is the way of true faith, till it is complete in all respects.

• The Exclusion of the Jews and Christians 3 February 2010 14:24 UTC debate.org.uk [Source type: Original source]

(Compare gashouse to gash.) At first sight, this may be difficult to recognize. .Less scientific systems often use digraphs (like sh and kh), which are usually more simple to read, but sacrifice the definiteness of the scientific systems.^ This question is more likely to be the anachronistic reading of a later anti-Trinitarian Muslim polemic than any genuine query.

• The Exclusion of the Jews and Christians 3 February 2010 14:24 UTC debate.org.uk [Source type: Original source]

.Such systems may be intended to help readers who are neither Arabic speakers nor linguists to intuitively pronounce Arabic names and phrases.^ The Jews who may follow us will have our support equally, without suppression, nor do we intend to combine [and turn] against them.

• The Exclusion of the Jews and Christians 3 February 2010 14:24 UTC debate.org.uk [Source type: Original source]

An example of such a system is the Bahá'í orthography. .A third type of transliteration seeks to represent an equivalent of the Arabic spelling with Latin letters, for use by Arabic speakers when Arabic writing is not available (for example, when using an ASCII communication device).^ Waraqa had been converted to Christianity in the Pre-Islamic Period and used to write Arabic and write of the Gospel in Arabic as much as Allah wished him to write.

• The Exclusion of the Jews and Christians 3 February 2010 14:24 UTC debate.org.uk [Source type: Original source]

An example is the system used by the US military, Standard Arabic Technical Transliteration System or SATTS, which represents each Arabic letter with a unique symbol in the ASCII range to provide a one-to-one mapping from Arabic to ASCII and back. This system, while facilitating typing on English keyboards, presents its own ambiguities and disadvantages. .During the last few decades and especially since the 1990s, Western-invented text communication technologies have become prevalent in the Arab world, such as personal computers, the World Wide Web, email, Bulletin board systems, IRC, instant messaging and mobile phone text messaging.^ The opinion that this verse was the last revelation is not sound according to many scholars, since it was revealed during the last pilgrimage of the Prophet.

• The Exclusion of the Jews and Christians 3 February 2010 14:24 UTC debate.org.uk [Source type: Original source]

^ World Wide Web at http://homepages.haqq.com.au/salam/misc/qurayza.html , 1999.

• The Exclusion of the Jews and Christians 3 February 2010 14:24 UTC debate.org.uk [Source type: Original source]

Most of these technologies originally had the ability to communicate using the Latin alphabet only, and some of them still do not have the Arabic alphabet as an optional feature. As a result, Arabic speaking users communicated in these technologies by transliterating the Arabic text using the Latin script, sometimes known as IM Arabic.

.To handle those Arabic letters that cannot be accurately represented using the Latin script, numerals and other characters were appropriated.^ It was based on freedom, hard work, responsibility, self-reliance, faith in God, family, and taking care of those who cannot take care of themselves--among other virtues.

• Ben Smith's Blog: White House: No bow to Saudi - POLITICO.com 19 September 2009 2:02 UTC www.politico.com [Source type: General]

For example, the numeral "3" may be used to represent the Arabic letter "ع", ayn. There is no universal name for this type of transliteration, but some have named it Arabic Chat Alphabet. Other systems of transliteration exist, such as using dots or capitalization to represent the "emphatic" counterparts of certain consonants. For instance, using capitalization, the letter "د", or daal, may be represented by d. Its emphatic counterpart, "ض", may be written as D.

Numerals

See also: Arabic numerals

In most of present-day North Africa, the Western Arabic numerals (0, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9) are used. However in Egypt and Arabic-speaking countries to the east of it, the Eastern Arabic numerals (٠.١.٢.٣.٤.٥.٦.٧.٨.٩) are in use. When representing a number in Arabic, the lowest-valued position is placed on the right, so the order of positions is the same as in left-to-right scripts. Sequences of digits such as telephone numbers are read from left to right, but numbers are spoken in the traditional Arabic fashion, with units and tens reversed from the modern English usage. For example, 24 is said "four and twenty", and 1975 is said "one thousand and nine hundred and five and seventy."

Language-standards regulators

Academy of the Arabic Language is the name of a number of language-regulation bodies formed in Arab countries. The most active are in Damascus and Cairo. They review language development, monitor new words and approve inclusion of new words into their published standard dictionaries. They also publish old and historical Arabic manuscripts.

Studying Arabic

.Because the Quran is written in Arabic and all Islamic terms are in Arabic, millions of Muslims (both Arab and non-Arab) study the language.^ The Quran states that all Muslims must follow the Truth Jesus brought.

• Ben Smith's Blog: White House: No bow to Saudi - POLITICO.com 19 September 2009 2:02 UTC www.politico.com [Source type: General]

Arabic has been taught worldwide in many elementary and secondary schools, especially Muslim schools. Universities around the world have classes that teach Arabic as part of their foreign languages, Middle Eastern studies, and religious studies courses. Arabic language schools exist to assist students in learning Arabic outside of the academic world. Many Arabic language schools are located in the Arab world and other Muslim countries. Software and books with tapes are also important part of Arabic learning, as many of Arabic learners may live in places where there are no academic or Arabic language school classes available. Radio series of Arabic language classes are also provided from some radio stations. A number of websites on the Internet provide online classes for all levels as a means of distance education.

Examples

English	Arabic	Romanization (ALA-LC)	IPA
English	الْإِنْكِليزيَّة or الْإِنْجِليزيَّة	al-injlīzīyah	/alinʒliːziːjah/
Yes	نَعَمْ	naʿam	/naʕam/
No	لا	lā	/laː/
Hello	مَرْحَباً	marḥaban	/marħaban/
Welcome	أَهْلاً	ahlan	/ahlan/
Goodbye	مَعَ السَّلامَةِ	maʿa as-salāmah	/maʕ assalaːmah/
Please	مِنْ فَضْلِك	min faḍlik	/min ˈfadˁlik/
Thanks	شُكْرًا	shukran	/ʃukran/
Excuse me	عَفْوًا	ʿafwan	/ʕafwan/
I'm sorry	آسِف	āsif	/ʔaːsif/
What's your name?	ما اسمُكَ؟	maa ismuk?	/masmuk/
How much?	كَم؟	kam?	/kam/
I don't understand.	لا أَفْهَمُ	lā afham	/laː ʔafham/
I don't speak Arabic.	لا أَتَكَلَّمُ الْعَرَبيَّةَ	lā atakallamu al-ʿarabīyah	/laː ʔatakallam ulʕarabiːja/
I don't know.	لا أَعْرِفُ	lā aʿrif	/laː ʔaʕrif/
I'm hungry.	أنا جائِعٌ	anā jāʾiʿun	/ʔanaː dʒaʔiʕun/
Orange	بُرْتُقالي	burtuqāli	/burtuqaːliː/
Black	أَسْوَد	aswad	/ʔaswad/
One	واحِد	wāḥid	/waːħid/
Two	إِثْنان	ithnān	/iθnaːn/
Three	ثَلاثَة	thalāthah	/θalaːθah/
Four	أَرْبَعَة	arbaʿah	/ʔarbaʕah/
Five	خَمْسَة	khamsah	/xamsah/
Six	سِتَّة	sittah	/sitah/
Seven	سَبْعَة	saba'ah	/sabʕah/
Eight	ثَمانِيَّة	thamaniah	/θamaniːjah/
Nine	تِسْعَة	tis'aah	/tisʕah/
Ten	عَشَرَة	asharah	/ʕaʃarah/

See also

Arabic alphabet Arabic calligraphy Arabic diglossia Arabic influence on Spanish Arabic literature Arabist Dictionary of Modern Written Arabic Iʿrāb

List of Arabic loanwords in English List of French words of Arabic origin List of Islamic terms in Arabic List of Portuguese words of Arabic origin List of replaced loanwords in Turkish Literary Arabic Macrolanguage Varieties of Arabic

Notes

1. ^ ^{a b} Procházka, 2006.
2. ^ ^{a b} Ethnologue (1999)
3. ^ Wright, 2001, p. 492.
4. ^ "Arabic language." Encyclopaedia Britannica. 2009. Encyclopaedia Britannica Online. Retrieved on 29 July 2009.
5. ^ Versteegh, 1997, p. 33.
6. ^ "Arabic Language." Microsoft Encarta Online Encyclopedia 2009. Retrieved on 29 July 2009.
7. ^ Orville Boyd Jenkins (18 March 2000). "Population Analysis of the Arabic Languages". http://strategyleader.org/articles/arabicpercent.html. 
8. ^ ^{a b} Kaye, 1991.
9. ^ Maltese language – Britannica Online Encyclopedia
10. ^ Gregersen, 1977, p. 237.
11. ^ http://www.alislam.org/topics/arabic/
12. ^ A History of the Arabic Language
13. ^ Kaplan and Baldauf, 2007, p. 48. See also Bateson, 2003, pp. 96–103 and Berber: Linguistic "Substratum" of North African Arabic by Ernest N. McCarus.
14. ^ MED Magazine
15. ^ Watson (2002:18)
16. ^ e.g. Thelwall (2003:52)
17. ^ Hetzron, 1997, p. 229.
18. ^ Hanna, 1972, p. 2

References

• Bateson, Mary Catherine (2003). Arabic Language Handbook. Georgetown University Press. 
• Gregersen, Edgar A. (1977). Language in Africa. CRC Press. ISBN 0677043805. 
• Grigore, George (2007). L'arabe parlé à Mardin. Monographie d'un parler arabe périphérique. Bucharest: Editura Universitatii din Bucuresti. ISBN 9789737372499. .http://www.arc-news.com/read.php?lang=en&id_articol=1059. 
• Hanna, Sami A.; Greis, Naguib (1972).^ See the documentary "The Obama Deception" for details: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eAaQNACwaLw .
  • Ben Smith's Blog: White House: No bow to Saudi - POLITICO.com 19 September 2009 2:02 UTC www.politico.com [Source type: General]
  
  Writing Arabic: A Linguistic Approach, from Sounds to Script. Brill Archive. 
• Hetzron, Robert (1997). The Semitic languages (Illustrated ed.). Taylor & Francis. ISBN 0415057671, 9780415057677. 
• Haywood; Nahmad (1965). A new Arabic grammar. London: Lund Humphries. ISBN 085331585X. 
• Kaplan, Robert B.; Baldauf, Richard B. (2007). Language Planning and Policy in Africa. Multilingual Matters. 
• Kaye, Alan S. (1991). "The Hamzat al-Waṣl in Contemporary Modern Standard Arabic". Journal of the American Oriental Society (American Oriental Society) 111 (3): 572–574. doi:10.2307/604273. http://www.jstor.org/stable/604273. 
• Lane, Edward William (1893). Arabic English Lexicon (2003 reprint ed.). New Delhi: Asian Educational Services. ISBN 8120601076. http://www.studyquran.co.uk/LLhome.htm. 
• Mumisa, Michael (2003). Introducing Arabic. Goodword Books. 
• Procházka, S. (2006). ""Arabic"". Encyclopedia of Language and Linguistics (2nd ed.). 
• Thelwall, Robin (2003). "Arabic". Handbook of the International Phonetic Association a guide to the use of the international phonetic alphabet. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge. ISBN 0-521-63751-1. 
• Steingass, F. (1993). Arabic-English Dictionary. Asian Educational Services. 
• Traini, R.. Vocabolario di arabo. Rome: I.P.O.. 
• Versteegh, Kees (1997). The Arabic Language. Edinburgh University Press. 
• Vaglieri, Laura Veccia. Grammatica teorico-pratica della lingua araba. Rome: I.P.O.. 
• Watson, Janet (2002). The Phonology and Morphology of Arabic. New York: Oxford University Press. 
• Wehr, Hans (1952). Arabisches Wörterbuch für die Schriftsprache der Gegenwart: Arabisch-Deutsch (1985 reprint (English) ed.). Harassowitz. ISBN 3447019980. 
• Wright, John W. (2001). The New York Times Almanac 2002. Routledge. ISBN 1579583482. 

External links

Arabic language edition of Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

From Wikiversity

Learning Projects

• Introduction to Arabic - An Introduction to Arabic

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Streams

• Arabic

Current

• Elementary Arabic I

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Planned

• ...

Tasks

1. Incorporate Wikibooks materials into the Arabic Department.
2. Start an Arabic project/course.

Language References

Vocabulary

• See the lists at the Arabic on Wikibooks.

Verb conjugation

Typing Arabic

Department news

• November 10, 2006 - Department founded!

Definition from Wiktionary, a free dictionary

Arabic edition of Wiktionary

English

Wikipedia has an article on:

Arabic

Alternative forms

• Arabick

Pronunciation

• (RP) IPA: /ˈærəbɪk/
• (US) IPA: /ˈɛrəbɪk/, /ˈærəbɪk/
•  Audio (US)^{help, file}

Adjective

1. Of, from, or pertaining to Arab countries or cultural behaviour (see also Arab as an adjective).

Translations

Proper noun

1. A major Semitic language originating from the Arabian peninsula, and now spoken natively (in various spoken dialects, all sharing a single highly conservative standardized literary form) throughout large sections of the Middle East and North Africa.
2. The Aramaic-derived alphabet used to write the Arabic, Persian, Pashto, Urdu, and Uyghur languages, among others.

Derived terms

• Hispano-Arabic
• Mozarabic

Translations

See also

Arabic edition of Wiktionary

Wikibooks has more about this subject:

Arabic

• Category:Arabic language for words in Arabic
• Arabic edition of Wiktionary
• Arabic language on Wikipedia.Wikipedia:Arabic language
• Appendix:Arabic script
• Arab
• Arabian

External links

• ISO 639-1 code ar, ISO 639-3 code ara (SIL)
• Ethnologue entry for Arabic macrolanguage, ara It's a family or related languages. The individual ones are:

• Arabic–English Dictionary from Webster’s Online Dictionary

Here are sentences from other pages on Arabic language, which are similar to those in the above article.