Tom Facchine – Beginning Classical Arabic Lesson 25
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So that was salam ala Ashraful MBA almost I mean, that'd be in an awkward Latina Muhammad Ali here for Salah. Let's get to sleep Allahumma eliminated the Mayan pharaoh now on Fatima I limped into was even an omen. Yeah, Ramadan I mean, so I want to cut off so it would occur to everybody. Welcome to beginning classical Arabic, it's our Wednesday evening session, we're making good progress hamdulillah and we are involved in discussing feminine nouns. Okay, so when we began our journey, in classical Arabic, we were only learning masculine nouns. And for English speakers, this is a little bit more familiar because there is no gender
in
typical nouns in English, however, there are some nouns in which there is gender for English. So for example, waiter, versus waitress, actor, versus actress, and so on and so forth. Those words that typically are derived from romantic languages or romance languages, because Romance languages do have gendered nouns as well. And I would be willing to venture a guess that most languages in the world today have gendered nouns.
So English is kind of an exception in the sense that Kitab or excuse me, a book has no gender markers, right? We have this it category, which is covers everything that is considered inanimate, and therefore doesn't have gender, whereas Arabic, Arabic every noun, is going to be gendered. Okay? Whether it's a book, whether it's a pen, the sun and the moon, and the stars, solar system, comets, galaxies, atoms, everything has a gender. And so if it has a gender, then when you are constructing a sentence, the gender has to agree, right, we have to have gender agreements. If you're a moped to that, if we're in a Joomla ischemia, we're in a nominal sentence, a sentence that begins with an
essence and your moped that is feminine, your hover will have to be feminine as well. If you have a hub, that is masculine, then your move to that will have to be masculine as well. And similar to similar with the case of Joomla philia. If we get into or when we get into verbs, and verbal sentences, the verb is going to have to agree with the gender of the one that is doing liver, which we will get to later insha Allah Tada. So previously, we had done exercises learning a bunch of new vet Whoo, new vocabulary, and we noticed that some of the patterns are the most indicative patterns. The biggest crutch that we have to lean on is the tabular buta when it comes to identifying what is
feminine and what is not what is masculine and what is not the Tamar Botha is almost a certain sign that the noun is feminine. And so if it's feminine, feminine, then it's pronoun will have to be feminine as well here, if the noun is feminine, then the demonstrative pronoun, this Havey will have to be feminine as well, and so on and so forth. So what they're going to have you do here, they say exercise to Madhava, one that had heat.
So, you're going to have to now recall,
not simply the name of the object in front of you,
but the gender
of the object in front of you. Right. So if it is a masculine noun, you will have to say Ha, that you're making a Joomla Isthmian that look to that is the demonstrative pronoun either happy or happy. And the hover will be the name of the noun that is picture.
Have the so and so or have the he such and such. So let's get to it. And I realized that some of these vocabulary words either you will not have gone over in a long time, or they were new, and perhaps you didn't get a chance to review them. No shame. I'd rather have you participate, and we can all help fill in the gaps or complete each other's answers if need be. So I'll go down my list here. We're going to go from right to left then top to bottom
haven't touched them Can you please do the first example
I lemon, very good. Hi the column listen to how he he chose the correct
demonstrative pronoun had that because he knew that this was masculine and then he finished the sentence correctly by not just naming the object but by putting two bomas at the end call and moon because this is a Joomla is Mia. Kala Moon is the hover and the hover is more for hover is multiple and we show that with Obama in this case very good brother awesome Could you please do the second one?
Sure. Had the he Milaca tone
excellent, heavy feminine notice how he chose heavy metal I thought a tune which is a spoon and he said to bone was on the end because it is hub and cover is model for metal Ah. Oh tune that was one of our new words last time. What's the dead giveaway that it's feminine that Tamil buta on the end of it. Great brother saya Could you do the third example
kita was very good mashallah, you got one of the easier examples Michelle demotic Allah. I don't even need to write that. I don't think
Brother Mohammed thought it could you please do the fourth example
Hi, welcome, Eason. Yes, excellent. How that caught me. So this is a shirt and shirt is masculine. Great job. Okay. Going down to the second row. We have reached SR arrow. Would you please do the first example in the second row?
Beighton Yes, very good. Have that be done. Excellent work. Yep. Let's write this out.
Pardon my
chicken scratch
bait turn right we have moved to that club. Move to that is metaphor, but we can't really tell because it's have a habit is Magne it doesn't chain bait When a house is more for with a llama. And since it is Nikita, it is indefinite. We have two Bumbles instead of just one great job.
Moving right along with someone from the shahada family tackle the next example.
Ha the satin, yes, very good, heavy here how he selected the feminine demonstrative pronoun. So I turned this is a watch.
Saw can also be clocked and so I've turned with a bomber 10 two bombers on the end because it is covered and covered is marked for.
Also notice that PSA.
The word PSA ends with a Tamagotchi, which is a dead giveaway that it is feminine. Excellent. And can someone else from his or her family do? So just Samira do the following example.
He say yeah, that's an excellent Same exact thing. Say Auto Tune means car. It has a timer buta, which is a dead giveaway for it being a feminine noun.
She put two of those on the end because it is the hub. And the cover is metaphor. Excellent. Following example, someone from the CFM.
Had the goblin Yes, fantastic. This is a door that because it's masculine. The bone because it's covered and hover is not for. And it's Nikki Ron definite, which is why it has a 10 week. Let me clear this and scroll down to the next line. And Brother machine gets this nice meaty leg over here.
The red balloon? Oh, very good. Now how did you know? How did you know rather than Watson? That original, which is the word for leg is feminine, especially seeing as how it has no time.
Previously, we did it last time.
Yes.
Pair. What was that last thing you said? Yeah. Here? Yes. Yes. Excellent work. The rule is that body parts that come in pairs are feminine, whereas body parts that come that don't have parents that are singular. They are masculine, excellent job. So this would be one
Are the heat as Dr. Marston said red balloon
very good and original balloon has to vamos at the end. Because it is the cover is the predicate and the hover is more for repeating it because we can drill it into your head that way. Very good. Yes, it's already went SR muscle rods following example.
Heavy high the heat the Roger tool. Very good. Excellent same thing so we here we pick the feminine demonstrative pronoun Havey the raja tune,
which is a bicycle
the Roger tone has a time I'll go to at the end which is a dead giveaway that it is a feminine noun.
And since it is a gym, that is meow and the Roger is part of the hover or is the hover we have Bama at the end the Roger turn
good excellent everyone's doing fantastic let's keep rolling. Let's go to and as I said when I go back to the top of the list sometimes in zoom it switches the names around the order so don't worry if the order is going to be different. Brother Mohammed thought I could you do the following example here this nice hand
I have a question if the previous example a one wheel, is it a masculine then
Masha Allah, you are a puppy sir. Mashallah. Yeah, this is how a Juris thinks. Because the jurists, you know, they look for the Koopa Ha, they look for the rule. And they're looking to apply the rule everywhere we can apply it, and they're always looking to push the edge. What's the border at which I can apply the rule? Fantastic. The rod can I want to answer him? Does anyone want to answer him before I answer?
What was the question? Sorry? The saying okay, the Roger is feminine.
It has two wheels.
If we had a unicycle or a bicycle with one wheel, would it be masculine?
I love the question.
I think when you're talking about a body part, it matters if it's one or two. But if when it's an inanimate object, like a bike, a bike is bike, whether it's one tire to tire or tricycle with three.
So that's correct. Okay, good. So if so, brother, Mohammed Xotic helped us identify the scope of this, of this rule. With one or two, it is limited to body parts, right? Has nothing to do with bikes has nothing to do with stationary or anything else. It's only talking about body parts. So the Raja is feminine, not by virtue of its two wheels, but by virtue of its time or buta, right, and so the time will go to will not go away.
Very good question. Thank you for asking that.
I don't know how to say things in Arabic. Oh, good because we didn't learn fingers. This is about a hand which Yeah.
Yeah, okay. Haha yet now. Haha, yeah, good. We did learn figure out a start. We did learn Okay. Mashallah. So he said had that you had one who agrees with him or disagrees? He chose that, that Yeah. is masculine.
I think it would be happy.
Yeah. All right. We just mentioned our rule about body parts, which is exclusive to body parts. Hence, there are two hands. Since our two hands, then we say have you he is a feminine?
Have the heat. Yeah, doing?
Okay. Very good. Now, I'm going to, I'm going to see your previous question and raise you another question. If we have someone who has only one hand
become how they Edwin?
I don't honestly know the answer to that question. So that's a really, I really, I really liked the way that you thought about that. And I'm interested to know maybe that can be a research topic, anybody? But I think because these are these rules are already set. And we cannot change these feminine or masculine by just having the existence of one or two. I suspect that you're right. I suspect that you're right.
But
I'm not but I'm not certain but a very good excellent work. Okay, question our finger or fingers masculine how that is the assaulted
I can't recall. I'll have to look that up on that certain our fingers masculine or feminine? I don't remember. Um, let's see.
Next example. Okay, I think we're on hand and one
by one very good. How the feminine and why did you choose how the masculine one? Just one mouth? Yes, we have one mouth. And so because it's singular it is masculine Excellent.
Moving along to the shahada family the following example
yeah is pen like a psych
Yeah, I was wondering the same thing it seems like you can pick either one of the two objects that's in it or you can try to do both because from what I recall in the previous lesson, the was it was two so if you want you guys can split it one of you take one of the objects in the picture and the other ones take the
hair the surgeon
had the Malecon Makaton was very good had a human attitude and I think what we had learned the particular word that they had wanted to teach us with SCADA.
I believe that they wanted us to use PID for this obviously in Arabic especially spoken Arabic there are a lot of words for pots and pans and things like that. But it the by itself is is feminine. So if we were to use this for everybody since that's the word that we initially learned if it said that then it would be heavy, heavy here we have the heat mill opportune very good both of them with two bombers because it is covered.
Very good someone from the same family.
The next example
had the
MC MC one.
The MC
MC wha from CoA is the verb to iron, the iron and is feminine Havey MC wax when it ends with Epstein or buta, which is why as a dead giveaway that it is feminine brother my son the next example
he could see I don't
know
why.
Or maybe it's not done then the courtesy
I don't know let's go back to is of course see
oh I tell corsi Yes, that is true. Awesome. Cool to see you. Or not corsia to
definitely see, I see there's there's policy is a difficult one to remember because it doesn't end like a typical masculine noun. So it ends with what's called a hug
which is the a week letter like one of the med letters. Yeah, and even weirder than that. It ends with a that letter with a shed the on top of it, which is not typical, which is not typical of Arabic nouns.
So that is a little bit tricky to remember. But cool to see is masculine how that
how that could see. And if you were in doubt, you can go back to the idea because
because Oh this is nice. This is nice. Got a verb work in here. Because what's the I was a I
will see through a little bit of vocab from the Koran word see? Ah
cool to see you.
Okay, what's the means to encompass,
to encompass, okay, this is a past tense verb.
Right? We'll see if it's conjugated for masculine. Okay, we haven't learned verb conjugation yet, but it's conjugating for a masculine doer and cool to see you here with a llama which means that it is the doer of the verb.
Chair Excuse me.
Sorry, I think I got little confused. So I understood when we are talking about feminine, there will be Tom buta and
so Regeneron was because two parts, you know, pair a pair but
why
I
could see why Gaussian is like autodrome. Good. How's the federal? Good? Why does Yeah. Excellent. So when it comes to the, okay, let's, let's talk about one thing that's just like super big picture. In the Arabic language. There's two types of rules. Okay? There's one category of rules that are called PSE. PS, if you know anything about the way that fic works, it's about applying like learning the reason behind the rule and applying it to something else. And then there's a second type of rules or category of rule, that's called a scenario. Which means that that's just the way that it's always been said, and no one really knows why. Right? Okay, so there are rules in Arabic. And Arabic
has many more rules than I think English were the reason for the rule is clear, you apply it and it's very sensical. But there are sometimes rules in Arabic that are, we don't even really know why, like, why is a pot feminine? What's feminine about a pot?
I don't know. And I think you'd be hard pressed to find anybody who knows when it came to the other rules that account for many more nouns? That's easy, right? There's linguistic femininity. If something has a timeout or buta? That's easy. There's this kind of singular dual thing with body parts where if the singular, you know, if
there's only one of them, then it's masculine. And there's two, there's feminine, that makes sense. As for some nouns that are feminine,
they defy explanation. And like those other two types of nouns, why is good or feminine? I have no idea. And I'm not sure that anybody knows that could be another interesting research topic. My question was not why it is better, but why it is written as pleasurable and not with some Bucha? Yes, that's what he was asking. Right? I see. That is
simply what the word is. I don't know what to how to explain
that I don't have a better answer for you.
The, some of the
some nouns are derived from other root words. Okay. So double Raja comes from data Jack, which means steps or levels, right? Because the pedaling of a bicycle resembles walking upstairs. That's kind of like the idea behind a stair master.
The form of kids
and how it's derived from its roots, I would need to look that up. So I don't know.
As for Corsi, corsi is masculine, it's not feminine, was the ICO to see you who his kursi encompasses Smls he was along. And West, he has conjugated for masculine.
That's good, though. Let's take the second to have any other questions. Anybody else have any questions? If I could piggyback off that for a moment? Whoever if we ever get a word like that, that does not have a Tamata Botha? It's literally if you don't know the derivative, masculine feminine.
I mean, you didn't have no idea how to make the initial word. Right. So realistically, if we both were writing, I don't know a short story in one use the male masculine when he was the feminine, unless the reader knew really, it's there. It's the correct answer, right? Because Is there a book out there that says bicycles are, you know, feminine this, is this this? Is that in Arabic? Or is it just, you know, learning as you go? I bet.
I bet if we go back into the classical books of Arabic morphology, that we could find some we could find some some answers.
So I invite anybody to and I will try to as well in my spare time.
But you are right. You are right, in the sense that there are certain types of nouns and they're an extreme minority, right? Because the vast majority of nouns you're either going to have, it's gonna follow one of these obvious rules, right? And we've seen before lots of common nouns that don't have a time of the Buddha and how many of them were masculine Kitab and follow them and bathe and all of these, right? Were masculine. So we can say that probabilistically
you're very very safe by guessing that a common noun without a tomato buta is mastered how
However, it's not a fail safe rule, because there are nouns like that, that are feminine. As to why, what is it about them that makes it feminine? How do we go back into the roots of the language and determine why. Yeah, that's something that I would I would be really interested to know, that I do not currently know. I think, you know, just for the Arabic spoken people, for them, it's it's just, like, for example, Corsi, in Urdu, My language is feminine. Lisa kursi. So we know that when we talk about kursi is a feminine, you know, key, you know, key is feminine cHRB. You know, so whenever someone is talking about key, they, you know, use feminine, you know, so I think the people who
speak Arabic, they know, you know, that's feminine. Yeah. Obviously, if someone not Arabic spoken readings, then this problem. Right? Very, that's a good point, too. I remember asking some of my, my, my teachers and professors when I was, you know, newer, in Medina, why is this feminine? Why is that masculine? And if they didn't know, the, the rules, they would kind of just look at you incredulous, and said, because it is like, how could you like it, it can't possibly be the other one, because that's how they had been hearing it their whole lives. Right. So that's where I brought up the issue of rules that are the assay versus rules that are symmetric.
You know, if a person doesn't know the rule, there's a possibility, it could be something symmetric, something that this is just always the way that it's been done. And so it's on precedent. But it is possible, there could be a rule, but we've just haven't yet uncovered it.
One of the students, private messaged me, and they said that for your information, finger, one is masculine, but multiple fingers are feminine,
which is very useful. Thank you very much for looking at it. And that makes sense that follows the the body part rule that we've been rolling with.
Which is good.
If you don't mind me asking one other question. So do you know how they initially do it? You know how there's generic rules for body parts, certain inanimate objects, but let's just take it back and say before a car was a car?
Do they get together and decide whether it's masculine and feminine? At the time? Is there like a?
It's a great question. This is this, they actually talked about these sorts of questions. And it was sort of a talk about the theory of language. Right? And there's two, you know, there's there's three main opinions. I should say that the question is, where does language come from? Is language. Why is it revelation? Right? Because we have to think about where did Arranque language like, originated from? Where we literally like some of the evolutionary biologists would have us thinking just like grunting and, you know, moaning until we kind of pieced together like sounds and eventually they evolved into meeting.
Was it initiated or created by humans? Or was it something that was revealed, because the law says it's sort of a buffet, all that He taught Adam, the names, he taught Adams, the names of everything, right? And you'll find,
slowly, you'll, you'll find scholars of soul on both sides, and a group in the middle. Some say that, because of the idea. In sort of sort of Dakota and others, let's say that Adam was taught the names, languages, revelation comes from Revelation, Allah gifted us language, and from what I understand, maybe somebody here knows more about linguistics than I do. Know, I'm Chomsky, who's one of the big heads of, you know, linguistics in the last 100 years, he seems to have reached a similar conclusion where, as he finds, he compared it I think, to like people are born with like, the hardware for language. So he's kind of saying that there's something that's given to us or gifted to
us that is not simply acquired and decided upon but as part innate. Okay. And then there's the second group that says, No, this is something that is
made by people. And our evidence for that is that we look around and if there's something that there comes an object or some sort of invention, and we didn't have a name for it before, somebody coins a name for it, and then it becomes widespread and use, right microchip computer, right? You know, anything, especially that has to do with technology. We didn't have a name for it necessarily.
past a certain time period, right. And so, there was even if it was derived from this kind of other meaning or other word like, computer, for example, at some point, it was intentionally given a name and that name stuff and it spread. So they say that
This is how language works period. And then there's a group. And this makes the most sense to me along those best that says that it's part and parcel, right? There's a certain degree of languages or there's a certain degree of language that is God given that is from Allah, Revelation. And there is a certain degree where humans interact with it and shape it and rearrange it and change it.
What's really interesting to me, for those of you who have been with us, from the very first lesson, when we talked about the difference between synthetic languages and analytic language, and how, throughout human history, languages began as more synthetic. And synthetic languages are way more complicated. Like you have a much, much harder time imagining people inventing synthetic languages, whereas analytical languages, languages that depend on word order,
I have a much more easy or an easier time imagining that people could invent things like that. And so that the
historical trajectory is that language become more analytic over time, and less synthetic, which seems to indicate to me maybe a divine starting point, and
Allah knows best. But this, these issues get very deep. And the scholars of Islam have talked about these sorts of issues. And I'm only aware of a small bit of the conversation around these issues. But it is extremely fascinating to think about.
We can talk about language theory all day long. Does anybody have any other
questions? Oh, good question. So in my language, we can put any word from any language and use it as our own word on it. For example, if I want to say, Bob, I can say, Hey, Bob, hey, this is this has about baboon whenever you can call. Can you do this in Arabic? Also? Yes, you can I now knowing what I presume is or do? I think that's not really correct.
Okay, well, maybe some of you guys can fill me in because I don't know the language, the language that we're talking about. But however,
there is a process for doing this in Arabic. And I'll give you a comical and contemporary example. So when we say in English, like if you pull up to the gas station or the petrol station, and you want to fill up the car, right? They usually ask you like, how much do you want, and so shorthand usually say full if you want to pull Well, in Arabic, they've taken that word poll, and they've put it on an Arabic speech pattern.
But when they've turned it into an imperative verb, on the on an Arabic speech pattern, but the actual derivation of the word is originally English from full, let's say, but we'll have Wila but whether to write for any of the Arabic speakers in the room, right? So there are ways in which that's done. And even with other words, like the, for example, anything that is a
forgetting the English term, I can muster a lot of witches like
for example, something like strategy,
not the Gu, it's a lone word, but it has been something in Arabic that makes it on an Arabic.
I don't know if that's the same thing you're talking about enough?
Yes, oh, there's those different doesn't mean, here's a question too. This also gets into another question that was always talked about.
Allah said that the Quran is Arabic ought to be mov. But there are some words, there are some words in the Quran that are originally originally Farsi words are originally from other words from other languages. Okay, so does this mean that now,
does this contradict the statement of a law that that the Koran is not an Arabic? No, it doesn't. All it means is that languages are somewhat fluid in that they do take in words from other languages. Sometimes they stay loanwords, like, okay, and then other times, they become more native in the language or they change to become more native than simply alone word. Like my example with the will her and tuff Wheeler, they've taken a root, or they've taken an English word, and they've separated it into three roots, Arabic letters that exist, even though that root word doesn't exist at all.
Arabic, they've put it on the same pattern that yeah, fu fo Wallah, you felt we have Wila
and they have treated it like an Arabic word and how it's conjugated, how you derive other word forms from it. So that's a much more higher level of involvement and intervention with that word than simply using a long word like, Okay, right. But um,
yeah, these things are very interesting.
Similar, where like the beep in doctor or the tool, or something like that,
is, that's a very good example, duck tour, in the singular is a complete loanword. Right? Complete loanword from the Romance languages, but what's the plural of duck tour
the cat Tierra.
So you see now that we've taken the pattern of the singular is 100%, loanword. But the floral pattern is an Arabic floral pattern. And this happens all the time with like, all these different things. So maybe it would be more useful than to think of it black and white, as like words that are Arabic, we can think of it as languages have a spectrum, or a varying degrees of intervention with language with words that come from other languages, sometimes they they have a very superficial relationship with that word, where they just take it as is and use it in that context.
Whereas some of those relationships with, quote, unquote, foreign words are much more, much more involved. And they actually involve making that word, their own in some sort of way. And so it becomes part of the language and this is how, if this process weren't happening, then we would never have new languages. Right? Roman, gave or Latin, I should say, gave way to Italian and Romanian and French and Spanish, right? How did that happen by the importation of other words from the Gothic languages from other Germanic languages, and then kind of the shifting of phonemes the shifting of speech patterns, the shifting of vocabulary uses the shifting of syntax and all these sorts of
things. And then after a certain amount of time, you have a new language, right? But there's always a process of borrowing, and reusing and remaking into one's own
delightful conversation, Mashallah.
Let's finish our last line of examples in the exercise and then if anyone has any other comments or questions, we can have them that
oh, boy, I completely lost track of where we were as far as well. I think we're the most than had that of course. See. So that leaves us to the last line I think we're down to brother side. Could you do the fridge
Yes. Had their fair ledger sell for large in
June. We had this just last lesson so awkward to have had their fair lesson. Okay, excellent. Now, I want you to listen to what you just said and tell me what sounds wrong about it. You said to have that
jet the term of with a heavy Heath Ledger
There you go. Exactly. So there's there's hints and yes, now
the rule for the vast majority of cases very good brother awesome.
Following
had that mix down.
Very very good. Next one, my son rocks
Hi, the messy mess detune what a messy that is. That's an enormous match to multiple domes.
Let's see and let's have
I'm not sure it's just there. I don't got to do one more. It's just there. I don't think you can complete it for us. The the last one.
I know it will start with has I forgot what he called a star. No problem. Can anyone help her out? Either in the comments or with a microphone? What is the star? najem Nigel, Nigel, I should know that that's an order to Okay. Hi, John. Nigel moon. Very good. Nudge. Very good.
And no, no. No worries about what we shouldn't shouldn't know because especially it can get tricky with languages to remember. What is the same word and what are the different words sometimes I think something is a word in some language and it's actually from a different language. And I can imagine with languages like for example Turkish, like I know a bit of Turkish and Turkish and Arabic
I share many words. And sometimes I'll think that the word I'm using in Turkish because my command of Turkish is much weaker than Arabic. Sometimes I'll use a word in Turkish and it's not a Turkish word at all. It's an Arabic word, and they don't use it in Turkish. So I imagine with this with Bordeaux, which has also a lot of long words, that that sort of thing happens as well. Um, anybody any questions? If I can ask a quick one? So when we talked about the human anatomy, two parts versus one part and maybe I'm overthinking it, but like the sun with the sun be masculine? Because I assume that stars because there's multiple would be feminine? Or does that have nothing to do with it? Not
that's only for body parts, right? Because what
I'm see what the Ha ha, ha. Right. So
it's like the the high returns to shrimps. And so that's chump system.
I like black and white, there's so many
on this masculine feminine thing, trying to come up with like the equation, the formula, there really isn't one on a single I think, what what do they call it and science The Theory of Everything, right? A singular unified unified theory, right? That would be nice. Arabic has much more of a unified theory than English does. So at least it will be somewhat satisfied, but not that satisfying.
Very good. Any other comments, concerns? Reflections, questions.
Okay, next time, we will jump into the next step exercise, which is going to be very useful is going to be about manipulating.
It'll be about manipulating words and putting them both on masculine and feminine patterns. Right. So things that can be applied to both
and making colors that reflect those sorts of things. Okay, very good, everybody. Thank you very much.
We will see you next time all hotel item
Alaikum salam