ساعة
root: س-و-ع / noun / plural: ساعات / definition: hour, clock
So the clocks went back by an hour here on the weekend, and I felt like I turned back time in another sense a few days ago when my new purchase—a 1928, first-edition Ottoman Turkish book about arts—arrived in the post.
“What are you going to do with that?” asked my friend. Erm, “read it,” I replied… Or at least I will do once I get the book rebound. Its pages are falling from the spine like leaves from one of the trees outside my window.
But, anyway, we’re not headed too far back in time with today’s Arabic headline analysis, because the headline I’ve chosen was published about a week ago on Project Syndicate:
ـ 24 تشرين الأول / أكتوبر 2023
إطلاق العنان لإمكانات التكنولوجيا الصحية لصالح الجميع
Okay, as always, we’ll do a word-by-word breakdown before putting together a decent-sounding translation at the end:
إطلاق
root: ط-ل-ق
form IV verbal noun
إطلاق = “releasing”, “letting something loose”
it’s the verbal noun (مصدر) of the verb أَطلَقَ / يُطلِقُ
إطلاق here is in a possessive construction (إضافة) with the following noun
it’s also in the nominative case (مرفوع) so its case ending would be a damma: إطلاقُ (note that we couldn’t have dammatayn here, because any non-final word in an إضافة cannot take tanween!)
العنان
components: الـ + عِنان
root: ع-ن-ن
noun
عِنان = “rein” or “reins”
الـ = the definite prefix
العنان here would be in the genitive case (مجرور) because it’s the non-initial word in the إضافة—so if we were to add a case ending, it’d be the kasra: العنانِ
إطلاق العنان as a phrase means “giving free rein”
لإمكانات
components: لِـ + إمكانات
root: م-ك-ن
plural noun derived from form IV verbal noun
إمكان is the مصدر of the verb أَمكَنَ / يُمكِنُ, and it means “to be possible”—in this context, where it’s acting as a regular noun, it means “possibility”
so إمكانات, with the sound feminine plural ending = “possibilities”
لِـ = a preposition meaning “for” or “to”
إمكانات is in an إضافة with the following noun
seeing as إمكانات directly follows a preposition (لِـ) and is the non-final word in an إضافة, its case ending would be a kasra: إمكاناتِ
التكنولوجيا
components: الـ + تكنولوجيا
noun
تكنولوجيا = “technology”—this word obviously isn’t derived from an Arabic root, so we don’t need to think about case endings here
الـ = the definite prefix
this is the second and final word in this إضافة
الصحية
components: الـ + صِحّيّة
root: ص-ح-ح
nisba adjective
صِحّيّ is the adjective derived from the noun صِحّة (“health”), so صحّي = “healthy” or “health-related”
this adjective is definite (الـ) and feminine (ـة) because it’s agreeing with the noun التكنولوجيا
it would also need to agree with the case of the noun: التكنولوجيا is مجرور as it’s the non-initial word in the إضافة, so الصحية is also مجرور and would be: الصحيةِ
لصالح
components: لِـ + صالِح
root: ص-ل-ح
noun, form I active participle
صالِح can be used as either a noun or an adjective, it’s a noun here so it means “benefit” or “interest”
لِـ, again, = “for” or “to”
لِصالح = “for the benefit of” or “in the interest of”
صالح is actually in an إضافة with the following noun
as صالح is directly following a preposition, its case ending would be a kasra: لصالحِ
الجميع
components: الـ + جَميع
root: ج-م-ع
noun
جَميع = “all” or “everyone”
الـ = definite prefix
as الجميع is the non-initial word in the إضافة, it would be مجرور and end in a kasra: الجميعِ
Ah, wasn’t that much quicker than our step-by-step literature translations? Anyway, here’s what we get when we put our literal translation together:
إطلاق العنان لإمكانات التكنولوجيا الصحية لصالح الجميع
Giving Free Rein to the Possibilities of Health Technology for the Benefit of Everyone
Hmm, let’s try streamlining that a little:
Opening up Health Technology’s Possibilities for Everyone’s Benefit
Sound any better? I think “opening up” sounds a little weak, but “giving free rein” sounds a little odd in this context. It’s also still not very punchy as a headline.
The good thing about Project Syndicate, and why it’s such a good language learning resource, is that we can see this same headline (and article) in English! Here’s the actual English title:
Unlocking Health Technology’s Potential for All
Some notes:
- إطلاق العنان > “unlocking”
- إمكانات > “potential” (a much better word than “possibilities” in this context)
- لصالح الجميع > “for all” (nice and snappy)
It’s really useful to compare the Arabic and the English headlines, because now we have this little translation “dictionary” to refer to for how to translate words and phrases from Arabic to English, or vice versa!
See you on my next post, مع السلامة!
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