Arabic Headline Analysis #10 and an Invitation to Akkadian Class

دَعْوة

root: د-ع-و / noun / plural: دَعْوات / definition: invitation, call

There’s not much that lifts my spirits like an email from my enthusiastic Akkadian teacher, who reached out a few days back about resuming our language classes in October.

As I’m spending a semester here in Qatar (and drowning in the workload of compulsory and optional classes, plus conducting my PhD research), I’ll inevitably miss the first term. But as for you, well, you should sign up right now.

I’ll tell you why.

I’ve written about the remarkable similarities between Akkadian and Arabic in a few posts on here: from their grammar to their vocabulary. The similarities are no surprise, of course, as these two Semitic languages are closely related—but I find the cross-overs fascinating nonetheless. Or perhaps even more so because of their close relation.

Seeing as the focus of the course is communication, you can expect to start speaking this ancient language within minutes of your first class, before getting to grips with the writing system (cuneiform).

It doesn’t matter if you’ve never studied (or heard of!) Akkadian before. If you’re a language enthusiast or simply curious and in reach of Central London, send a message to instructor Avítus whose email you can find on this page.

And if the ancient world in general interests you (whether Mesopotamia or Egypt or the Aegean region or beyond…), you can follow news of related events here.

(This is not a paid or requested advertisement, by the way. Believe it or not, I’m just slightly obsessed with learning this language, to the point where I gave a spontaneous Arabic presentation about Akkadian in my class today because I miss my weekly lessons…)

Go on—try something new (well, ancient) and let yourself be fascinated.

Oh, and of course, I had to choose a headline for today’s word-by-word analysis that’s about cuneiform. Let’s take a look:

ـ 30 آب / أغسطس 2024

أسرار بلاد الرافدين.. كيف تمكن الذكاء الاصطناعي من قراءة النصوص المسمارية القديمة؟

As always, we’ll do a word-by-word translation before putting everything together at the end:

أسرار

root: س-ر-ر

plural noun

سِرّ = “secret”, أَسرار = “secrets”

this is the first word in a definite three-word إضافة (possessive construction)

it takes the default subject case here (i.e. it’s مرفوع)

to indicate this case, we usually use either use a damma (أسرارُ) or dammatayn (أسرارٌ)

seeing as it’s the non-final word in an إضافة, it can’t have الـ at the start (even though it’s definite in this construction) nor the indefinite-marking tanween at the end (so no dammatayn)

that leaves us with أسرارُ

بلاد

root: ب-ل-د

noun

بِلاد is an interesting word in the sense that it can have a singular or plural meaning

it can mean either “a country” or “countries” (as the plural of بَلَد)—the next word in the إضافة is key here so let’s hold off on deciding on a translation now

as بلاد is a non-initial word in the إضافة, it’ll be in genitive case (مجرور)

and like أسرار, it’s the non-final word too—so no الـ or tanween again

therefore, this word ends in a kasra: بلادِ

الرافدين

root: ر-ف-د

dual noun

الـ = the definite prefix

رافِد is actually an active participle (اسم فاعل) which very literally translates as “supporter” or “carrier”—in use, it refers to a tributary (a stream or river which feeds into a larger one)

the word is used in the dual form (either الرافدانِ or الرافدَينِ) to refer to the two rivers running through Iraq: the Tigris and Euphrates

remember that dual nouns take the ending ـانِ when مرفوع and ـَينِ when منصوب (in accusative case) or مجرور

the noun is مجرور here as it’s a non-initial word in the إضافة, so it takes the latter ending: رافِدَينِ

and as it’s the final word of the possessive construction, it can take الـ: so we get الرافدين

together, بلاد الرافدَين translates as “Mesopotamia”

so far, we have أسرار بلاد الرافدين, “the secrets of Mesopotamia”

كيف

root: ك-ي-ف

interrogative

كَيفَ = “how?”—so this is the start of a question

تمكن

root: م-ك-ن

form V past tense verb, third person, singular masculine

تَمَكَّنَ / يَتَمَكَّنُ = “to be able to”

this verb is followed by the preposition مِن which introduces the object—and the object is usually a verbal noun (مصدر)

in this headline, the subject of the verb comes between it and its preposition-object combination

الذكاء

root: ذ-ك-ي

noun

الـ = the definite prefix

ذَكاء = “intelligence”

الذكاء is a singular masculine noun, hence the singular masculine conjugation of the preceding verb

seeing as it’s the subject of the verb and definite, it needs to end in a damma: الذكاءُ

الاصطناعي

root: ص-ن-ع

nisba adjective

اِصطِناعي is the adjective form of the form VIII verbal noun اِصطِناع, related to the verb اِصطَنَعَ / يَصطَنِعُ “to (artificially) create or produce”

this form VIII verb (which follows the pattern اِفتَعَلَ / يَفتَعِلُ / الاِفتِعال) may look a little odd… it seems that there’s a ط in the place of the usual ت

this is due to assimilation: the ت approximates the adjacent emphatic ص sound, so is pronounced like the emphatic ط

back to our adjective… اِصطِناعي means “artificial”

this adjective is describing the preceding noun in a noun-adjective phrase, so it must agree with it in four aspects: number, gender, definiteness, and case

الذكاء is singular, masculine, definite, and مرفوع—so الاصطناعي needs to be all those things too

note that الذكاءُ الاصطناعيُّ means “artificial intelligence (AI)”

من

preposition

as mentioned, this preposition introduces the object of the verb تمكّن that we saw above

قراءة

root: ق-ر-ء

form I verbal noun

قِراءَة = “reading” or “to read”—it’s the verbal noun of the verb قَرَأَ / يَقرَأُ

قراءة directly follows a preposition, so it’s مجرور

and as it’s the first word of a two-word إضافة, it has to take a kasra rather than kasratayn: قراءةِ

النصوص

root: ن-ص-ص

plural noun

نَصّ = “a text”, نُصوص = “texts”

الـ is the definite marker—remember that when the last word in an إضافة is definite, all the words in the إضافة are definite too (even though they might not look it!)

seeing as it’s the final word in an إضافة, it’s مجرور—so we have النصوصِ

together, قراءة النصوص translates as “reading/to read texts”

(another note: الـ in Arabic doesn’t always appear as “the” in an English translation! We’ve seen this phenomenon, called “zero article”, in many previous headline and literature analyses)

the following two words in the headline are adjectives describing this noun

المسمارية

root: س-م-ر

nisba adjective

the noun مِسمار follows the مِفعال pattern of tools—it can mean “nail” or “pin”

مِسماري is its adjective form—it’s used to refer to cuneiform writing (الخَطّ المِسماري) because cuneiform was written with wedge-shaped writing instruments

as this word is in a noun-adjective phrase with the previous one, it has to agree in the four aspects mentioned previously

note that the noun النصوص is a non-human plural and therefore treated grammatically as the feminine singular—so adjectives describing it must be feminine and singular, as well as definite and مجرور in this context

remember that adjectives sit outside of the إضافة and are not part of it (…unless we’re talking about the false/adjective إضافة, of course)

القديمة؟

root: ق-د-م

adjective

قَديم = “old”

this adjective is also describing النصوص so it matches with it

النصوصِ المسماريّةِ القديمةِ = “old cuneiform texts”

أسرار بلاد الرافدين.. كيف تمكن الذكاء الاصطناعي من قراءة النصوص المسمارية القديمة؟

The secrets of Mesopotamia… How can AI read old cuneiform texts?

Small note about punctuation here because no one ever seems to mention it: the ellipsis (…) in Arabic only comprises two dots while there’s three in English!

Anyway, so what do you think of our translation of this headline? Is there anything you’d change? Feel free to leave your suggestions in the comments below!

See you on my next post… and perhaps in Akkadian class soon?

!مع السلامة