خَلَقَ
root: خ-ل-ق / form I verb / definition: to create
I’ve taken on a few new projects recently which have made for an exciting–albeit very busy—week. My tranquil Monday mood helped me to take everything in my stride… and the giant pizza over a business dinner didn’t hurt mood-wise either.
But in between reviewing journal article submissions and preparing for an important launch, I can’t stop my mind from wandering back to a moment in last week’s Akkadian class.
There I was: struggling to write—in cuneiform, on the whiteboard—the Akkadian sentence my classmate was reading out, when we came to the verb iḫliq (𒄴𒇷𒅅, pronounced اِخلِق).
The teacher stated that it means “to be destroyed or ruined”.
Hmm. Like the Arabic هَلَكَ? I asked, because they share a meaning and sound somewhat similar.
But that would be odd, my teacher said, because Akkadian doesn’t usually retain the Semitic هـ sound… and why would the final ك in the Arabic be a q (ق) in the Akkadian?
He was right. It didn’t make sense. But the Arabic verb that the Akkadian was most likely related to (خَلَقَ) has the opposite meaning: “to create”.
It was only when one of my classmates did a little search that we discovered something interesting: the Arabic verb خَلِقَ.
Both خلَق and خلِق are form I verbs from the root خ-ل-ق. But they have seemingly contradictory meanings. (This isn’t super rare, by the way… see Arabic Observations: Words with Antonymic Meanings).
While the former means “to create”, the latter means “to become old and worn out”—much more similar to the Akkadian iḫliq.
A little vowel change can make a big difference, right?
And whilst reeling from one discovery, my mind was eager to solve another mystery.
Later that class, our teacher casually mentioned that the Akkadians measured time in double-hours, i.e. they divided the day into twelve units of time.
Why twelve? We couldn’t agree.
Have you noticed that this number often appears in time-related matters? Why do so many calendars from cultures around the world, for example, have twelve months in the year?
It could be to do with the counting method, someone suggested:
Perhaps. But I wonder if they all really counted this way.
And as we practise more verb conjugations in class, I’m drawn back to my Akkadian printouts from the summer of 2023 and tell myself I need to sit down one day and closely compare the 19 Arabic verb forms to the Akkadian ones.
Actually, I made a start on this in Arabic-Akkadian Observations: talmīd, تِلميذ, and a Lost Root, where I drew comparisons between form II Arabic verbs and D stem Akkadian ones. But I think verb forms need a little more attention than that.
Because, if you haven’t noticed from all my posts, I’m slightly obsessed with grammar.
It’s one more thing added to my to-do list, but we’ll get there.
That’s all for now, take care!
.في أمان الله
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