To Amman!

سَفَر

root: س-ف-ر / verbal noun of form III / definition: travel

Apologies in advance for a very tired post (forgive any typos!) but I’ve spent the first half of the day travelling by train and tube for over three hours (with a packed-to-the-weight-limit suitcase and two bags) and the rest shopping for home decor with my sister (took us about 30 minutes to match the pillow cases to the fitted sheet—nightmare).

But, thanks to the man who carried my suitcase down the stairs at Lancaster Gate Station, I am now in the comfort of my own home. But I won’t be staying in London for long…

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Arabic Observations: Distance and the Future

مَسافة

root: س-و-ف / noun / plural: مَسافات / definition: distance

Have you ever had those moments when you finally make the connection between two words from the same root? I mean, I knew مَسافة (“distance”) and سَوفَ (the particle indicating future tense) were both from the root س-و-ف, but they’d clearly been floating around in different parts of my brain until recently.

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The Case of امّحق: Form VII Assimilation

مُماثَلة

root: م-ث-ل / verbal noun of form III / definition: assimilation (phonology)

There’s less than three weeks until my study abroad module begins which means I’ll be jetting off very soon for a relaxing break an intensive period of Arabic study in Jordan. It really can’t come soon enough because I’ve forgotten almost all of the عامية we covered last term, *sigh*.

Currently though, I’m having lots of fun with creative writing, and I’m about a third of the way through crafting a short story in Arabic which is due next week. However—and I’m not sure how I feel about this—I’ve realised I can only seem write about one theme: misery. But I’m told the best stories are the most miserable ones anyway…

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Root Exploration: د-ل-ه-م

ضَحْك

root: ض-ح-ك / verbal noun of form I / definition: laughter

After two hours and countless retakes, my classmate and I finally managed to record 20 minutes of Arabic conversation today for an assessment. Yes, that’s two hours of attempts for 20 minutes of usable footage. Honestly though, most of the retakes started soon after “أهلا” because one of us would burst into laughter for some reason or other.

At least my classmate is an editing pro and I have no doubt that our introduction (featuring a walk down the stairs and miming a conversation) will be a Spielberg-esque feat. Not sure we get marks for that though…

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Affinity to Quadriliterals

اِنْجِذاب

root: ج-ذ-ب / verbal noun of form VII / definition: affinity, attraction

I have such an affinity to Arabic quadriliterals (four-letter roots). Are there really that many in the dictionary that they can’t be ignored, or are my eyes just drawn to them whenever they’re present on the page?

Either way, I usually task myself with noting them down when they pop up, as though creating my own mini dictionary of quadriliterals that will set sail in my ocean of vocab notes, never to be seen again.

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Arabic Observations: “Diamonds” and the Definite Article

قِراءة

root: ق-ر-ء / verbal noun of form I / definition: reading

As I was doing my reading for yesterday’s literature class, I came across a familiar word: الأَلماس. I instantly recalled that it meant “diamond”… but then I remembered another word for “diamonds” that I had learnt: الماس.

So, I headed to the Hans Wehr for a little linguistic investigation. Both entries (ألماس and ماس) are listed alphabetically in the dictionary, and the only difference between them is the أل… Can you see what’s going on here?

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Step-by-Step Arabic Literature Translation #9

حَقيقة

root: ح-ق-ق / noun / plural: حَقائِق / definition: reality, truth

Well, well, well… it’s been quite a while since we had a literature translation post, hasn’t it? (On consulting the calendar, that “while” appears to be nearly six months—time must have taken a shortcut somewhere…)

Time anxiety aside, in this post we’ll be going word-by-word through a short extract from Naguib Mahfouz’s novel العائش في الحقيقة (literally: “Living in Reality”).

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The False/Adjective إضافة

إضافة

root: ض-ي-ف / verbal noun of form IV / definition: addition, genitive construction

So we all know the إضافة, right? It’s a construction where nouns are put together, with certain rules, to indicate possession. Well… Did you know we can actually use adjectives inside إضافة constructions?

I know this probably sounds contradictory to everything your enthusiastic—and sometimes frustrated—teachers drilled into your head about the إضافة (“adjectives go outside the إضافة! Nouns only!), but hear me out:

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The Meaning of لم يكن لـ

إبْداعي

root: ب-د-ع / adjective / definition: creative

I was tempted to write another literature-inspired post this week (especially considering I just completed my first piece of creative writing Arabic homework which was so fun to do!), but how long can we go without some good old grammar?!

A long while ago, when I was reading ألف شمس ساطعة, an interesting grammatical structure popped up in the second chapter. The sentence read:

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Reading Arabic Literature: Snippets From This Week

أُسبوع

root: س-ب-ع / noun / plural: أَسابيع / definition: week

Conveniently for this reading literature series, I’ve just started Arabic literature classes at university this term—which means lots more reading for me and lots more vocabulary for these posts!

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