Interesting Facts About the Arabic Language
Facts about the Arabic language deserve a separate volume in an encyclopedia. And it's no wonder. This oldest language of the Arab nomads now ranks among the top five most widely spoken in the world. A quarter of a billion people speak Arabic from birth! It has been recognized officially by 26 countries.
Interesting Facts About the Arabic Language
1. There are over 30 varieties of the Arabic language. In addition to the single literary language (al-fusha) common to all countries, there are regional variations. A Lebanese may not always understand an Algerian, and a Syrian may not understand a resident of Qatar. The most common dialect is Egyptian, spoken by approximately 50 million people.
2. Arabs write from right to left. In the "nastaliq" script, diagonal alignment of lines is allowed, but this is purely a calligraphic technique. Interestingly, numbers are written from left to right.
3. The Arabic alphabet does not have vowels. In writing, 28 letters are used, each representing a consonant sound. Three of them also indicate long vowels (A, I, U). The rest of the vowels are not represented in writing. Only in children's literature, educational materials, and the Quran are special diacritical and supralinear marks used for vowel indication.
4. Several Arabic guttural sounds are approximated in foreign languages. There is no equivalent for the sound "P"; it is represented by B or F.
5. There are approximately 1000 synonyms for the word "camel" in Arabic. Linguists have compiled 500 synonyms for the words "sword" and "lion," and 400 for the word "disaster." You can wish someone a good morning in at least seven different ways, depending on the situation and closeness. Therefore, translations from Arabic may only be approximate.
6. Arabic does not have a neuter gender. It uses masculine and feminine. However, nouns can be singular, plural, or dual.
7. Capital letters are not used. All words are written in lowercase – names, names of cities and countries, abbreviations. There are no exceptions. However, the form of writing letters changes depending on their position within a word (at the beginning, in the middle, or at the end).
8. The word "alcohol" has Arabic origins. Europeans borrowed not only exotic words from Arabs (gin, fakir, halva, harem, jasmine) but also a number of scientific terms (algebra, alchemy, algorithm, cipher, zero). The word "admiral" comes from "amir al-bahri," which translates to "emir of the sea." Modern Ukrainian contains over 450 Arabic loanwords.
9. Only 1% of foreign words are found in the Arabic dictionary. Among them are television, secretary, film, atlas, bulldozer. Arabs maintain linguistic purity and are reluctant to adopt foreign words, preferring to invent their own neologisms.
10. The mystery of the Quran is hidden in its letters. 29 chapters (suras) start with letter combinations known as "Muqatta'at," the meaning of which is unknown. Scholars have proposed various hypotheses, but for most Muslims, it remains a divine mystery.
11. The first grammar of the Arabic language was published in the late 8th century. The treatise "Al-Kitab" (translated as "The Book") was dubbed the "grammatical Quran." Its author, the Persian philologist Sibawayh, was called the "imam of grammar."
12. Arabic saved Aristotle. In the 7th-8th centuries, Arab armies transported entire libraries from conquered territories from Persia to Spain to the Caliphate. When many works of philosophers and mathematicians of Ancient Greece were lost in the Middle Ages in the West, some survived in Arabic translation.
13. The art of calligraphy emerged from the writing of Quran manuscripts. In Arabic script, there are over 100 different styles, with six main ones – Kufic, Naskh, Diwani, Thuluth, Ruqʿah, and Suls. Elaborate, intricately designed scripts became an integral part of Islamic decorative art.
14. Arabic has the highest rate of spread in the United States. The number of speakers increased by 29.2% over four years. According to the US Census Bureau, no other language showed such growth. The surge is attributed to over 250,000 Muslim migrants arriving in the country annually.
