Introducing Arabic Morphology

1) Definition and benefit

The Science of Morphology (علم الصرف) is that science of Classical Arabic which deals with how to construct individual words, and specifically verbs, into the various tenses of past, present and future. Primarily, Sarf is concerned with identifying the patterns of vowellization associated with tenses etc. as well as the designated suffixes which come at the end of verbs and reflect the gender, plurality, etc. of the pronouns which are the subjects of the verbs.Upon gaining a mastery of the science of Sarf, one will be empowered with the skill of determining base letters from non-base letters and thus recognizing even the most complex of conjugations which may number in the hundreds.

2) The Arabic Alphabet

In the Arabic language we have 28 letters and they are all consonants.ا ب ت ث ج ح خ د ذ ر ز س ش ص ض ط ظ ع غ ف ق ك ل م ن ه و ي ءThe short vowels are not considered separate letters and therefore are not part of the alphabet. Short vowels are three and they, together with the long vowels correspond to a, e, i, o, and u. In grammar terminology a short vowel is called a ‘ حَرَكَةٌ ’. In order to indicate that a consonant is followed by a short vowel in pronunciation, the matching symbol from those given below is placed upon or underneath the letter. Any letter with a ‘حَرَكَةٌ ’ on or underneath it is called ‘متحَرِّ ك’.

The three حركات are: ضَمَّة : ُ - corresponds to a short ‘o’ or ‘u’ in English. The letter with this is said to be مَضموم
َ فَتحَة : َ - corresponds to a short ‘a’ in English. The adjective is مَفتوح
كَسرَة : ِ - corresponds to a short ‘e’ or ‘i’ in English. The adjectiv is مَكسور

Absence of vowel is called سُكون ( ْ ). If a letter is ساكن (i.e. has a سُكون) on it, this would mean it is the final consonant in a syllable. By definition, a syllable is the sound produced by coupling at least one consonant and one vowel. Consonants alone can not be pronounced. For instance, try pronouncing the letter ‘b’ without adding a vowel to it! The moment a sound comes out, one realizes it’s either ‘ba’, ‘be’ or the like, which has been pronounced, not just the letter ‘b’ by itself. The reality is that all consonants need to be coupled with vowels in order to become syllables and thus pronounceable. This is the nature of human utterance. So this is the bare minimum requirement: you have at least one consonant and a vowel. Often however, syllables may be comprised of two consonants with a vowel between them, such as in ‘fun’. In terms of Arabic grammatical terminology, the second consonant (i.e. the one upon which the sound of the syllable stops) is said to have a سُكون on it. For instance, in the word ‘fun’, we would say the ‘n’ there is ساكن.In English, when a consonant is doubled in the same word, meaning the first syllable ends in the same letter that the second syllable starts with (e.g. funny ‘fun-ny’), both consonants are written separately. When this happens in Arabic, the letter is only written once, and the symbol (ّ ) is placed upon it to indicate duplication in pronunciation. This pronouncing of the letter twice, first with a ‘sukoon’, and then with a حركه, is called تَشدِِيد or شَدّه , and the letter is said to be مُشَدّد (e.g. the ب in تَبَّت is مُشَدَّد). Unlike the short vowels of the language, long vowels are actually considered letters. They are referred to as weak letters or حُروف العِلّة. They are also three in number:ي و ا , and are essentially stretches in the َ , ُ , and ِ respectively.

3)Patterns and Suffixes

In the Arabic language, meanings are established by placing base letters side by side in designated patterns. Mostly all combinations of three consonants have been assigned distinct meanings and whenever those consonants appear in a given word, depending on the pattern of vowellization, the base letter meaning will be conveyed in a unique way. For instance, the base letters ك, ت, andب , express the meaning of ‘to write’. In Arabic there are literally dozens, if not hundreds of ways to vowel those three letters, some of which include the addition of ‘non-base’ letters. All of these patterns carry distinct meanings, such as the various simple, continuous, and perfect tenses of past, present and future. Depending on the particular pattern, the base-letter meaning of “writing”, will be expressed in a unique way. For instance, كَتَبَ (he wrote), كُتِبَ (it was written), يَكْتُبُ (he writes, is writing or will write), كاتِبٌ (writer), مَكْتَبٌ (desk i.e. place of writing), أُكْتُبْ (write!) and many, many others.

4) Essential Note

We mentioned in the previous section how base letters (usually three) are put onto patterns to create compound meaning. For simplification purposes, in order to isolate the pattern meanings (subject matter of Sarf) from the meaning coming from the base letters (which are found in dictionaries; not directly a concern of Sarf), the scholars of Sarf have used the most basic base letters in terms of meaning as models for all of the patterns to be discussed through out the science. The three ‘model’ letters are ف , ع , and ل . The meaning associated with these letters is the very simple meaning of ‘to do’. When the Scholars of Sarf use these letters (excluding all other combinations), there purpose is not so you translate the pattern e.g. he did, they did, she did, you did, I did etc. Rather it will be just to show you what pattern of vowellization is associated with what tense etc. So when you have your three letters ready for constructing (they can be any three letters taken from a dictionary), you may now vowel them accordingly and produce the intended compound meaning. This is similar to how a tailor will have many different paper cut-outs of shirts and pants in order to facilitate and simplify his work. Nobody ever attempts to wear the cut-out. Rather they wait until some garment etc. is produced. Likewise, for example, when we say the model pattern for the active past tense verb for tri-literal verbs is فَعَلَ, and for the passive voice it is فُعِلَ, literal translation of each conjugation is never the purpose. Therefore, throughout these discussions we will be only giving the patterns and conjugation tables. We will not make any attempt at translating the tables. Where this is needed, for instance in the very first tables, فعل will be replaced with other base letters so as to produce clear translations for all conjugations. We will, however, clearly explain the tenses and other distinct meanings associated with the patterns.