Countries where the official language is Arabic. Arab countries

Humanitarian sciences

Krachkovsky I.Yu. Essays on the history of Russian Arabic studies. M. L., 1950
Zvegintsev V.A. History of Arabic linguistics. M., 1958
Zavadovsky Yu.N. Arabic dialects of the Maghreb. M., 1962
Russian-Arabic dictionary. Comp. V.M. Borisov, ed. V.M. Belkina. M., 1967
Gabuchan G.I. Article theory and problems of Arabic syntax. M., 1972
Khrakovsky V.S. Essays on General and Arabic Syntax. M., 1973
Belkin V.M. Arabic lexicology. M., 1975
Baranov H.K. Arabic-Russian dictionary, 5th ed. M., 1976
Mishkurov E.N. Fundamentals of the theoretical grammar of modern Arabic, part 12. M., 1978 1979
Essays on the history of Arab culture VXV centuries. M., 1982
Yushmanov N.V. Grammar of Literary Arabic, ed. 3. M., 1985
Linguistic encyclopedic dictionary. M., 1990
Sharbatov G.Sh. Arabic literary language, modern Arabic dialects and regional vernacular languages. In the book: Languages ​​of Asia and Africa, vol. 4, book. 1. M., 1991
Grande B.M. Course of Arabic grammar in comparative historical coverage, 2nd ed. M., 1998
Chagal V.E. Arab countries: language and society. M., 1998
Belova A.G. Essays on the history of the Arabic language. M., 1999

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I have been interested in the world of the East for quite a long time, but I only recently started learning Arabic. For now, I can provide brief information and a description of the features of the spoken and written language; if anyone is interested, I can post detailed lessons and study materials.
Best regards, Al-Hayat

So, Arabic belongs to the Afroasiatic language macrofamily and the Semitic group of languages. In addition to Arabic, this language family includes Old Aramaic, Amharic (the official language of Ethiopia), a number of unwritten languages ​​of South Arabia and Ethiopia, as well as extinct languages, which include Phoenician, Aramaic, Assyro-Babylonian or, in other words, Akkadian.
A peculiarity of Semitic languages ​​is that in them the root of a word consists only of consonants: usually three, rarely two or four. Formation and word formation occurs by changing vowel sounds, as well as by adding prefixes and endings.
The Arabic language is widespread in the countries of the Near and Middle East, in the countries of the Arabian Peninsula and on the African continent. Here is the list of Arabic-speaking countries I have found:
Near East:
1. Syria
2. Lebanon
3. Iraq
4. Jordan
5. Palestinian territories (West Bank and Gaza Strip) and Israel
Arabian Peninsula:
6. Saudi Arabia
7. United Arab Emirates
8. Bahrain
9. Qatar
10. Yemen
11. Kuwait
12. Oman
African continent:
13. Egypt
14. Sudan
15. Libya
16. Algeria
17. Tunisia
18. Morocco
19. Mauritania
20. Djibouti
21. Somalia
22. Eritrea
23. Western Sahara
24. Chad
In addition, quite large colonies are formed by Arabic-speaking populations in Iran and Afghanistan, Turkey, Nigeria and Ethiopia, and Tanzania. Arabs live in Indonesia, in the Bukhara and Samarkand regions of Uzbekistan, and in the North Caucasus in Russia.
The official language for all the countries listed above is literary Arabic. However, due to the isolated nature of the historical development of each country, spoken languages ​​have developed in them - dialects, which differ from the literary language and from each other in a number of features - phonetic, lexical and grammatical. But at the same time, despite the presence of its own spoken language in each country, literary Arabic continues to be the language of science, fiction, the press, radio, and official speeches of government and political figures.
Arabic is one of the official and working languages ​​of the UN.
Throughout the history of its existence, the Arabic literary language has undergone significant changes in grammatical terms, especially in the mid-twentieth century, when most Arab countries achieved independence and began to pay more attention to their native language.
If in the 30s and 40s Western European languages, mainly English and French, predominated in Arab countries, then starting from the 60s, almost all Arab countries began to experience a tendency towards Arabization, which was explained by the desire of the Arab states to seek independence , to the revival of their culture and their language.
However, in the 80-90s, especially among the intelligentsia in many Arab countries, a kind of “rollback” from the policy of Arabism began to be observed.
The Arabic script is a system of 28 letters that represent only consonant phonemes. To represent the three long vowels, three consonant letters are used, called "alif", "waw" and "ya". To indicate short vowels, doubling of consonants, and absence of vowels, special superscript and subscript symbols are used, which are called “vowels.” The writing direction is from right to left. Depending on their position in a word or phrase, many letters have different styles: isolated, initial, middle and final. Some pairs of letters form so-called ligatures in writing - fused styles like & from Latin-French, or @ from English. at. The Arabic script has several varieties: Kufic script - ornamental and decorative, suls, ruk", nasta'liq, diwani, Maghribi and naskh. Naskh is used for typographic typesetting.
The cultural and historical influence of the Arabic language can be traced in many languages ​​of Asia and Africa. This was facilitated by the spread of Islam, as well as the high cultural status of literary Arabic, which has a developed system of terminology for many areas of social, scientific and cultural life.
A considerable number of words of Arabic origin are also found in the Russian language, where they came, as a rule, through intermediary languages: Latin, Western European, Persian and Turkish. In addition to exoticisms such as genie, jihad, vizier, qadi, etc., the following are Arab in origin:
1. some names of stars and constellations: Aldebaran, Altair - from Arabic. "al-dabaran", "al-ta"ir",
2. a number of scientific terms: algebra, alcohol - through Spanish, number, zero - through European, from Arabic. "zero"; algorithm - from the Latinized form of the name of the mathematician al-Khorezmi,
3. the name of the military rank of admiral, which was borrowed into the Russian language from Dutch and goes back to the Arabic “amir l-bahri”, which means “emir of the sea”, and nothing remains from “sea” in the form of the word. But as a result of “folk etymology”, which connected this word with the Latin admiror (“to be amazed”) and its derivatives in Romance languages, the sound “d” appeared,
4. and other words quite varied in meaning.

The content of the article

ARABIC LANGUAGE, a generalized name for the various dialects and dialects spoken by Arabs (hereinafter these numerous oral forms are called colloquial Arabic, abbreviated RAYA), as well as the common literary language for them (hereinafter abbreviated LAYA; the term “standard Arabic” is also used abroad) . Belongs to the Afroasiatic language macrofamily. It is the existence of LAYA as a common supra-dialectal form and its high prestige (this is, first of all, the language of the Koran, as well as a literature enormous in volume and time of existence) in combination with a general ethnic identity that determines the recognition of widely differing Arabic territorial dialects - more than 30 in total - a single language.

HISTORY OF THE ARABIC LANGUAGE AND ITS SOCIOLINGUISTIC CHARACTERISTICS

Mentions of the peoples of the Arabian Desert, called “Arabs,” are found in Assyrian military chronicles of the 8th–7th centuries. BC, in biblical texts of the 9th century. BC, in epigraphic texts of the ancient states of South Arabia (1st millennium BC - mid-1st millennium AD), in ancient authors (for example, in Herodotus, 5th century BC .), in early medieval Byzantine and Syrian sources. When applied to the Arabic language, this name was noted in the 3rd century. BC. in Hebrew sources in the form as. Among the native speakers themselves, the name “Arabs” and “Arabic” for themselves and their language has been fixed since the emergence and spread of Islam. The first use of the name “Arabic language” in Arabic sources is noted in the Koran (mid-7th century AD) in the form (Sura XVI, verse 103/105 and several others), which means “the Arabic language is clear/understandable.”

Arabic is spoken in Iraq, Syria, Lebanon, Israel, Jordan, Kuwait, Saudi Arabia, United Arab Emirates, Oman, Yemen, Egypt, Sudan, Libya, Tunisia, Algeria, Morocco, Mauritania, Western Sahara, Somalia, Djibouti, and the Republic of Chad. Dialects of the Arabic language are also found in “islands” in the territories of neighboring African states, in Turkey, Cyprus, Iran, Afghanistan, and Central Asia (Uzbekistan). The literary form of the Arabic language is the official language of all Arab countries, one of the official and working languages ​​of the UN. The Maltese dialect of Arabic has a literary and written form that is different from LAYA, and is the only Arabic dialect that is considered an independent language; in Malta it has state status. The total Arabic-speaking population currently ranges, according to various sources, from 190 to 250 million people.

It is assumed that in the first centuries of our era, the Arabic language was a collection of closely related tribal dialects common in the central and northern regions of the Arabian Peninsula. Along with tribal and territorial dialects, a single form of poetic language was emerging. The works of tribal poets were composed and passed down orally from tribe to tribe and from generation to generation. At the same time, a unified oral form of the sacred language of priests and soothsayers was formed. Subsequently, the processed oral forms of a single intertribal language became the basis for the formation of a literary and written common Arabic language.

The first written monument of the common Arabic language is the Koran, written down in the mid-7th century. AD The sacred nature of the text of the Koran has determined the preservation of all its linguistic features without significant changes to the present day. In the 8th–9th centuries. AD Monuments of oral tribal poetry were also recorded. Literary form of the language during the 8th–10th centuries. AD improves in the written field in scientific and educated circles of society. In connection with the consolidation of Arab society, the formation of the Muslim community, the spread of Islam, the formation of the state, administration and army, a colloquial common Arabic language such as Koine was formed.

Along with the development of the standard literary form of the Arabic language, the direct descendants of the ancient tribal dialects continue to function in the Arabic-speaking environment. Distribution of Arabs in the 7th–9th centuries. into the non-Arab territories of Syria, Mesopotamia, Palestine, Egypt and North Africa, as well as into the Iberian Peninsula, Iran and Central Asia, leads to the formation of new local territorial dialects of Arabic, which superimpose on the ancient tribal dialects.

Currently, Arabic dialects are classified according to two main parameters - social and territorial. According to social characteristics, they are divided into nomadic and sedentary, and the latter, in turn, into urban and rural. The social division of dialects is superimposed by geographical division. Based on geography, modern Arabic dialects are divided into two large groups: eastern(Mashriq), consisting of four subgroups - Mesopotamian, Arabian, Central Arab and Egyptian-Sudanese - and western(Maghrebian, or North African). The eastern group also includes the “island” Arabic dialects of Central Asia.

Medieval Arabic sources indicate that the divergence between literary Arabic and its dialectally fragmented colloquial form already by the 10th century. observed in all Arabic-speaking territories. Later LAYA becomes the language of the educated strata of society. The classical heritage of LAYA is of global importance and is represented by a huge corpus of Arabic poetry, artistic, historical and geographical prose, translations of ancient scientific works and his own works on astronomy, mathematics, medicine and other exact and natural sciences, philosophy, theology, jurisprudence, linguistics. Currently, LAYA functions in the religious sphere (not only in the Arab, but throughout the Muslim world), in the media, in the administrative, scientific and literary spheres of activity, and in the field of education.

The oral-conversational form (RAYA), represented in each case by the local dialect, serves everyday spheres of communication at all levels: family, production, trade, households and on the street; it has long been used in oral folk art (for example, the texts of fairy tales 1001 nights, recorded in the 14th–16th centuries. in Egypt, are characterized by signs of urban spoken language).

Such coexistence of two structurally different forms of language, opposed as “high” and “low”, is called diglossia in sociolinguistics. Unlike bilingualism (bilingualism), in a situation of diglossia the choice of one of the forms of language (and sometimes one of two languages) is not determined by which of these forms or which of these languages ​​better allows achieving the immediate goals of interpersonal communication in a bilingual (or multilingual) person. in the case of multilingualism) communication, and the subject of speech or the situation of communication: one form is used to talk about serious and sublime things and in official and solemn situations; the second - in all others, and not only by the educated, but also, to the extent possible, by all layers of society (LAY is taught in all public education systems). Diglosia is characteristic of the entire Arab world and is recognized as a problem, regarding the method of solving which there are different points of view.

A similar relationship existed for several centuries between Church Slavonic and Russian in Rus' and exists in a number of other regions of the world; however, in the Arab world the situation is more complicated, if only because LAYA serves not only as a “sublime” language, but also as a means of communication for people from various regions of the Arab world and its surroundings. In addition, the modern linguistic situation in the Arab world is characterized by complex dynamics. Political and economic integration in each of the Arab countries leads to the formation of a certain local Koine on the basis of a prestigious (most often capital) dialect, which serves as a means of communication between speakers of different dialects. Interstate communication, strengthening economic and cultural contacts between regions lead to the formation of more general forms of Koine - the so-called regional everyday spoken languages. Along with such development “from below”, there is also a process of interaction between LAYA and RAYA, as a result of which the so-called “middle” or “third” language is formed, which loses a number of grammatical features of LAYA, but does not have pronounced features of any specific local dialect. Some regional phonetic features are also observed in the oral form of BAY.

Some writers, as an experiment, introduce direct speech of characters and dialogue in the local dialect into their works. Egyptian drama features a number of plays in the Egyptian dialect. Cinema, some radio specials, television, considering the audience, also appeal to PARADISE.

The main territorial dialects of the Arabic language, such as Iraqi, Syro-Palestinian, Egyptian, dialects of the Arabian Peninsula and North Africa, have their own quite pronounced characteristics at the phonetic-morphological and lexical levels. The degree of mutual understanding between speakers of different dialects is relative and subjective. As a rule, it intensifies during contacts of neighboring dialects and weakens during contacts between representatives of opposite outskirts of the Arab world. Mutual understanding is also influenced by the conditions and topic of the conversation. Purely local or professional topics (national cuisine, local economy, way of life, customs, etc., i.e. everything that is characterized by the use of local vocabulary and expressions) weakens mutual understanding and requires explanation. On the contrary, socio-political and cultural topics (which rely heavily on common literary vocabulary and expressions) provide a higher degree of mutual understanding.

In what follows, the article will focus mainly on LAYA (in some cases simply called Arabic).

HISTORY OF THE ARABIC LANGUAGE AND ITS CULTURAL RELATIONS

The most important milestones in the history of the Arabic language are the emergence of Islam and the development of its own written language (7th century AD). The first epigraphic (mainly on stone) monuments of the Arabic language are messages about the movements of fellow tribesmen, shepherds with herds of camels, as well as gravestone and dedicatory inscriptions. In the pre-Islamic period, such inscriptions used the Nabatean script (derived from Aramaic) or a variation of the South Arabian (Sabean) script. In its final form, Arabic writing took shape on the basis of the Nabatean script during the period of recordings of the Koran (from the mid-7th century AD) and the further development of written culture. The Arabic script is a system of 28 letters that represent only consonant phonemes. To denote three long vowels, three consonant letters are used, called "alif, waw and ua. To denote short vowels, doubling consonants, absence of vowels, special superscript and subscript symbols are used. The direction of writing is from right to left. Depending on the position in a word or phrase, many letters have different styles: isolated, initial, middle and final. Some pairs of letters form so-called ligatures in the letter (fused styles like & from Latin-French et "and" or @ from English at "in"). Arabic writing has several varieties: Kufic script (ornamental and decorative), Suls, Ruk", Nastaliq, Diwani, Maghribi, Naskh. Naskh is used for typographic typesetting.

Period 8th–12th centuries in the history of the Arabic language is characterized by its unification, standardization, the development of literary and written genres and styles, the development of classical poetry, artistic and scientific prose. Arabic is becoming the international language of literature and science in the Near and Middle East. The greatest scientists of the medieval East created their works on it: al-Farabi (870–950) from Turkestan, Avicenna (Ibn Sina, 980–1037) originally from Bukhara, al-Biruni (973 - ca. 1050) from Khorezm, Averroes (Ibn Rushd, 1126–1198), a native of Andalusia, and many others.

The next turning point in the development and modernization of the Arabic language was the turn of the 18th–19th centuries, when economic contacts between the Arab East and the West intensified. The development of printing, the emergence of the press and, accordingly, new genres of journalism, the emergence of new fiction, drama and poetry are becoming the most important factor in the development of the Arabic language and its adaptation to the new requirements of social, cultural and scientific life. Development of new media and communications in the 20th century. contributes to the further modernization of the Arabic language.

The cultural and historical influence of the Arabic language can be traced in many languages ​​of Asia and Africa. This was facilitated by the spread of Islam, as well as the high cultural status of LAYA, which has a developed system of general and special terminology for many areas of social, scientific and cultural life.

A considerable number of words of Arabic origin are also found in the Russian language, where they came, as a rule, through intermediary languages: Latin, Western European, Persian, Turkish. In addition to exoticisms like genie, jihad, vizier, kadi and so on, some names of stars and constellations are Arabic in origin ( Aldebaran, Altair– from Arab. " al=Dabaran, "al=Ta"ir), a number of scientific terms ( algebra, alcohol– via Spanish, number, zero– through European, from Arab. "zero"; algorithm– from the Latinized form of the name of the mathematician al-Khwarizmi), the name of a military rank admiral(borrowed into Russian from Dutch and going back to Arabic" amiru l=bahri“emir of the sea”, and nothing remained of “sea” in the form of the word, but as a result of “folk etymology”, which connected this word with the Latin admiror “to be amazed” and its derivatives in Romance languages, the sound appeared d) and other words quite varied in meaning.

In turn, already early monuments of the Arabic language testify to a wide layer of cultural borrowings from the neighboring Semitic languages ​​of South Arabia, from the Aramaic languages ​​of Syria and Mesopotamia, from Middle Persian, Greek and Latin. Later, borrowings from Persian and Turkish appeared. The modern period is characterized by the active penetration of Western European technical terminology into the Arabic vocabulary. Despite the purist activities of Arabic language academies in many countries, new international scientific and technical terms are penetrating into modern Arabic, and copies of standard phrases and phrases characteristic of the press and mass media are being formed.

THE PLACE OF THE ARABIC LANGUAGE IN THE GENEALOGICAL CLASSIFICATION OF LANGUAGES

Arabic is part of the Semitic branch of the Afroasiatic (or Semito-Hamitic; this common name is now considered obsolete) language macrofamily. According to traditional classification, Arabic belongs to the South Semitic group of languages, combining it with the ancient epigraphic languages ​​of South Arabia and with the Ethiosemitic languages ​​common in Ethiopia and Eritrea. Currently, as a result of the discovery of new materials on ancient and modern Semitic languages, as well as as a result of the introduction of new methods into comparative historical Semitic science, in particular the method of glottochronology ( cm. LANGUAGES OF THE WORLD), a more precise classification of Semitic languages ​​has been developed, according to which the Arabic language with dialects represents an independent south-central group. The Arabic language shares some grammatical features with the ancient South Arabian languages ​​and the languages ​​of Ethiopia (Ge'ez, Tigre, Tigrinya), as well as with the modern South Arabian languages ​​(Mehri, Shahri, Soqotri): methods of word formation, forms of the so-called “broken” plural. numbers (also the plural number of internal formation: rasm"drawing" - rusãm"drawings", etc.), more complete phonological systems of consonants. At the same time, South Semitic languages ​​differ from Arabic in certain types of verbal conjugation. On the other hand, such grammatical features as the formation of suffix plural forms. the numbers of masculine nouns, the types of conjugation of the stems of the perfect and imperfect, bring Arabic closer to the languages ​​of the north-central group, especially Aramaic.

In the first period of comparative historical study of Semitic languages ​​(18th–19th centuries), it was believed that classical Arabic represents the most archaic type of Semitic language, which most fully preserved the phonetic features lost in other Semitic languages ​​(interdental, voiced and voiceless laryngeal, pharyngeal and uvular phonemes) and morphology (nominal case and verbal modal endings, a complete system of personal verbal forms, a dual number characteristic of both the name and the verb). Later, opposing points of view emerged (put forward by some Italian and Czech semitologists), according to which phonemes unique to Arabic are innovations; forms of the “broken” plural were also classified as innovations. numbers and some other grammatical forms characteristic only of Arabic. Modern comparative historical studies of the wider material of Afroasiatic languages ​​confirm the Semitic and Afroasiatic character of these phonemes and forms.

At the same time, research has shown that the Arabic phonological system also does not represent a complete proto-Semitic system. The Arabic system is characterized by a slight reduction in the composition of phonemes and their phonetic changes, in particular - palatalization of middle and back lingual plosives: , in dialects: k > c; and also glottalization: q >".

The verb system of LAY also represents an already restructured Proto-Semitic system, characterized by the verbalization of the Proto-Semitic participle, turning into the perfect conjugation.

The phonetic-phonological and grammatical structure of modern Arabic dialects is also characterized by a number of reductions, modifications and innovations.

STRUCTURAL CHARACTERISTICS OF BARKING

Phonological system

BARK is represented by 34 phonemes; of which 28 are consonants and 6 are vowels. Vowels are characterized by opposition in quality a : i : u and by quantity ā : ī : ū . Consonants are characterized by deafness/voicing oppositions: t:d;s:z, according to velarization (emphaticity) – ; . In relation to simple plosives and spirants, there are three interdental correlates: . In turn, interdental emphatic is in opposition to simple emphatic – .

Throughout the history of LAL known to us, its phonetic system has undergone some changes compared to the period of the 8th–10th centuries. There was a loss of redundant differential features and, accordingly, a restructuring of oppositions: lateral emphatic simple emphatic; interdental emphatic . In the emphatic system, oppositions based on deafness/voice were formed - , . Palatalization destroyed the binary opposition g:k according to deafness/voice.

LAYA belongs to the so-called mora-counting languages ​​(along with, for example, Latin or Ancient Greek): the short syllable S (vowel) G (vocal) is equal to one mora; a long syllable SG is equal to two moras; The closed syllable SGS is also equal to two moras. The classical system of versification is built on the moro-counting principle. The structure of a syllable in LAYA is limited by a number of rules: there is a ban on an open syllable (i.e. starting with a vowel; those Arabic words that in Russian transmission begin with a vowel, in Arabic have an initial consonant - a glottal stop, "called in Arabic" "ain"; the name of the letter itself begins with ain), on the confluence of consonants at the beginning and end of the syllable. Thus, only syllables of the structure SG/SG and SGS are possible. In the case of the formation of an extra-long syllable, it is phonetically converted into a regular long one, for example yaqūl=u“he says”, but with the loss of the final vowel, the theoretically resulting verbal word form loses its length, i.e. * lam yaqūl > lam yaqul"he didn't say, he didn't say." The stress in LAYA is weak, it falls on the third mora from the end of the word and moves accordingly if a clitic (a form, often pronominal, that does not have independent stress) is attached to the end of the word, for example “book”, but kitābū=humā"the book of two of them."

There is a widespread opinion that in LAL (and in Semitic languages ​​in general) consonants and vowels are functionally opposed: consonants are assigned lexical meaning, and vowels are assigned grammatical meaning. This statement is not entirely correct; The grammatical system of LAL has a large inventory of affixes, consisting not only of vowels, but also of consonants. Wed, for example: indicator of women. sort of = t; indicators of dual and suffixal (as opposed to “broken”) plural. numbers = āni/ayni And = ūna/Ina; personal prefixes and suffixes of verbal conjugation; To convey grammatical meanings, doubling root consonants is also used in a number of forms.

At the same time, with a synchronous (i.e., regardless of its historical development) description of Arabic grammar in verbal stems and derived stems of verbal nouns, it is indeed possible to identify a root consisting only of consonants, usually three (the so-called triconsonant root: ktb"write", qtl"kill" lm"to know", etc.). In non-derivative primary nominal and verbal stems, in a number of cases it is possible to establish a historical root vowel. The last category of words also includes pronouns, prepositions, particles and some other unchangeable words.

According to lexical and grammatical criteria, there are three main categories of words in LAYA: noun, verb and particles. Within the name, adjectives are distinguished based on certain morphological and syntactic characteristics; lexical - pronouns and numerals. The nominal parts of speech are characterized by the categories of gender (masculine and feminine), number (singular, dual and plural), case (there are only three cases in Arabic - nominative, genitive and accusative, and each of them has as its indicator one of three qualitatively different vowels - u, i And a respectively), state (definite - with the article " al, which, depending on the phonetic neighborhood, can appear in various forms, and indefinite), categories of diminutive and comparative-superlative.

The verb is characterized by a system of aspectual and tense forms, voice (also for derived participles), person, number, gender, as well as a system of syntactically determined forms, conventionally called moods. In addition, the verb in LAL is characterized by a special lexical and grammatical category of characterizing the action in terms of its intensity, direction, causality, etc. This category has ten bases, called "breeds" or "extended stems" (i.e., in addition to the original primary stem, or "breed", there are nine more derivatives); For example, " alima(breed I) "he knew" allama(II) "he taught", " a ="lama(IV) “he informed, let know”, “ ista"lama(X) “he asked for information for himself,” etc. From these same extended stems the corresponding verbal names (or participles) are formed." ālim =(I) "knowledgeable, learned", mu ="allim =(II) “teacher”, etc.

The grammatical methods of word and form formation in LAYA are divided into “external”, i.e. affixal, which does not affect the base and root of the word, and “internal”, traditionally called “internal inflection” (alternation of phonemes), changing the base of the word. In many cases, external inflection is combined with internal.

According to the traditional morphological classification, Arabic is defined as an inflectional language with elements of fusion and agglutination. According to the traditional syntactic classification - as a language of synthetic type. In the second half of the 20th century. Russian semitologists and linguists prefer to characterize the method of internal inflection as an agglutinative way of connecting an intermittent consonantal root with an intermittent vocal affix - a “diffix” (in mixed cases - a confix, transfix, etc.) This gives rise to the concept of an “intermittent” morpheme (cf. above example with “broken plural”). Accordingly, the typological characteristics of LAY are changing towards the agglutinative technique of combining morphemes.

The main types of non-predicative phrases are represented in LAL by attributive and genitive combinations with the word order “defined - definition”. In an attributive phrase, the definition, as a rule, is completely consistent with the one defined by gender, number, case and condition: “new teacher.” In a genitive phrase, the first name (the modifier) ​​does not take the prepositive article " al = and loses some endings (an indicator of an uncertain state = n, part of the ending of the dual and suffix plural): kitabu l = mu"allimati“teacher’s book” (a certain state for both the first and second members of the phrase); or: kitabu mu"allimatin“the book of (some) teacher” (indefinite state for both members of the phrase). (vin. case) “His son returned weeping (crying)” or.

SCIENTIFIC STUDY OF ARABIC LANGUAGE

In the history of the study of the Arabic language, first of all, it is necessary to highlight the Arabic grammatical tradition itself, represented in the period of its greatest prosperity (8th–14th centuries) by several schools. During this period, Arabic linguistics adopted some ideas and concepts from the ancient and Indian grammatical traditions, but the features of the Arabic language attracted the attention of the earliest Arab philologists. They develop their own original system of concepts, terms and techniques for describing linguistic facts. Lexicography has received especially significant development in the national Arab tradition.

In turn, the Arabic grammatical tradition exerts its influence on Western Arabic linguistics, developing from the 16th to the 18th centuries. in Western Europe (first in Spain and Holland, and then in other countries). Despite the fact that European Arabic studies, as well as later, from the 19th century, Russian (the first Arabic grammar in Russian was published in 1827), begins to study the facts of the Arabic language in line with new general linguistic trends (neogrammatism, comparative historical linguistics and typology) , the influence of the Arabic grammatical tradition is evident in many works, especially in descriptive grammars of classical Arabic, throughout the 20th century. At the same time, along with the study of BARK in the 20th century. Western and Russian Arabic linguistics turns to the study of Arabic dialects, as a result of which a special direction is formed - Arabic dialectology.

The typological originality of the grammatical system of LAL, the structure of the root and the word, and special grammatical methods are of great interest for the structural-typological direction in general linguistics. The lexical richness of the Arabic language, a large number of written monuments and data from modern Arabic dialects provide great opportunities for the further development of comparative historical Semitology and Afro-Asian linguistics.

Literature:

Krachkovsky I.Yu. Essays on the history of Russian Arabic studies. M. – L., 1950
Zvegintsev V.A. History of Arabic linguistics. M., 1958
Zavadovsky Yu.N. Arabic dialects of the Maghreb. M., 1962
Russian-Arabic dictionary. Comp. V.M. Borisov, ed. V.M. Belkina. M., 1967
Gabuchan G.I. Article theory and problems of Arabic syntax. M., 1972
Khrakovsky V.S. Essays on General and Arabic Syntax. M., 1973
Belkin V.M. Arabic lexicology. M., 1975
Baranov H.K. Arabic-Russian dictionary, 5th ed. M., 1976
Mishkurov E.N. Fundamentals of the theoretical grammar of modern Arabic, part 1–2. M., 1978 –1979
Essays on the history of Arab culture V–XV centuries. M., 1982
Yushmanov N.V. Grammar of Literary Arabic, ed. 3. M., 1985
Linguistic encyclopedic dictionary. M., 1990
Sharbatov G.Sh. Arabic literary language, modern Arabic dialects and regional vernacular languages. – In the book: Languages ​​of Asia and Africa, vol. 4, book. 1. M., 1991
Grande B.M. Course of Arabic grammar in comparative historical coverage, 2nd ed. M., 1998
Chagal V.E. Arab countries: language and society. M., 1998
Belova A.G. Essays on the history of the Arabic language. M., 1999



Arabs write from right to left - almost everyone knows about this. However, interesting facts regarding this very unusual, rich and very popular language are not limited to this. Much more can be said about him.

1. Arabic belongs to the Semitic branch of the Afroasiatic group. Today it is one of the most common and its importance is gradually increasing. According to various estimates, there are from 250 to 350 million people in the world who speak this language. It is public in 26 countries in the East and Africa. Also, to one degree or another, this language is familiar to numerous followers of Islam around the world.

2. There are 5 groups of Arabic dialects. Speakers of individual dialects belonging to different groups can hardly understand each other, and more often they do not understand at all. The most common of them is Egyptian, since it is in Egypt that the largest number of Arabic speakers live (about 70 million). At the same time, there is a single literary or standard language.

3. Standard Arabic is one of the 6 official languages ​​of the UN. It publishes a huge amount of printed materials. It is the language of literature and business communication. And thanks to the widespread use of the Internet, the differences between individual dialects and the standard language are gradually disappearing.

4. The oldest work written in Arabic (the classical Arabic literary language) is the Koran. There are many cases where people have successfully studied Arabic precisely for the purpose of reading the Holy Book in the original language. There are also many other wonderful literary monuments. For example, the tales of “A Thousand and One Nights”, the rubai of Omar Khayyam and much more.

5. As modern literary Arabic continues to develop, the number of differences between it and classical Arabic gradually increases. At the same time, not only vocabulary changes, but also grammar.

6. There is an opinion that Arabic is one of the richest languages, containing a huge number of concepts that are very difficult to translate into other languages. It should be noted that Arabs have historically been reluctant to borrow other people's words, preferring to create their own. Fortunately, the word-forming capabilities of this language are truly enormous. However, a lot depends on the dialect. Thus, in the Egyptian dialect there are a lot of borrowings from French.

7. At the same time, many modern concepts and names from Arabic (Arabisms) came to other languages. These are words such as “algebra”, “algorithm”, “Aldebaran”, “giraffe”, “coffee”, “syrup” and many others.

8. The Arabic language has had a huge influence on the modern language. Not surprising, since a significant part of the Iberian Peninsula was under Arab rule for a long time. At least 10% of the words in modern Spanish come from Arabic. In addition, there was a noticeable impact on grammar and phonetics.

9. Arabic writing is a special topic. The alphabet of this language includes 28 letters that allow you not just to compose words, but to create entire written designs and patterns. Needless to say, Arabic calligraphy is a whole area of ​​decorative art, the origin of which has long been debated by scientists. But for now everything remains only a matter of hypotheses.

10. There are no capital letters in Arabic, punctuation marks are also written from right to left, and underlining is used instead of underlining. Arabic writing was formed in Arabia in the 3rd-4th centuries. AD It is interesting that Arabs studying Western languages ​​often make the same mistake - they forget to capitalize letters.

11. Arabic is considered one of the most difficult languages ​​to learn. This is facilitated by unusual writing, in which it can be difficult to separate some letters from others, as well as very complex grammar. The matter is not limited to cramming alone; you need to radically change your way of thinking and work a lot on pronunciation.

Language is perhaps the most important function of the human body - it allows us to get food as a child, it allows us to get almost anything we want as adults, and it also gives us many hours of entertainment through literature. , radio, music, and films. This list (in order from least common) summarizes the most important languages ​​in use today.

10. French

Number of carriers: 129 million

Often called the most romantic language in the world, French is spoken in many countries, including Belgium, Canada, Rwanda, Cameroon and Haiti. Oh yes, in France too. We're actually very lucky that French is so popular, because without it, we'd be stuck with Dutch Toast, Dutch Fries and Dutch Kissing (ugh!).

To say “hello” in French, you say “Bonjour.”

9. Malay-Indonesian language

Number of carriers: 159 million

Malay-Indonesian is spoken - surprise - in Malaysia and Indonesia. In fact, we will deviate from the quantity because there are many Malay dialects, the most popular of which is Indonesian. But they are all largely based on the same root language, making it the ninth most spoken language in the world.

Indonesia is a fascinating place; The nation is made up of more than 13,000 islands and is the sixth most populous country in the world. Malaysia borders two major regions of Indonesia (including the island of Borneo), and is mainly known for its capital, Kuala Lumpur.

To say “hello” in Indonesian, say “Selamat pagi” (se-LA-maht PA-gi).

8. Portuguese

Number of carriers: 191 million

Think of Portuguese as a small language. In the 12th century, Portugal gained independence from Spain and expanded throughout the world with the help of famous explorers such as Vasco da Gama and Prince Henry the Navigator. (Good thing Henry became a navigator... could you imagine if a guy named “Prince Henry the Navigator” became a florist?) Since Portugal got into this exploration game early enough, the language took hold around the world, especially in Brazil (where it is the national language), Macau, Angola, Venezuela, and Mozambique.

To say “hello” in Portuguese, say “Bom dia.”

7. Bengali language

Number of carriers: 211 million

In Bangladesh, a country of more than 120 million people, nearly everyone speaks Bengali. And because Bangladesh is virtually surrounded by India (where the population is growing so fast that it feels like breathing the air could get you pregnant), the number of Bengali speakers in the world is much higher than most people would expect.

To say “hello” in Bengali, say “Ei Je.”

6. Arabic

Number of carriers: 246 million

Arabic, one of the oldest languages ​​in the world, is spoken in the Middle East, with speakers found in countries such as Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, Iraq, Syria, Jordan, Lebanon and Egypt. Moreover, because Arabic is the language of the Quran, millions of Muslims in other countries also speak Arabic. So many people have a working knowledge of Arabic, in fact, that it became the sixth official language of the United Nations in 1974.

To say “hello” in Arabic, say “Al salaam a’alaykum” (Al sa-LAM a a-LEY-kum).

5. Russian language

Number of carriers: 277 million

Mikhail Gorbachev, Boris Yeltsin, and Yakov Smirnov are among the millions of Russian speakers. Of course, we are used to thinking of them as our communist enemies. Now we think of them as our communist friends. One of the six languages ​​of the UN, Russian is spoken not only in its homeland, but also in Belarus, Kazakhstan and the USA (we name a few places).

To say “hello” in Russian, you say “Zdravstvuyte” (Zdrav-stv-uite).

4. Spanish

Number of carriers: 392 million

Besides all those kids who learn it in high school, Spanish is spoken in just about every South American and Central American country, not to mention Spain, Cuba and the United States. There is particular interest in Spanish in the United States, as many English words are borrowed from their language, including: tornado, bonanza, patio, quesadilla, enchilada, and taco grande supreme.

To say “hello” in Spanish, say “Hola” (OH-LA).

3. Hindustani

Number of carriers: 497 million

Hindustani is the main language of populous India, and it includes a huge number of dialects (of which Hindi is the most common). While many predict that India's population will soon surpass China's, the recognition of English in India prevents Hindustani from being recognized as the world's most popular language. If you are interested in getting some Hindi, there is a very simple way: rent an Indian movie. The film industry in India is the most prosperous in the world, producing thousands of action films/romances/musicals every year.

To say “hello” in Hindustani, say “Namaste” (Na-MA-ste).

2. English

Number of carriers: 508 million

While English does not have the most speakers, it is the official language of more countries than any other language. It is spoken throughout the world, including New Zealand, the United States, Australia, England, Zimbabwe, the Caribbean, Hong Kong, South Africa and Canada. We would tell you more about English, but you probably already feel pretty comfortable in this language. Let us just talk further about the most popular languages ​​in the world.

Today there are a huge number of language schools offering English courses in Moscow. The courses are taught using the latest educational methods. You study in English, without using Russian. All new words and concepts are explained by already familiar words, gestures, pictures - this makes the learning process much more interesting and interactive, but if learning is interesting, then the results will be better! After studying, all new constructions and words are immediately reinforced in practice, when working in pairs and mini groups. Thus, learning English in courses is not just about learning grammar and memorizing new words: you are learning to communicate.

1. Mandarin Chinese

Number of carriers: more than 1 billion.

Surprise, surprise, the most widely spoken language on the planet is found in the most populous country on the planet. In second place, English has a 2 to 1 ratio of speakers, but that shouldn't make you think that Chinese is easy to learn. Spoken Mandarin can be very rigid because each word can be spoken in four directions (or “tones”), and beginners are bound to have trouble distinguishing one tone from another. But if over a billion people could do it, you could too. Try saying hi!

To say “hello” in Chinese, say “Ni hao.” ("Hao" is pronounced as one syllable, but the tone requires your voice to drop halfway and then rise again at the end.)