The Disorientation

What I find interesting about Arabic

Is its "root system."

Now, I should preface this by saying the root system isn't unique to the Arabic language. Arabic is a Semitic language. Therefore, as I understand it, the root system should pop up in other Semitic languages such as Hebrew and Aramaic.

I should also say that I am not a native Arabic speaker. I'm not a linguist, either. I have been looking at Arabic grammar for funsies; I want to write about this because I like learning new things and think it's interesting.

Anyhow, the root system in Arabic is essentially a cluster of consonants (in a specific order) that provide some basic meaning or concept. This "root" can be modified to create different, more specific meanings and words. This modification can be done through vowel patterns, of which there are several.

Most Arabic words are made up of three consonants.

Let's look at these consonants (from right to left): ك / ت / ب

Transliterated, this is K / T / B.

In Arabic, this root of K / T / B carries the meaning of "writing." So, words that feature this root have something to do with writing.

The word for "book" features this root, as do the words for "office," "desk," "library," and of verbs like "to write."

But how did we get all those words from just three consonants? Vowel patterns were added onto them, which alters the base meaning into something more specific.

For example, one of my favorite realizations through learning is that adding the "ma-a-a" pattern indicates place or location.

The "ma" is put at the start of the word and the two "a's" are short vowels placed on the consonants (assuming we're working with a three consonant root.)

So, the word "library" is: مَكْتَبَة. Transliterated, this would be something like "maktaba." See the roots? Remove the "ma-a-a" pattern and you're left with the original K / T / B.

Broken down, this is:

Cool, right?

I should also note that the little tick marks and circles around the word (diacritics) aren't actually written in normal, everyday Arabic. In a way, Arabic is written similarly to "text speech." Without them, it would be: مكتبة

This creates a bit of a conundrum for the Arabic learner, however. A single word can have different pronunciations and thus meanings (or actual words, if you will). This isn't really an issue for the place / location pattern, though.

This place / location pattern can of course be applied to other words.

Another fun one is the vowel pattern for "the person doing" (my term, I don't remember if there's a specific term): a-double-alif

Here's an example. The root for "artistic" is ف / ن / ن (F / N / N). So, the person "doing" this root of "artistic" is an "artist" and thus: فَنَّان. Transliterated, this is something like "fannan."

Broken down this is:

This makes learning new words really fun and interesting because if you take a root like د / ر / س (D / R / S) which means something like "study" you can get the following words: lesson, school, teacher, and so on by just adding different vowel patterns.

If you learn a few vowel patterns, all of the sudden your vocabulary knowledge massively expands. It also makes learning on your own quite fun. You see a word, notice its pattern, and know its root meaning then you can take a guess as the word.

I find this quite beautiful and in a way ingenious. As an English and Spanish speaker, learning about Arabic grammar has been a really interesting and sometimes maddening endeavor.

In any case, I only scratched the surface of this root system. Apologies if there are any mistakes.

Below are three resources I referred to when writing this.

Easy Arabic Grammar by Jane Wightwick and Mahmoud Gaafar

Arabic Roots: The Power of Patterns by Musa Al-hassy

Root System by Arabic for Beginners