Re: asl
Posted by kenzi on February 02, 2000 at 23:49:31:
In Reply to: asl posted by Catherine Cartwright jOnes on February 02, 2000 at 17:11:57:
: From "Veiled Sentiments", "asl" is the word the Bedouin use for
: a concept of honor, nobility and kinship group .. would asl have
case
: endings when used in confersation, and is asl close enough to isl
in
: transliteration .... and would a Bedouin group on the north east
coast
: of Egypt be using a language similar to a tribal group in Morocco?
Sorry for anyone not interested in the intricacies of the Arabic
language...tune out now! Catherine, "asl" is related to "isl" in
fact it is the root of it...or rather could be, and might be,
especially given the meaning you have found. Arabic is based on root
words to a much greater degree than most languages. Those roots are
made up of three letters...in this example, the letters that make up
the root of "asl" are "a" (alif - that straight up and and down
letter), "s" (sin - the letter like a w, in "salam") and "l" (lam -
the fishhook shaped letter). Each letter in the root takes a
short "a" sound vowel so the root is pronounced "asala" (the alif can
be pronounced "a" "ee" or "oo" depending on it's vowel markings). By
the way, if this is confusing, it would be so much easier if I could
show you while drawing out the letters. So, from the root you can
derive many words that only have a minimal resemblance to the root.
In the example of "asl" you can see that in the word "islan" the
three root letters all exist in the same order (the "n" is a suffix
which signifies something in particular) and the alif has taken on
the "ee" sound. You would need to see it written in the arabic, and
see the alif to know for sure.
The prefixes and suffixes are what give various meanings to the
root. For example, we all know the "jihad"...it's root is
probably "jahada" (the three letters "jim"+"ha"+"dal"). If you add
a "mu" before the word, it means the person who does that thing which
gives us "mujahaddine" (here the suffix "inne" makes it plural).
As for the language used in the North East of Africa, I doubt that it
would have any relation to anything spoken in Morocco, though it
might be similar to Hassaniyya which is spoken by the people of the
Western Sahara. Hassaniyya is kind of like Canadian French in the
way it was separated from the Mother Language and developed on its
own in isolation. Speakers of Saudia Arabian arabic can probably
understand Hassaniya better than a Moroccan can. So, the same may be
true for your Bedouin groups in Egypt...their language may have
similarities to Hassaniyya.
At the base of all dialects and variations of Arabic is classical
arabic (fus'ha), in which the Qu'ran was written. The basic
structure of all these variations is based on the structure of
classical arabic. What changes is usually vocabulary as that must
suit the particular country in which it is spoken - nouns and verbs
will change, though most stay the same, but the grammar and syntax is
a common thread amongst them all. Whew! Hope that helps illuminate
somethings. I know I have gone on and on but you seem to want to
know more and more. Just tell me when to stop!
- something new every day Eliz. 02:34:36 2/05/00
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