K- on to something a bit different. I'm truly trying to learn the language and the spoken language is not really all that hard but the written language is very hard. I can make myself understood at about the level of a 3-year old, sort of the "want, 3, that" variety of speech, but I am getting better. I can pick out words if people talk REALLY slowly.
Arabic belongs to the Semetic languages and the history is thousands of years old. It is one of the oldest of all human language groups. It took root and flourished in the middle east. It used to be thought that the Arabian Peninsula was the home but more recent thoughts are that it started in what is now Somalia or Ethiopia. BOth areas are dominated by the 2 youngest members of this language family: Arabic and Amharic both of which date to the 4th century CE.
The spread of the language illustrates a common trait, it tends to assimilate the parent language and obliterate it for all intents and purposes so it is no longer used in common life.
Sentence structure is different with a verbal sentence being: Verb then Subject then Object. The girl wrote the story is literally wrote --the girl--the story.
Nouns and adjectives are just as different. There are three ways to designate a number, not just singular and plural , but also plural that means two and exactly two. This one makes me crazy. Every body part just about uses this form, likes eyes, ears and so on. In English we add (e)s tomake the plural and just a few nouns are irregular like children and feet. The opposite is true in Arabic, they are almost all irregular. Way too much fun for the beginner!
The word "drink" is made of three consonants in Arabic, sh-r b. The verb sharaba means he drank. You alter the verb to get other nuances. Doubling the second consonant would mean you made someone drink. Sharraba, or he soaked it, or watered it. Lengthening the vowel shaaraba means doing the action with someone, like having a drink with somebody. Add a t to the front, tasharraba, he got soaked.
Other patterns kind of like this are used for nouns and adjectives. Add ma to the root and delete any vowels in the first consonant and you get mashrab and then it becomes the place where you drink, like a watering hole or a restaurant or a trough. Are we having a good time yet?
If you lengthen the first vowel of the root and insert an I between the second and third root letters you get sharib which is the person or thing who does the action, like drinker.
All of this explanation can be found at www.indiana.edu/~arabic/arabic_history.htm
Below is my name...now you know why I cannot read. Yikes!
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