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Al-Ahram Weekly 6 - 12 January 2000 Issue No. 463 
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Published in Cairo by AL-AHRAM established in 1875 |
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Al-Ahram Weekly 6 - 12 January 2000 Issue No. 463
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| Published in Cairo by AL-AHRAM established in 1875 |
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Egypt Region International Economy Opinion Culture Heritage Millennium Features Profile Living Travel Sports People Time Out Chronicles Cartoons Letters 'Ayn is an eye
The third part in a series, this week's reflections on the 28 letters of the Arabic alphabet, from Ibn Manzour's Lisan Al-Arab, run through Ramadan and beyond
The expression Lughat Al-Daad (literally, the Language of Daad) is one of the appellations of Arabic; this is because daad is by tradition a letter to be found exclusively in the Arab tongue, the alphabet's foremost landmark; and indeed no other language, Eastern or Western, can claim a comparable sonority. Hence a frequently quoted verse -- no doubt to be designated under the well-known classical poetic genre referred to as "national pride" -- by the great Abbasid poet Abul-Tayeb Al-Mutanabbi: "Pride be to those who have uttered daad/Weakness be to the culprit; regret be to the one who was expelled."
Taa is the sound of fond mothers encouraging their children, who are learning to walk, to go ahead and take their first steps. Now it may be that this specific meaning is true only of Egyptian Arabic, which boasts the context-specific interjection taataa, but it nonetheless points to a peculiar quality of emotion -- a maternal, soothing tenderness -- specific to this letter, and applicable to it universally. One interesting fact about the taa is its dual identity in language analysis: As a letter among letters, it is excluded from grammar and pronounced simply by itself; on its own, though it seldom refers to anything beyond itself, it magically turns into a fully-functional grammatical noun, pronounced in relation to other parts of speech as if it were an independent word in itself. In the light of Arab manliness, the taa's propensity for softness is regarded with due disdain: The verb taa'taa'a, for example, refers to the act of bending the shoulders as a sign of submission or surrender.
Although properly belonging to a different ha'iz (linguistic field or domain), Zaa is normally regarded as the taa's twin. It relates to it in much the same way as the zaal relates to the daal, adding its sharp, zesty, effervescent edge to an otherwise serene state of being, and altering meaning and tone accordingly. To Egyptian ears, perhaps rightly, the zaa is associated with Arabs from the Gulf, in whose colloquial idioms it recurs, in unadulterated form, far more frequently than elsewhere, where it has dropped from usage, to be replaced, in Egyptian Arabic, by either a heavy zein or a daad. According to the renowned grammarian Al-Khalil Ibn Ahmed, the zaa, in this respect like the invincible daad, is absolutely unique to the Arabic tongue.
'Ayn is an eye; it is also a wellspring and thus implies water -- reflection, liquid, nature -- the fresh springs of vitality. In the Arabic alphabet, it is one of the most fiendish letters to pronounce for foreigners; it is also one of the most elegant to write down by itself, describing a beautiful duo of unequal curves tied inextricably to each other, facing right. The 'ayn changes shape very significantly depending on both its position within a word, and the writing style employed in transcribing it. Al-Khalil noted that it is the letter whose sound originates at the deepest point of the thorax, and thus concluded that it must be the earliest and most primal, metaphysically the first of all Arabic letters.
Ghayn goes hand in hand with 'ayn; it is its double and its shadow, looking exactly like it except for a point on the head of the smaller curve; and requiring the same efforts of difficult pronunciation on the part of foreign speakers of the language. Its use in spoken Arabic is widespread, although by nature it tends to keep a low profile. As a word, the ghayn used to be an unusual pronunciation of ghaym, meaning clouds, particularly those preceding rain.
Faa, the Arabic f sound, has few if any peculiarities. Occurring variously in numerous combinations, it seldom changes shape and remains largely inconspicuous. An infinitely unobtrusive, hence infinitely virtuous letter, its foremost claim to fame is perhaps its grammatical use as a conjunction indicating that what follows it is, or takes place in time or space, shortly after what precedes it.
Qaaf is another of those quintessentially Arab letters; it has an incomparable rock-hard solidity and dignity about it, generating emphasis and requiring concentration even on the part of native speakers. It has largely dropped from spoken usage, to be replaced by a hamza or a g sound. In the classic study of the language, it is believed that the qaaf and the 'ayn are invariably beneficial to any construction they might be inserted into, making it more beautiful.
By Samir Sobhi
