For Pacifica - random quotes on Arabic and Qur'an
- Thread starter Bestiola
- Start date
If someone asked me if I could speak Arabic and I wanted to reply in Arabic "only a little", what would be a natural way to say that?
لا إلا قليلا
or
قليلا فقط
or either?
or something else?
And could I just stick a جدا after قليلا to make it "only a very little"?
لا إلا قليلا
or
قليلا فقط
or either?
or something else?
And could I just stick a جدا after قليلا to make it "only a very little"?
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A couple of Greek- and Latin-derived Arabic words to add to my collection:
en.wiktionary.org
en.wiktionary.org
I wonder why st/στ turned into صط rather than ست?
فندق - Wiktionary, the free dictionary
en.wiktionary.org
إصطبل - Wiktionary, the free dictionary
en.wiktionary.org
I wonder why st/στ turned into صط rather than ست?
So after I started paying attention to that distinction, I've heard أجل used several times to answer a question in the series I'm watching ATM, and not a single نعم unless I missed it.
It could be either or both, محاسن being a rather general concept related to whatever is pleasant, beautiful, or good in general (it is sometimes used as a synonym for حسنات i.e. good deeds).
I think it would sound odd not to have the verb (لا أتكلمها إلى قليلا)
I believe قليلا فقط would work.
But IRL no one would ever say this in MSA, and you’d hear شويّة بَسّ (a little only) or another dialectal equivalent.
Maybe because أجل sounds much more classical, given that it is so seldom used nowadays.
It often happens in loanwords and I don’t think it can be explained by the assumption that Arabs hear emphatic consonants in such instances, my modest hypothesis is rather that they hear the following vowels as rounded (not sure if ’rounded’ is the proper word, I mean like the a in pâtes vs. pattes), which is a typical effect of consonant emphasis. For example Ankara in Turkish is pronounced with a rather rounded second a, and in Arabic it transcribed as أنقرة so maybe it’s more about preserving vowel values (which usually go unwritten) in the absence of short vowels, than indicating any specific consonant emphasis. But do take this with a grain of salt, this is pure conjecture on my part and it may well be entirely mistaken.
OMG, "a thinglet"! I love it.
That's not rounded. Rounded vowels are those where your lips literally get rounded when you pronounce them; e.g. o or u.
For me, the difference between â and a is mostly that the former is a bit longer, though perhaps there's something going on with the quality as well. I hear that this kind of length distinction is often lost in the French of France.
In Canadian French there is definitely a difference in quality; â is a back vowel. Tâche almost sounds like (American) English "tosh" to me in that sort of French.
Some people in France still make the â/a distinction, mostly older learned people and/or pedants I would say, though I wouldn't be surprised if there were still regional differences.
Like Clemens said, â is a back vowel, but I think in the Parisian dialect it is/was also long.
I tried to find a clip of someone I suspected made the distinction, but he didn't use an â word -- or I failed to notice it and he didn't make the distinction. But one of my literature teachers made it, for instance.
Like Clemens said, â is a back vowel, but I think in the Parisian dialect it is/was also long.
I tried to find a clip of someone I suspected made the distinction, but he didn't use an â word -- or I failed to notice it and he didn't make the distinction. But one of my literature teachers made it, for instance.
Yeah my knowledge of phonetics is approximately zero, but in Arabic there are definitely two different A’s, two E/I (well basically one è/é and one i) and an o/u distinction.
For A, see for example ماد vs. ماض and this is due to their proximity with an emphatic consonant, whether it comes before or after the vowel. Same for دال vs. ضاد
For ST- combos, compare اصطاد (to hunt or fish) with استاد (stadium)
So coming back to your example of إصطبل it would be pronounced something like [estɔbəl] (approximately of course, I don’t know all possible API vowels), and maybe that’s because in the original language that’s what the relevant vowel sounded like to the Arab ear. Now did Byzantine Greek στάβλος ever sound like [stɔblos]? No idea obviously.
Yes that’s more or less the kind of A sound that comes before or after an emphatic consonant in Arabic. Some accents (especially Egyptian) make it even more ’back’ (?) than others, even when speaking standard Arabic. It’s considered a cute, feminine trait.
I *seem* to hear a slight quality difference but I can't say for sure; if there is one it's definitely not as strong as what I can hear from time to time in France. Your length distinction is pretty noticeable though.
Yeah but I was wondering if it was more likely to mean one or the other here, because I'm not sure how I could retain the vagueness in Latin. Perhaps virtutes will do, even though it leans more toward the moral/abstract than toward physical beauty, say.
فانثال عليها العلماء انثيال جودها على الصفات، وتسابَقَ إليها الأدباء تسابُق عزمانا إلى العدات، وحج العارفون حَرَمَها الشريف، وقَصَدَ السائحون استطلاع معناها المنيف، ولجأ الخائفون إلى الامتناع بعز جنابها، واستجارت الملوك بخدمة أبوابها، فهي القطب الذي عليه مدار العالم، وفي القطع بتفضيلها تَسَاوَتْ بديهة عقل الجاهل والعالم، وعن مآثرها الفائقة يسند صحاح الآثار كل مسلم، وبإكمال محاسنها الرائقة يفصح كل معلم
Itaque sic se viri docti in eam ut in vestibula eius imber vehemens infuderunt; litterati in eam certatim ad fidem iurandam concurrerunt; scientia praediti sanctuarium eius nobile visitaverunt; viatores ad cognoscendam praestantiam eius tetenderunt; timentes ad praesidium potentiae maiestatis eius confugerunt; reges portis eius obsequendo auxilium quaesierunt; est enim domus illa cardo quem circum revolvitur orbis; in praedicanda laude eius mentes ignari doctique verba ex tempore aequalia conceperunt; veram de factis eius eximiis historiam narrat omnis Musulmanus; de perfectione praecellentium eius virtutum doctores omnes facunde loquuntur.
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I wonder what that's like.
I don't hear it often enough to get a good feel for how it sound(ed) in my dialect (the exact degree of "backness", the exact length etc.), but that would be my best attempt:
I only hear a length difference.