Or: Why I Hate English.
Some of you may know I have.... problems when I it comes to English. My spelling is atrocious, and grammar is worse. I can't learn the vocabulary because it amounts to route memorization, and most rules have more exceptions then there are rules! What a poor system! But wait... I have a soltuion.
It's called Arabic. Imagine this: A system where knowing the root of a word gurantees the meaning of the word. In English is a Pedophile someone who likes little kids, or feet? Ped is the root for both. Seeing as we have laws against one, and not the other, its kind of important to be clear.
Prereqs
I'll be referring to specific roots using capital letters of the English equivalent. Any old root is referred to as CCC (standing for consonant 1 consonant 2 consonant 3). Lowercase letters indicate vowels, with one letter being short, and two being long.
Roots
Arabic is structured around three letter (ok, there's also four and maybe five letter, but mainly three letter) roots. That's it. Memorize that KTB deals with writing, and you can accurately guess any derived form.
Forms
There are many derived forms for Arabic. Each of these takes one of the roots, and manipulates it in such a way as to get a set meaning. Always, no exceptions. If you know DRS deals with learning, and form 1 verbs (CaCaCa) are just the action, then DaRaSa would be to learn. Form 2 you know is to make someone do something(CaC-CaCa), then DaRRaSa would be to teach (make someone learn). Each form has a specific meaning that adds to the meaning of the form before it. Form 6 extends form 3 by adding a "ta" to the begininng of the word. Form 5 does the same for form 2, in both cases the "ta" makes it reflexive.
Derived Words
Just as there are forms for deriving verbs, there are forms for deriving all the nouns and adjectives. Forinstance, we already learned that CaCaCa means to do the verb, and I'll tell you that maCCaCa is the place of doing the verb. From this, and knowing the root DRS, you can guess that maDRaSa means "school" (the place of learning). To derive it, the thought process is "DRS->DaRaSa->maDRaSa". Taking first the root, plugging it into form 1, then the form for a noun meaning place. Simple, right? You can do this with any verb, and at least technically it is correct. KTB is to write, so maKTaB is a place of writing, an office.
There are many forms to derive nouns. There's specific ones for meaning a small version of the noun, for a habitual doer of the verb, for just about anything. This makes it simple to take any nun you see, derive the root, and hence the meaning.
Adjectives are formed the same way. You take the root, and add a certain ending (ii). So, if brown is BuN, then to say something is brown, you'd say it's "BuNii". This holds for all adjectives. In fact, it holds for all words, if you want to use it as an adjective, you can. Just add ii to the end, and its understood to be an adjective.
In Conclusion
Now, can you see why I like this language? Reading it is a matter of matching the word up with your hueristics of forms, and deriving the root. Then, once you know that meaning, you can derive the meaning of the word you wanted. It is a system that I think would kill English, or any romance language if more people knew Arabic.
Comments (2 responses so far)
