Arabic language help

Discussion in 'Linguistics' started by skaught, May 2, 2008.

  1. skaught The field its covered in blood Valued Senior Member

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    I've always found Arabic interesting. Some questions:

    The word "ibn" how is it pronounced? What does it mean?

    What do the following words mean when they are part of a name?

    bin

    al
     
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  3. S.A.M. uniquely dreadful Valued Senior Member

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    Have you seen this thread?

    http://www.sciforums.com/showthread.php?t=64348

    ibn which means son of is pronounced as ibnah, it is also shortened as bin.

    al is a generic term meaning the; although it is always written, it is not always spoken.
     
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  5. DiamondHearts Registered Senior Member

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    The word bin or ibn is the same word, it includes the arabic letters baa and noon.

    It is pronounced like in the spelling of Umar ibn (or bin) Ahmad, as Umar ibne Ahmad continuously. Meaning Umar son of Ahmad.

    The world 'al' literally means 'the' in English, yet it is a proposition with determines a definite, such as a car sayarah, or the car as in al sayarah (actually pronouned as sayarah)

    Pronounciation of 'al' in a word differs depending on the first letter of the noun. It is a sun letter (as in pronounce as shams, the sun) written as al shams, where the 'laam' (L letter is silent and replaced by a duplicate of the first letter of the noun. Applies to specific first letters of noun.

    Moon words (al qamr, the moon) is pronounced as it is written.

    Please feel free to ask more.
     
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  7. S.A.M. uniquely dreadful Valued Senior Member

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    Hmm maybe I should leave this to DH.

    PS nice to see you again.

    Please Register or Log in to view the hidden image!

     
  8. skaught The field its covered in blood Valued Senior Member

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    Thanks y'all! I always have trouble when I read Arabic names. I never know how certain words are supposed to sound.
     
  9. DiamondHearts Registered Senior Member

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    Yes, nice to see you also Sam. I hope everything is well. Allah thadi duaey aur namaz qabool karen.
     
  10. S.A.M. uniquely dreadful Valued Senior Member

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  11. Fraggle Rocker Staff Member

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    Bin/ibn is the same word as Hebrew ben, which was also used in traditional single-generation surnames. This practice survived up into the modern era, as in Eliezer ben-Yehuda, who spearheaded the revival of Hebrew as a spoken language 100 years ago, and David ben-Gurion, the first prime minister of the modern State of Israel. However today most Israelis and virtually all Diaspora Jews follow the convention of the dominant civilizations, and pass down the surname of one of their male ancestors indefinitely. [* * * * EDIT * * * * The use of the traditional naming system (ben- plus one's father's name) is apparently a modern affectation that was revived as part of the Zionist movement. Eleazer ben-Yehuda was born Eleazer Yitzhak Perlman and David ben-Gurion was born David Grün.]

    Is an Arabic patronymic surname only used for a single generation, or is it frozen and passed down like "Johnson" and "Márquez"? E.g., do Osama's sons carry the name bin-Laden, or are they bin-Osama? How are the surnames of women formed?

    Hebrew also has a definite article, ha. It is usually replicated on adjectives, which follow their nouns, e.g. ha-shoshan ha-adom, "the red rose."

    Hebrew, like Greek, has no indefinite article, "a/an." Is this also true of Arabic?
     
    Last edited: May 3, 2008
  12. S.A.M. uniquely dreadful Valued Senior Member

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    bin Laden is the family name attached from an ancestor, probably a patriarach? However in parlance I assume Osama's sons would be bin Osama.

    Osama himself is Osama bin Muhammad bin 'Awad bin Laden

    I'm assuming his identification as Osama bin Laden has more to do with familiarity with the bin Laden enterprises and possibly western ignorance of Arabic naming systems.

    edit: found something interesting in wiki

    Women are also identified by their father, they do not change their names after marriage.

    Fatima bint Mohammed, for instance
     

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