This article is about the Arabic definite article al-; not to be confused with the words āl or ahl (meaning 'family')

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Transliteration

Transliteration is a subset of the science of hermeneutics. It is a form of translation, and is the practice of converting a text from one script into another...

 as el-) is the definite article

Definite Article

Definite Article is the title of British comedian Eddie Izzard's 1996 performance released on VHS. It was recorded on different nights at the Shaftesbury Theatre...

 in the Arabic language

Arabic language

Arabic is a name applied to the descendants of the Classical Arabic language of the 6th century AD, used most prominently in the Quran, the Islamic Holy Book...

; a particle

Grammatical particle

In grammar, a particle is a function word that does not belong to any of the inflected grammatical word classes . It is a catch-all term for a heterogeneous set of words and terms that lack a precise lexical definition...

 (ḥarf) whose function is to render the noun

Noun

In linguistics, a noun is a member of a large, open lexical category whose members can occur as the main word in the subject of a clause, the object of a verb, or the object of a preposition .Lexical categories are defined in terms of how their members combine with other kinds of...

 on which it is prefixed definite. For example, the word kitāb 'book' can be made definite by prefixing it with al-, resulting in al-kitāb 'the book'. Consequently, al- is typically translated as the in English

English language

English is a West Germanic language that arose in the Anglo-Saxon kingdoms of England and spread into what was to become south-east Scotland under the influence of the Anglian medieval kingdom of Northumbria...

.

Unlike most other particles in Arabic, al- is always prefixed to another word and it never stands alone. Consequently, most dictionaries will not list it as a separate word, and it is almost invariably ignored in collation

Collation

Collation is the assembly of written information into a standard order. One common type of collation is called alphabetization, though collation is not limited to ordering letters of the alphabet...

. By the same token, al- is not a permanent component of the word to which it is prefixed. It is added and removed to toggle between the definiteness and indefiniteness of the word.

As a particle, al- does not inflect at all–not for gender

Grammatical gender

Grammatical gender is defined linguistically as a system of classes of nouns which trigger specific types of inflections in associated words, such as adjectives, verbs and others. For a system of noun classes to be a gender system, every noun must belong to one of the classes and there should be...

, plural

Plural

In linguistics, plurality or [a] plural is a concept of quantity representing a value of more-than-one. Typically applied to nouns, a plural word or marker is used to distinguish a value other than the default quantity of a noun, which is typically one...

ity, grammatical case

Grammatical case

In grammar, the case of a noun or pronoun is an inflectional form that indicates its grammatical function in a phrase, clause, or sentence. For example, a pronoun may play the role of subject , of direct object , or of possessor...

, etc.

Overview

To put al- into perspective, there are many ways in which Arabic words can be made definite

Definiteness

In grammatical theory, definiteness is a feature of noun phrases, distinguishing between entities which are specific and identifiable in a given context and entities which are not ....

. These include the use of personal pronoun

Personal pronoun

Personal pronouns are pronouns used as substitutes for proper or common nouns. All known languages contain personal pronouns.- English personal pronouns :English in common use today has seven personal pronouns:*first-person singular...

s like "me", the use of proper nouns like "Saudi Arabia", demonstrative pronouns

Demonstrative

In linguistics, demonstratives are deictic words that indicate which entities a speaker refers to and distinguishes those entities from others...

 like "this man", relative pronoun

Relative pronoun

A relative pronoun is a pronoun that marks a relative clause within a larger sentence. It is called a relative pronoun because it relates the relative clause to the noun that it modifies. In English, the relative pronouns are: who, whom, whose, whosever, whosesoever, which, and, in some...

s like "the man who ...", vocation

Vocative case

The vocative case is the case used for a noun identifying the person being addressed and/or occasionally the determiners of that noun. A vocative expression is an expression of direct address, wherein the identity of the party being spoken to is set forth expressly within a sentence...

 like "O man", possession

Possession (linguistics)

Possession, in the context of linguistics, is an asymmetric relationship between two constituents, the referent of one of which possesses the referent of the other ....

 like "my man", and of course the definite article like "the man". Apart from possession, prefixing a noun with al- is the weakest form of definiteness. That is, saying "the man" does not define the man being referred to as clearly as saying "this man", for example.

Arabic does not have an indefinite article like the English a or an. A noun, adjective, adverb, etc. is considered indefinite if is not otherwise definite.

Etymology

The etymology

Etymology

Etymology is the study of the history of words, their origins, and how their form and meaning have changed over time.For languages with a long written history, etymologists make use of texts in these languages and texts about the languages to gather knowledge about how words were used during...

 of al- is the study of how it developed and how it changed over time. There are several major opinions in regards to the origins of the Arabic definite article.

Al- comes from Arabic lā

According to Jacob Barth, who was lecturer in Hebrew at the Hildesheimer Rabbinical Seminary

Hildesheimer Rabbinical Seminary

The Hildesheimer Rabbinical Seminary was founded in Berlin on 22 October 1873 by Rabbi Dr. Azriel Hildesheimer for the training of rabbis in the tradition of Orthodox Judaism.-History:...

, al- comes directly from the Arabic negating particle, lā. He conjectures that lā became al- through a process of metathesis

Metathesis (linguistics)

Metathesis is the re-arranging of sounds or syllables in a word, or of words in a sentence. Most commonly it refers to the switching of two or more contiguous sounds, known as adjacent metathesis or local metathesis:...

. That is to say, the lām and the alif

Aleph

* Aleph or Alef is the first letter of the Semitic abjads descended from Proto-Canaanite, Arabic alphabet, Phoenician alphabet, Hebrew alphabet, Syriac alphabet-People:*Aleph , an Italo disco artist and alias of Dave Rodgers...

 swapped positions. It is noteworthy that the negation denoted by lā and the definiteness denoted by al- are in stark contrast to each other.

Barth also asserts that lā could have resulted in al- through a process of syncope. That is to say, the alif in lā and the vowel over the lām were dropped – resulting in a sukūn over the lām – and a volatile or elidable hamza was added to compensate.

David Testen argues against both of these explanations. He says that there is no corroboratory evidence for either metathesis or syncope.

Al- comes from Arabic la

There is a theory that al- comes from the same root as the asseverative-cum-precative particle, la-; this is the la- used at the beginning of nominal sentence

Nominal sentence

The term nominal sentence can refer to two different phenomena:* a sentence with a predicate consisting of the copula to be plus a predicative, like Bob is a postman.* a sentence with a predicate lacking a finite verb, like The more – the merrier...

s for emphasis.

Al- comes from a proto-Semitic particle

A popular theory is that al- comes from the same proto-Semitic source as the Hebrew

Hebrew language

Hebrew is a Semitic language of the Afroasiatic language family. Culturally, is it considered by Jews and other religious groups as the language of the Jewish people, though other Jewish languages had originated among diaspora Jews, and the Hebrew language is also used by non-Jewish groups, such...

 definite article ha-. This theory is based primarily on the fact that the two share many similarities. Both particles are prefixed to nouns and they both geminate

Gemination

In phonetics, gemination happens when a spoken consonant is pronounced for an audibly longer period of time than a short consonant. Gemination is distinct from stress and may appear independently of it....

 with certain following letters. Moreover, both particles are not prefixed to non-final nouns in a genitival construction. And finally, both are prefixed to relative clauses.
According to David Testen, many north- and south-west Semitic

Semitic

In linguistics and ethnology, Semitic was first used to refer to a language family of largely Middle Eastern origin, now called the Semitic languages...

 languages have particles that bear similarities to al-. With this fact, he posits that al- has a proto-Semitic antecedent.

There are three major theories regarding the form of the proto-Semitic particle that is the putative antecedent of al-:

• hal;
• ha;
• ‘a;

David Testen and Jacob Weingreen state that / hal is the correct antecedent.

Supporters of this theory sometimes cite the Arabic word for 'this', hādhā, which, when combined with a definite phrase, has been known to become shortened from hādhā al-bayt (this house) to hal-bayt. Some grammarians argue against the citation of hal-bayt, stating that it is merely a shortening of the demonstrative pronoun.

Weingreen also states that the original form of the Hebrew ha- was, in fact, hal. Hebrew, then, dropped the final l to achieve ha-, while Arabic softened the h- to a hamza, resulting in al-.

Phonology

The phonology

Phonology

Phonology is, broadly speaking, the subdiscipline of linguistics concerned with the sounds of language. That is, it is the systematic use of sound to encode meaning in any spoken human language, or the field of linguistics studying this use...

 of al- is the study of its constituent letters and vowels

Harakat

The Arabic script has numerous diacritics, including ijam ⟨⟩ , and tashkil ⟨⟩...

, and of its pronunciation in different dialects and in different lexical circumstances.

The "hamza" in al-

A classical (and largely one sided) debate in regards to al- is whether the hamza is volatile or not. The majority opinion is that of Sibawayh

Sibawayh

Abū Bishr ʻAmr ibn ʻUthmān ibn Qanbar Al-Bishrī , commonly known as Sībawayh , was an influential linguist and grammarian of the Arabic language. He was of Persian origin born ca...

 (d. ca. 797) who considers the hamza volatile. In his opinion, neither is the hamza part of al-, nor does it contribute to the definiteness of the following word.

Khalīl, Ibn Keisān, and Akhfash, on the other hand, consider the hamza to be non-volatile. There is a further debate amongst the proponents of this second theory. Some consider the hamza non-volatile and they assert that it contributes to the definiteness of the following word. Others assert that the hamza contributes to the definiteness of the following word, but it is still volatile.

In his defence, Khalīl argues that when a word prefixed with al- is preceded by the interrogative hamza, the two hamzas mix. For example, when the word al-āna (now) is prefixed with it, the result is āl-āna. Clearly, the hamza of al- does not drop in this case, even though there is no further purpose for it.

Khalīl further argues that the only reason the hamza in al- is ever dropped is not because it is volatile, but due to excessive usage. When asked why the lām in al- wasn’t simply given a vowel if it is so heavily used and needs to be easier to pronounce, followers of Khalīl give the following response: Had the lām been given a fatḥa, it would have been confused with the asseverative-cum-precative particle. Had it been given a kasra, it would have been confused with the genitival particle. And it could not have been given a ḍamma in fear of the following vowel being a kasra or ḍamma (which would result in awkward pronunciations as in *lu-ibil or *lu-‘unuq).

Despite the myriad of proofs for the argument, in most classical grammatical camps and in modern Arabic, the opinion of Sibawayh is often taken as an axiomatic fact. There are many proofs and counter-proofs, but the overarching argument in favour of this opinion is as follows. The lām in al- is the only lām particle in the language with a sukūn (to avoid confusion, as mentioned). Hence it requires a volatile hamza. Moreover, al- is a particle and Arabic particles do not drop letters (without losing their meanings or connotations). Yet we see the hamza in al- dropping all the time. Therefore it must be volatile, otherwise al- would lose its ability to render the following word definite.

Consequently, it turns out that the hamza in al- is considered the only volatile hamza in the language that has a fatḥa vowel.

The lām in al-

In very early Semitic languages, definiteness was achieved through gemination of the first letter in a word. For example, the word kitāb would be made definite by ak-kitāb. An additional benefit of this construction was to connote "determination". The lām in the Arabic al- was thus a result of a dissimilation process.

In Arabic, this gemination occurs when the word to which al- is prefixed begins with one of the fourteen sun letters. Twelve of these letters (including lām) are originally designed to geminate. Ḍād and shīn have been included due to their similarities in pronunciation with lām and ţā, respectively. For example, the word al-rajul 'the man' is actually pronounced "ar-rajul". Notice that the lām is written but not pronounced.

In more modern dialects, the sun letters have been extended to include the velars gīm and kāf.

A final point to note is that the ancient tribe of Banū Hamīr replace the lām in al- with mīm. The Prophet of Islam is recorded to have uttered the following words in that dialect:


لَيْسَ مِنِ امْبِرٍّ امْصِيامُ في امْسَفَرِ

The vowels in al-

Regardless of whether the hamza in al- is volatile or not, it is read with a fatḥa when beginning speech with the definite article. For example, if one vocalizes the word 'the house' after a pause, it will be pronounced "al-bayt". In fact, the hamza in al- is largely considered to be the only volatile hamza that has a fatḥa vowel.

If, however, al- is vocalized in the middle of speech, the hamza will be dropped in pronunciation. As a result, the vowel preceding the definite article will be linked to the lām of al-. For example, (vocalized without any pauses) is pronounced "bābu l-bayt", is pronounced "bāba l-bayt", and is pronounced "bābi l-bayt".

If the word onto which al- is prefixed starts with a hamza, then the vowel from that hamza may transfer to the lām of al-, after which the hamza will drop in pronunciation. See #Allah for an example. If this hamza is volatile, this option becomes an obligation. An example is in the phrase bi’sa al-ismu. This phrase is read as "bi’sa lismu" (Qur'an 49:11). This is a rule relating to hamza, and not in direct relation to al-. Moreover, it is a rare occurrence and is almost never applied in spoken varieties of modern or classical Arabic.

Separating al- from its host word

Al- has been recorded to separate from its host word as in the following couplet:


دَعْ ذا وَعَجِّلْ ذا وَأَلْحِقْنا بِذالْ – بِالشَحْمِ إِنّا قَدْ مَلِلْناهُ بَجَلْ


The al- in has been recorded both with and without the alif. It has been stripped from its host word due to the meter of the couplet. It has then been repeated in the second half of the couplet reattached to its host. This is a very rare occurrence and is only recorded in poetry.

Definiteness

The primary and most profuse function of al- is to render the following word definite. This is known as . This function is of two types:

when the word being referred to has already been mentioned. An example is found in the word messenger in "We had sent to Pharaoh a messenger. But Pharaoh disobeyed the messenger..." (Qur'an 73:15-6).: when the word being referred to is understood by the listener. An example is found in the word battle in "The battle is getting worse; I think we should retreat."

There is also a special type of known as "the al- for ”. The noun on which the al- is prefixed, in this case, is never explicitly mentioned but the listener knows what is being referred to. For example, the word al-kitāb (the book) may actually refer to the classical book of Arabic grammar written by Sibawayh. Whenever grammarians talk about "the book", this is what they mean and it is always understood without explanation.

Class nouns

One of the functions of al- is to render the noun onto which it is prefixed a class noun. For example, the word “al-asad” can mean ‘the lion’, referring to a specific lion, or ‘the lion’ in the sense ‘the lion is a dangerous animal’.

Notice that the meaning connoted by this function of al- is indefinite, which is in stark contrast with the primary function of the definite article. Because of this meaning, the noun following al- will be grammatically indefinite and one may, for example, modify the noun without the use of a relative pronoun. An example of this is seen in the following couplet of poetry:


وَلَقَدْ أَمُرُّ عَلى اللَئيمِ يَسُبُّني – فَمَضَيْتُ ثُمَّتَ قُلْتُ لا يَعْنيني

Encompassing a genus

Al- may be used to encompass all the individuals of a genus

Genus

In biology, a genus is a low-level taxonomic rank used in the biological classification of living and fossil organisms, which is an example of definition by genus and differentia...

. For example, “al-asad” can be used to mean ‘all lions’. This function is called . One is encouraged to use caution when employing this form of al- as it may be confused with its other meanings.

In order for al- to be in this capacity, it is necessary that it be interchangeable with the word kull 'all'. Some classical grammarians assert that this kull may be figurative, in which case al-, in this capacity, would be a form of exaggeration

Hyperbole

Hyperbole is the use of exaggeration as a rhetorical device or figure of speech. It may be used to evoke strong feelings or to create a strong impression, but is not meant to be taken literally....

.

The most well known use of al- in this meaning occurs twice in the Qur'anic verse 1:1, (all praise is due to Allah, lord of all the worlds).

Indicating presence

Al- is often used in words to indicate the presence of something. For example, “al-yawm” means ‘this day’ i.e. ‘today’. In modern Arabic, this function is largely idiom

Idiom

Idiom is an expression, word, or phrase that has a figurative meaning that is comprehended in regard to a common use of that expression that is separate from the literal meaning or definition of the words of which it is made...

atic and does not carry over to new words.

At the beginning of names

Al- may be prefixed to names that are derived from Arabic nouns. This function is known as . The purpose of doing this is to point toward the meaning of the one named. For example, the name ‘Adīl (meaning 'just') may be read "al-‘Adīl" to allude to the fact that ‘Adīl is a just person.

In modern Arabic, however, this type of al- is largely idiomatic. That is to say, names traditionally prefixed with al- are kept as such and names without al- are also kept as such; the connotation of this al- is ignored.

When it comes to alphabetic ordering

Collation

Collation is the assembly of written information into a standard order. One common type of collation is called alphabetization, though collation is not limited to ordering letters of the alphabet...

, some sources will list names according to the al- while others will ignore it.

Extra

Al- is sometimes prefixed to words without giving any grammatical benefit. This may occur in poetry, in which case the purpose may be to maintain metre, rhythm, or rhyme.

It may also occur elsewhere to give a rhetorical benefit. For example, the al- attached to the relative pronoun al-ladhī (that/which/etc) is considered to be extra, because relative pronouns are already definite and there is no use for the al-. Al- is perpetually and necessarily attached to this word in most Arabic dialects, because without it the word would read ladhī, which sounds awkward. Thus its purpose is not a lexical or grammatical one, but a rhetorical one.

In the above example, the extra al- is necessary. There are other cases where it is extra but not necessary. An example is in the following phrase:


ادخلوا الأول فالأول


The word “awwal” (first) is considered “ḥāl” (a type of object in grammar) in the above phrase. This type of object is typically indefinite according to most classical and modern grammarians. So the al- attached to it is unnecessarily extra.

Miscellaneous

• Jamīl Shāmi asserts that there is a type of al- that connotes the essence of something. For example, "And we made from water every living thing ..." (Qur'an 21:30) can be translated as "And we made from the essence of water (i.e., from the compound H_{2O) every living thing ..."}
• Shāmi also cites a usage of al- as an interrogative particle. For example, al fa‘alta' (did you do it?). Notice that the al- stands alone and un-prefixed here.

At the beginning of particles (ḥarf) and verbs (fi‘l)

Al- is a particle (ḥarf) in the Arabic language. Like most (but not all) particles, it is not prefixed to other particles. That is because particles are never in need of any of the lexical meanings or grammatical inflections provided by al-.

Similarly, al- is not prefixed to verbs. However, it has been seen on verbs in poetry, as in the following couplets by Dhu al-Kharq al-Tahawi (ذو الخرق الطهوي):


يقول الخَنى وأبغَضُ العُجْمِ ناطقا – الى ربنا موتُ الحِمارِ اليُجَدّعُ

ويَستخرج اليَرْبوعَ مِن نافِقائِه – ومِن جُحْرِه بالشيحَةِ اليَتقصّعُ


Several opinions exist to explain this aberrant al-. The following is a precis of different Arabic scholars' views as given in Khizanat al-Adab.
One view is that al- is a relative pronoun here, similar to alladhī (الذي), allatī (التي), etc. in Arabic. This is the view of Ibn Hisham and Al-Akhfash al-Akbar

Al-Akhfash al-Akbar

Abu al-Khaṭṭāb ʻAbd al-Ḥamīd ibn ʻAbd al-Majīd , commonly known as Al-Akhfash al-Akbar was a notable Arab grammarian. He was born in Hajar, Bahrain but lived in Basra....

.
This opinion is in harmony with the form of the general relative pronoun (alli, illi, al) in most Arabic dialects nowadays. If this view is correct, this aberrant al- does not follow the sun and moon letters rule.

When al- occurs in places where we would not normally expect it, it is considered extra as far as grammar and lexicology are concerned. This is the view of al-Kisā’ī

Kisa'i

Kisa'i , known also as Muhammad b. Abdullah al-Kisa'i, is the name attributed in Islam to the otherwise unknown author of one of the collections of Stories of the Prophets, which includes information not found in other collections nor repeated in later exegesis...

.

Al- is used by poets to complete the meter of the verse under poetic license. This is the view of Ibn Malik

Ibn Malik

Ibn Mālik, Abū ʻAbd Allāh Djamāl Al-Dīn Muhammad was an Arab grammarian born in Jaén, Spain. After leaving Spain for the Near East, he became a Shāfi‘ī, and taught Arabic language and literature in Aleppo and Hamāt, before eventually settled in Damascus, where he began the most productive period...

, the author of the Alfiyyah; it is rejected by the author of the Khizānat al-Adab.

At the beginning of nouns (ism)

The terms noun and ism have been used synonymously in this section

Because nouns require the functions provided by al- (namely definiteness), al- is prefixed to them. Ism, as defined in classical Arabic grammar, includes all parts of speech save particles and verbs: nouns, pronouns, adjectives, adverbs, etc.

As a general rule, al- may be prefixed to any ism, regardless of gender, plurality, grammatical case, etc. However, this rule has some pathological caveats. That is, there are some nouns that al- may never be prefixed to, and there are others that al- must always be prefixed to.

Nouns that do not inflect for definiteness

The definite article al- is not typically prefixed to nouns that do not inflect for definiteness. Examples include the interrogative man 'who'.

Already definite nouns

The definite article al- is not typically prefixed to nouns that are already definite. Examples include personal pronouns, relative pronouns, demonstrative pronouns, nouns already prefixed with al-, etc.

Exceptions to this include the prefixation of al- to the relative pronoun (see #Extra) and to proper nouns (see #At the beginning of names). As a concrete example, al- has been recorded at the beginning of a demonstrative pronoun, as in the following poetic verse:


فإن الأولاء يعلمونكَ مِنهمُ

The genitival construction (iḍāfa)

Al- is not prefixed to non-final nouns in a genitival construction (Iḍāfa). For example, in shawāri‘ al-madīna” (the city’s streets), the word is a non-final noun in the genitival construction. Hence, it cannot be prefixed with al- (it is already definite by virtue of the construction).

Exceptions to this include genitival constructions where the first noun is a participle

Participle

In linguistics, a participle is a word that shares some characteristics of both verbs and adjectives. It can be used in compound verb tenses or voices , or as a modifier...

 and the second noun is its object. This can be done if one of the following conditions is met.

• the first noun is dual; e.g.
• the first noun is sound masculine plural; e.g.
• the second noun also has al-; e.g.
• the second noun is the first noun of another genitival construction, and the second noun in this other construction has al-; e.g.
• the second noun is suffixed to a pronoun which refers to a noun that has al-; e.g.

Al- has also been seen in poetic verses prefixed to non-final nouns in a genitival construction. An example is in the following couplet:


مِن القوم الرسولُ الله منهم – لهم دانَتْ رِقابُ بني مَعَدٍّ


Furthermore, the grammatical school of Kufa allows al- on the first noun in a genitival construction if it is a number. For example, the phrase “thalāthat aqlām” (three pens) may be read “al-thalāthat aqlām”.

Vocation

According to the Basra school of classical grammar, al- does not typically follow the particles of vocation. For example, one will not say “yā ar-rajul” (O the man).

The proponents of the Basra camp give two exceptions.

• the word “Allah”; one may say “yā Allah” (O God) with or without pronouncing the hamza in “Allah”.
• direct quotation; one may say, for example, “yā al-Ḥasan” (O al-Hasan) to someone named al-Hasan.

However, the Kufa camp of classical grammar, as well as many modern grammarians, allow al- to be prefixed to the object of vocation almost unconditionally. An example is given in the following couplet of poetry:


مِن أجْلِكِ يا التي تَيَّمْتِ قلبي – وأنتِ بحيلةٌ بالوُدِّ عَنّي


Under this scheme, if the object of vocation is a single word and it is feminine, the particle of vocation will be followed by the particle ayyatuhā. And if it is masculine, it will be followed by the particle ayyuhā.

Nunation (tanwīn)

According to the classical grammarians Farrā and Kasā’ī, the overarching purpose of nunation

Nunation

In some Semitic languages, notably Arabic, nunation is the addition of a final nun to a noun or adjective to indicate that it is fully declinable and syntactically unmarked for definiteness....

 is to differentiate between nouns and verbs. Thus a noun is given nunation so that it won’t be confused with a verb; for example the name would have been confused with a quatralateral verb had it not been for nunation. Additionally, we know that al- prefixed to verbs. Therefore, when al- is prefixed to a noun, there is no longer any danger of the noun being confused with a verb, and so the nunation is no longer needed. Hence, no noun has both al- and nunation simultaneously.

However, there are some types of nunation whose purpose is not to differentiate between nouns and verbs. Such types include (a type of nunation converted from an alif at the end of poetic couplets) and (a type of nunation used to maintain the metre of a poem).

An example of the first type in conjunction with al- is found in the following couplet of poetry:


أقِلّي اللَومَ عاذِلَ والعِتابَن – وقُولي إنْ أصَبْتُ لقد أصابَنْ


And an example of the second type in conjunction with al- is found in the verse below:


وقاتِمِ الأعْماقِ خاوي المُخْتَرَقْنْ

Necessary prefixation

There are some nouns that are invariably seen with al-. Examples include the relative pronoun al-ladhī (that/which/etc)..

Al- on numbers

Al- may be prefixed to the first part of a number between 11 and 19. For example, aḥada ‘ashar (eleven) may be read as "al-aḥada ‘ashar".

In the case of a compound number (21-29, 31-39, ..., 91-99), al- may be prefixed to both parts. For example, wāḥid wa-‘ishrūn” (twenty-one) may be read as "al-wāḥid wa-al-‘ishrūn".

Al- on participles

When al- is prefixed to a participle, it acts like a relative pronoun. For the purposes of this rule, participles include (the active participle), (the passive participle), (another participle in Arabic), etc. For example, . This is translated as “I passed by the man who was riding his steed” as opposed to something like “I passed by the rider of his steed.” Consequently, all the rules of Arabic relative pronouns and their clauses will apply here.

It is widely accepted in Arabic grammar that a participle can carry tense

Grammatical tense

A tense is a grammatical category that locates a situation in time, to indicate when the situation takes place.Bernard Comrie, Aspect, 1976:6:...

. This tense, however, is typically limited to the present and future. But when we use the above construction, the past can be connoted by the participle as well due to the nature of relative clauses. For example, one may say (I passed by the man who was riding his steed yesterday).

Some grammarians, however, say that it is only the past that can be connoted in this construction; the option of connoting the present and future is no longer available. And others say that no tense at all can be connoted.

Effects of al- on grammatical case

Al- has very few contributions to the grammatical case of a noun. However, it is worth mentioning that it turns second-declension nouns (ghayr munṣarif) into first declension nouns by allowing the kasra vowel.

Moreover, al- brings back the letter in an ism manqūṣ that is in the nominative or genitive case. Without the al-, the in such nouns is omitted and replaced by nunation.

Allah

Of special interest is the origins of the word Allah

Allah

Allah is a word for God used in the context of Islam. In Arabic, the word means simply "God". It is used primarily by Muslims and Bahá'ís, and often, albeit not exclusively, used by Arabic-speaking Eastern Catholic Christians, Maltese Roman Catholics, Eastern Orthodox Christians, Mizrahi Jews and...

. While some scholars trace this word to a Hebrew origin (see El (God)

El (god)

is a Northwest Semitic word meaning "deity", cognate to Akkadian and then to Hebrew : Eli and Arabic )....

), many modern scholars propose that it was derived from the word “al-ilāh” (the god). Proponents of this theory point towards the fact that the lām in al- is followed by a hamza. They say that the kasra from that hamza transferred to the lām and the hamza itself dropped (see #The vowels in al-), resulting in “alilāh”. Notice here that the volatile hamza does not drop from pronunciation even though it is no longer required. Then the two lāms geminated, producing "allāh". Furthermore, the resulting lām was emphasized in pronunciation out of reverence for the name of God. And finally, the written word was given a special script and is written as follows: .

See also

• Arabic grammar
  Arabic grammar
  Arabic grammar is the grammar of the Arabic language. Arabic is a Semitic language and its grammar has many similarities with the grammar of other Semitic languages....
  
  
• Arabic phonology
  Arabic phonology
  While many languages have numerous dialects that differ in pronunciation, the Arabic language is more properly described as a continuum of varieties. This article deals primarily with Modern Standard Arabic, which is the standard variety shared by educated speakers throughout Arabic-speaking regions...
  
  
• Grammatical particle
  Grammatical particle
  In grammar, a particle is a function word that does not belong to any of the inflected grammatical word classes . It is a catch-all term for a heterogeneous set of words and terms that lack a precise lexical definition...
  
  
• Influence of Arabic on other languages
  Influence of Arabic on other languages
  Arabic has had a great influence on other languages, especially in vocabulary. The influence of Arabic has been most profound in those countries dominated by Islam or Islamic power...
  
  
• Sun and moon letters

External links

• What's Up With "Al-"? at Slate
  Slate (magazine)
  Slate is a US-based English language online current affairs and culture magazine created in 1996 by former New Republic editor Michael Kinsley, initially under the ownership of Microsoft as part of MSN. On 21 December 2004 it was purchased by the Washington Post Company...