ʾIʿrab


ʾIʿrāb is an Arabic term for the system of nominal, adjectival, or verbal suffixes of Classical Arabic. These suffixes are written in fully vocalized Arabic texts, notably the Qur’ān or texts written for children or Arabic learners, and they are articulated when a text is formally read aloud, but they do not survive in any spoken dialect of Arabic. Even in Literary Arabic, these suffixes are often not pronounced in pausa ; i.e. when the word occurs at the end of the sentence, in accordance with certain rules of Arabic pronunciation. Depending on the knowledge of ʾiʿrāb, some Arabic speakers may omit case endings when reading out in Modern Standard Arabic, thus making it similar to spoken dialects. Many Arabic textbooks for foreigners teach Arabic without a heavy focus on ʾiʿrāb, either omitting the endings altogether or only giving a small introduction. Arabic without case endings may require a different and fixed word order, similar to spoken Arabic dialects.

Etymology

The term literally means 'making Arabic'. It is the stem IV masdar of the root ع-ر-ب, meaning "to be fluent", so ʾiʿrāb means "making a thing expressed, disclosed or eloquent". The term is cognate to the word Arab itself.

Grammatical cases

Case is not shown in standard orthography, with the exception of indefinite accusative nouns ending in any letter but tā’ marbūṭah or alif followed by hamzah, where the -a "sits" on the letter before an alif added at the end of the word. Cases, however, are marked in the Qur'an, children's books, and to remove ambiguous situations. If marked, it is shown at the end of the noun. Further information on the types of declensions is discussed in the following section, along with examples. Grammatical case endings are not pronounced in pausa and in less formal forms of Arabic. Note that in vocalised Arabic, the case endings may be written even if they are not pronounced. Some Arabic textbooks or children's books skip case endings in vocalised Arabic, thus allowing both types of pronunciation.

Nominative case

The nominative is used in several situations:
For singular nouns and broken plurals, it is marked as a usually unwritten ضَمَّة ḍammah for the definite or ḍammah + nunation for the indefinite. The dual and regular masculine plural are formed by adding ـَانِ -an and ـُونَ -ūn respectively. The regular feminine plural is formed by adding ـَاتُ -āt in the definite and ـَاتٌ -āt in the indefinite.

Accusative case

The accusative has several uses:
For singular nouns and broken plurals, it is marked as a usually unwritten فَتْحَة fatḥah for the definite or fatḥah + nunation for the indefinite. For the indefinite accusative, the fatḥah + nunation is added to an ا alif, e.g. ـًا, which is added to the ending of all nouns not ending with a alif followed by hamzah or a tā’ marbūṭah. Note that this is the only case, which affects the unvocalised written Arabic. The dual and regular masculine plural are formed by adding ـَيْنِ -ayn and ـِينَ -īn respectively . The regular feminine plural is formed by adding ـَاتِ -āt in the definite and -āt in the indefinite. Some forms of indefinite accusative are mandatory even for spoken and pausal forms of Arabic, sometimes -an is changed to a simple -a in pausa or spoken Arabic.
Diptotes never take an alif ending in the written Arabic and are never pronounced with the ending -an.

Genitive case

The genitive case
For singular nouns and broken plurals, it is marked as a usually unwritten كَسْرَة kasrah for the definite or kasrah + nunation for the indefinite. The dual and regular masculine plural are formed by adding ـَيْنِ -ayn and ـِيْنَ -īn respectively . The regular feminine plural is formed by adding ـَاتِ -āt in the definite and ـَاتٍ -āt in the indefinite.

Types of declension

Fully declined nouns (triptotes)

For fully declined nouns, known as "triptote", that is, having three separate case endings, the suffixes are -u, -a, -i for nominative, accusative, and genitive case respectively, with the addition of a final to produce -un, -an, and -in when the word is indefinite.
This system applies to most singular nouns in Arabic. It also applies to feminine nouns ending in ة -a/-at and ء hamzah, but for these, ا alif is not written in the accusative case. It also applies to many "broken plurals". When words end in -a/-at the t is pronounced when the case ending is added; thus رِسَالَة is pronounced risāla in pausal form, but in Classical Arabic it becomes رِسَالَةٌ risālatun, رِسَالَةً risālatan, and رِسَالَةٍ risālatin when case endings are added.
The final is dropped when the noun is preceded by the definite article al-). The is also dropped when the noun is used in iḍāfah, that is, when it is followed by a genitive. Thus:
Nominative :
Accusative ;
literally, 'erected'):
Genitive :
The final is also dropped in classical poetry at the end of a couplet, and the vowel of the ending is pronounced long.

Diptotes

A few singular nouns, and certain types of "broken plural", are known as meaning that they only have two case endings.
When the noun is indefinite, the endings are -u for the nominative and -a for the genitive and accusative with no nunation. The genitive reverts to the normal -i when the diptotic noun becomes definite ).
Diptotes never take an alif in the accusative case in written Arabic.

Sound masculine plurals

In the case of sound masculine plurals , mostly denoting male human beings, the suffixes are respectively ـُونَ -ūna and ـِينَ -īna. These stay the same whether ال al- precedes or not. The final -a is usually dropped in speech. In less formal Arabic only -īna is used for all cases and the final -a is dropped in pausa and in less formal Arabic.
The ن -na is dropped when the noun is in iḍāfah. Thus:
Nominative:
Accusative and genitive:
Note: ending ـِينَ -īna is spelled identically to ـَيْنِ -ayni.

Sound feminine plurals

In the case of sound feminine plurals, the suffixes are respectively ـَاتٌ, ـَاتُ -ātu, ـَاتٍ, ـَاتِ -āti and ـَاتٍ, ـَاتِ -āti. The n is only there when the noun is indefinite. Again the final vowel is dropped in speech and pausa, leaving only ـَات -āt, making all cases pronounced identically.
The final "n" is dropped when the noun is in iḍāfah.
Nominative:
Accusative and genitive:

Other declensional paradigms

The Dual - These nouns denote two of something. They decline very similarly to the sound masculine plurals because they are not marked for definiteness and look the same in both the accusative and genitive cases. For the nominative, the marking is -āni and for the accusative/genitive, -ayni. An example is "parents," which is wālidāni and wālidayni respectively.
ٱسْمُ ٱلْمَنْقُوصِ ism al-manqūṣ - These nouns behave differently due to the instability of the final vowel. When indefinite, these nouns take a final -in in the nominative/genitive, and -iyan in the accusative. When definite, they take a long -ī in the nominative/genitive, and -iya in the accusative. These nouns were reckoned by the grammarians to have originally taken the triptotic endings, but through morpho-phonotactic processes, the latter resulted. An example is "judge," which is qāḍin, qāḍiyan, versus al-qāḍī, and al-qāḍiya respectively. Also, a noun can be both ism al-manqūṣ and diptotal: for example, layālin 'nights', is a broken plural with a final unstable vowel. With case endings this noun becomes layālin, layāliya, and al-layālī, al-layāliya.
ٱسْمُ ٱلْمَقْصُورِ ism al-maqṣūr - These nouns, like their close relative ism al-manqūṣ, also behave differently due to the instability of a final vowel. These nouns are marked only for definiteness, as morpho-phonotactic processes have resulted in the complete loss of the case distinctions. When indefinite, they take -an, which rests on an alif maqṣūrah or occasionally alif. When definite, they are not marked, and they simply retain their long alif or alif maqṣūrah. An example is "hospital," which is mustashfan and al-mustashfā respectively. If a noun is both ism al-maqṣūr and diptotic, then it is completely invariable for case.
Invariable nouns - Invariable nouns are usually those foreign names that end in alif or nouns that end in an additional alif or alif maqṣūrah. Also, nouns that are both ism al-maqṣūr and diptotic fall into this category. Additionally, there are rare invariable nouns which have other endings, like any name ending with "-ayhi," like Sībawayhi, meaning 'the most eloquent '. Another example is dunyā 'world'.

Sentence structure

A noun's case depends on the role that the noun plays in the sentence. There are multiple sentence structures in Arabic, each of which demands different case endings for the roles in the sentence. "Subject" does not always correspond to "nominative", nor does "object" always correspond to "accusative". Sentences in Arabic are divided into two branches, of which are the incomplete phrases and the complete phrases. Jumla inshaiya is composed of the descriptive phrase and possessive phrase, while the jumla khabariya is made up of the verbal sentence and the nominal sentence. The incomplete phrase cannot be a sentence in itself, and is usually used in the complete phrases.

Verbal sentences

In a verbal sentence, there is verb–subject–object word order. This is the preferred word order of Classical Arabic.
In a verbal sentence, the subject takes nominative case and the object takes accusative case. Such a sentence would be formed as follows :

Nominal sentences

In a nominal sentence, there is subject–verb–object word order.

Equations (no copula verb)

If the verb would be "is", then there is no verb used. Both the subject and the predicate take nominative case when there is no overt verb. Such a sentence is formed as follows :

Overt verb

If there is an overt verb, the subject takes nominative and the predicate takes accusative. Such a sentence is formed as follows :

Sisters of ''inna''

There is a class of words in Arabic called the "sisters of inna" that are share characteristics of إِنَّ. Among them are:
If one of the sisters of إِنَّ begins a clause, then the subject takes accusative case instead of nominative.
Such a sentence using the particle إِنَّ would be formed as follows :
Note that although there was an overt verb in the above example, a nominal sentence without an overt verb will also have its subject take accusative case because of the introduction of one of inna's sisters.
Consider the following example :

With sisters of ''kāna''

The verb kāna and its sisters form a class of 13 verbs that mark the time/duration of actions, states, and events.
Sentences that use these verbs are considered to be a type of nominal sentence according to Arabic grammar, not a type of verbal sentence. Although the word order may seem to be verb–subject–object when there is no other verb in the sentence, note that it is possible to have a sentence in which the order is subject–verb–object. Such a non-equation sentence clearly shows subject–verb–object word order.
Among the sisters of kāna are:
If one of the sisters of كَانَ begins a clause, then the subject takes nominative case and the object takes accusative case.
Such a sentence using the verb كَانَ would be formed as follows :
In a sentence with an explicit verb, the sister of kāna marks aspect for the actual verb. A sentence like كَانَ ٱلْكَاتِبُ يَكْتُبُ ٱلْكِتَابَ, for instance, has both a main verb and a sister of kāna that indicates the non-completed aspect of the main verb.

Verbs

The imperfective tense of the verb also has suffixed vowels, which determine the mood of the verb, There are six moods in the Classical Arabic, Thus:
All the first three forms are spelled يكتب in unvocalised Arabic, and the final vowel is not pronounced in pausa and in informal Arabic, leaving just one pronunciation: yaktub.
Traditional Arab grammarians equated the indicative with the nominative of nouns, the subjunctive with the accusative, and the jussive with the genitive, as indicated by their names. It is not known whether there is a genuine historical connection or whether the resemblance is mere coincidence, caused by the fact that these are the only three short vowels available.