LESSON NINETEEN : The Root system

[.: Anna :.]

The Root System:

The following stuff in blue has been adapted from this site : Language Centre
If you wish, read the original page for more info but I have tried to make it a little bit easier to understand. This is more theory stuff, background to how the language works. If you are confused by it don't worry too much.

• Arabic belongs to the Semitic group of languages.
• The characteristic feature of Semitic languages is their basis of consonantal roots (this means each word has a root made up of letters which are not vowels),
• roots are mostly trilateral. (ie most roots are made up of Three letters
• Variations in shade of meaning are obtained, first by varying the vowelling of the simple root, and secondly by the addition of prefixes, suffix and in-fixes.

An Arabic word is composed of two parts:

1) The root; which is usually formed of three (sometimes four) consonants.

2) The pattern; There are many "patterns" existing in the Arabic language which may be applied to a certain root to produce a meaningful word.

Because of the productive nature of the Arabic morphology, Arabic writing was mainly designed to convey primarily the root information. Hence, Arabic writing system represents mainly consonants. As we already learnt, vowels are added in by use of Harakaat (damma, kasra, fatha)

We previously touched upon this root and pattern system in the lesson on Broken Plurals. That is the kind of thing for which understanding about word patterns can be useful.

Patterns are normally shown by using the root فعل
as an example. If we wanted to symbolise the pattern of these following words:
ٌشارِب
صاحِبٌ
ٌصالِح
then we would write : فاعِلٌ

As explained above in the Language centre peice, different yet similar words can be made by using the same root but changing the pattern. Look at the following words all from the same root :
كَتَبَ
kataba
he wrote
كِتاب
kitaab
book
كُتُبٌ
kutub
books
كاتِبٌ
kaatib
writer
مكْتبٌ
maktab
office
مكتبةٌ
maktaba
library or bookshop

All the words are on the topic of writing.

[.: Anna :.]

Exercises

1. Read the lesson and answer the following to test your understanding:
a) Arabic is from which group of languages?
b) How many letters are usually in an Arabic root?
c) Are the roots made up of consonants or vowels?
d) What are the two parts of an Arabic word?
e) Which three letters are typically used to demonstrate word patterns?
f) Give an example of how we can change a simple root to modify meaning?

2. Identify the following patterns, using the root fa3ala to show
a)
سَعيدٌ
كَبيرٌ
صَغيرٌ
b)
مُدَرِّسٌ
مُعَلِّمٌ
مُفَتِّشٌ
c)
تدريس
تكبير
تفتيش

3. Identify the common root of the following and each of their patterns:
دَرَسَ
مَدْرَسَةٌ
مُدَرِّسٌ
دَرْسٌ
تَدْريسٌ
دِراسَةٌ