??? is the science of Classical Arabic that deals with:

1
???

• ????? ?????

2
??? ?????

• ??? is the science of Classical Arabic that
  deals with
• 1. Patterns of Vowellization ( ? ? ? ) which
  convey
• the tense and voice of verbs,
• and
• 2. Suffixes which reflect aspects of the subject
• (gender, plurality, and person)

3
Background

• In Arabic, 3-letter groups of consonants have an
  associated root meaning
• ? ? ?
• ? ? ?
• But, consonants without vowels cannot be
  pronounced, and in Arabic, these vowels also
  carry a meaning, a non-word meaning.

writing
helping
4
Conveying Meaning

• In addition to the root, there are several
  non-word meanings that are conveyed via vowels,
  non-base letters, prefixes, suffixes etc. (tense,
  voice, added connotations, and much more)
• In order to get a grasp on these non-word
  meanings, heavy emphasis is placed on mastering
  the essentials of Arabic Morphology in classical
  teaching methodologies.

5
The Arabic Alphabet

• In the Arabic language we have 29 letters and
  they are all consonants.
• ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ?
  ? ? ? ?
• The short vowels are not considered separate
  letters and therefore are not part of the
  alphabet.

6
Short Vowels ?????

• ?????? ? - corresponds to a short o or
  u in English. A letter that has a ?????? over
  it is said to be ??????
• ?????? ? - corresponds to a short a in
  English. A letter that has a ?????? over it is
  said to be ??????
• ?????? ? - corresponds to a short e or
  i in English. A letter that has a ?????? under
  it is said to be ??????

7
Absence of Vowels and Duplication

• The absence of vowel is called ????? ( ? ). If
  a letter is ???? (i.e. has a ????? on it), this
  would mean it is the final consonant in a
  syllable.
• Pronouncing of the letter twice, first with a
  ?????, and then with a ????, is called ????????
  or ????? , and the letter is said to be ???????
  (e.g. the ? in ?????? is ????????).

8
Aspects of Subject

• In all languages, verbs are conjugated to reflect
  three aspects of their subjects
• Gender Masculine or Feminine
• Plurality Singular, Dual (unlike English,
  Arabic also has separate forms to indicate on two
  of something) and Plural (3 or more), and
• Person Third person, Second person and First
  person.

9
Conjugation Tables

• A great portion of Arabic Morphology is devoted
  to memorizing the tables that result from
  MULTIPLYING the three aspects mentioned above
• (i.e. gender, plurality, and person).

10
3rd Person Conjugation Layout
Person Gender Plurality English Equivalent
3rd Masculine Singular He 1
3rd Masculine Dual (2) They (M2) 2
3rd Masculine Plural (gt2) They (Mgt2) 3
3rd Feminine Singular She 4
3rd Feminine Dual (2) They (F2) 5
3rd Feminine Plural (gt2) They (Fgt2) 6
11
2nd Person Conjugation Layout
Person Gender Plurality English Equivalent
2nd Masculine Singular You (M) 7
2nd Masculine Dual (2) You (M2) 8
2nd Masculine Plural (gt2) You (Mgt2) 9
2nd Feminine Singular You (F) 10
2nd Feminine Dual (2) You (F2) 11
2nd Feminine Plural (gt2) You (Fgt2) 12
12
1st Person Conjugation Layout
Person Gender Plurality English Equivalent
1st Masculine Singular I (M/F) 13
1st Masculine Dual (2) We (M/F2) 14
1st Masculine Plural (gt2) We 15
1st Feminine Singular I 16
1st Feminine Dual (2) We 17
1st Feminine Plural (gt2) We 18
13
Table of 14 Conjugations

• Due to the fact that EVERY subject will need a
  gender, plurality AND a person, we look at the
  total combinations that result from multiplying
  the above. It comes to 18, six for each of the
  third, second and first persons.

• In the first person, separate dual and feminine
  forms do not exist. This will reduce the number
  in the first person group from six to just two
  13 I (male or female) and 14 We (males or
  females two or more than two)

14
Active vs. Passive Voice

• For all actions that require objects (transitive
  verbs), the verb can either be active or passive.
• Active is when the action of the verb is directed
  at the subject which is also mentioned e.g. he
  helped.
• Passive voice is for the verb whose action is
  directed towards the object, and the subject is
  missing e.g. he was helped.
• In Sarf, there are separate gardaans for each of
  the active and passive voices, 14 conjugations
  per gardaan.

15
Model Base-letters

• For simplification purposes, in order to isolate
  the pattern meanings (subject matter of Sarf)
  from the meaning coming from the base letters
  (which are found in dictionaries not directly a
  concern of Sarf), the scholars of Sarf have used
  the most basic base letters in terms of meaning
  as models for all of the patterns to be discussed
  through out the science. The three model
  letters are ? , ? , and ? .