Some Arabic learners out there might be struggling with Arabic vocabulary or complaining that they don’t know enough words. Arabic vocabulary is indeed quite rich and varied, but it is also systematic. One beautiful aspect of the Arabic language is its productivity when it comes to word formation.

What is derivation?

Derivation or what is called الاشتقاق   Al-ishtiqaaq in Arabic, is a process by which a group of words that have a similar meaning are derived from one basic morpheme: the root الجِذْر  Al-jethr.  The Arabic root is often comprised of three consonants.

Sometimes, ten words or more belonging to the same family can be easily derived from a single morpheme. Derivation is a great feature that every Arabic learner should be aware of; something that can make a difference to their learning experience and accelerate the rate at which they can acquire vocabulary.

Derivation is like a recycling process where you start working with the raw substance (root), and then get something else (new words) out of it. In English, a new word can be derived by adding a prefix (unhappy) or a suffix (happiness) to the base (happy). However, Arabic – unlike English – is a non-linear language and so a new word isn’t formed by adding a prefix or suffix. Instead, it’s formed through making a change in the word template: a different combination of vowels [V] and consonants [C] that makes up a word and determine the word’s function or grammatical feature (noun, verb, object, etc).

For example, the consonantal root of the word “writing” is k t b ك ت ب . To make it into a verb in the past tense, the root is associated with the template of:

CVCVC

katab كَتَب

(C) refers to consonants while the (v) refers to (short) vowels, which are indicated by the diacritics here.

So, the rhythm (vocalic melody) of ‘wrote’ is: (a – a). This can be then be applied to any root, to generate the active past tense of regular verbs.

But, if we want to make the root k t b ك ت ب  into an a different a noun: active participial (subject), the template we are going to associate it with is CVVCVC. What happened is that the word changed its form from a verb into a noun (subject) by doubling the first vowel (v).

CVVCVC

kaatib كَاتِب

The vocalic melody we apply is also different; it is: (a – i).

– The example below shows how we can get five words, just by using one root.

E.g.:

The writer wrote the book in the library, which is near his office.

كَتَب الكَاتِب الكِتَاب في المَكْتَبَة التي بالقرب من مَكْتَبِه

Kataba   al-kaatib   al-kitaab   fi   al-maktaba   allati   b-il-qurb   min   maktab-ih

كَتَب        Katab

الكَاتِب     al-kaatib

الكِتَاب    al-kitaab

المَكْتَبَة     al-maktaba

مَكْتَبِه     maktab-ih

The good thing is: even if you don’t know what the word exactly means, you can still work out its root and see what it could mean in context.