{"id":48,"date":"2009-05-03T21:08:04","date_gmt":"2009-05-04T01:08:04","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/arabic\/?p=46"},"modified":"2014-06-13T20:40:43","modified_gmt":"2014-06-13T20:40:43","slug":"the-arabic-case-marking-system","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/arabic\/the-arabic-case-marking-system\/","title":{"rendered":"An Introduction to the Arabic Case Marking System"},"content":{"rendered":"

The case marking system (\u0627\u0644\u0625\u0639\u0631\u0627\u0628<\/span>) is one of the most important concepts in Arabic grammar. The word (\u0625\u0639\u0631\u0627\u0628<\/span>) means expressing, and it is true of the system, as it expresses relationships between different elements of an utterance in very clear and explicit way. In the case marking system, each word is marked by a certain vowel or suffix for its case, i.e. its function in the sentence. Consider the following sentence:<\/p>\n

\u0623\u0643\u0644\u064e \u0627\u0644\u0648\u0644\u062f\u064f \u062a\u0641\u0627\u062d\u0629\u064b.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cThe boy ate an apple.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u0630\u0647\u0628\u064e \u0627\u0644\u062a\u0644\u0645\u064a\u0630\u064f \u0625\u0644\u0649 \u0627\u0644\u0645\u062f\u0631\u0633\u0629\u0650.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cThe pupil went to school.\u201d<\/p>\n

In the previous examples, the word (\u0627\u0644\u0648\u0644\u062f\u064f<\/span>) is the subject and it is marked by the short \/o\/ at the end according to this function, while the word (\u062a\u0641\u0627\u062d\u0629\u064b<\/span>) is an object and it is marked accordingly.<\/p>\n

The case marking system can disambiguate sentences and make relationships between different elements clear. In the following examples, the same words are used, but the case marking system makes the meaning of the first one almost the opposite of the second one.<\/p>\n

\u0633\u0627\u0639\u062f\u064e \u0627\u0644\u0623\u0628\u064f \u0627\u0644\u0627\u0628\u0646\u064e.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cThe father helped the son.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u0633\u0627\u0639\u062f\u064e \u0627\u0644\u0623\u0628\u064e \u0627\u0644\u0627\u0628\u0646\u064f.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cThe son helped the father.\u201d<\/p>\n

Because of this important function, all highly valued texts such as the Qur\u2019an and the Bible have case marking clearly marked on each and every word to avoid any possible confusion about meaning.<\/p>\n

It should be noted that not all words in Arabic can be marked for their case; there are words that have fixed pronunciation regardless of where they occur in the sentence, and these are primarily functional words, e.g. pronouns, prepositions, particles, etc. For example, the preposition \u201cfrom\u201d (\u0645\u0646\u064e<\/span>) is marked by a short \/a\/ at the end and this does not change under any circumstances. On the other hand, nouns, adjectives, verbs and adverbs have special endings to mark their position and function in the sentence. Consider the following examples:<\/p>\n

\u064a\u0639\u0645\u0644 \u0627\u0644\u0623\u0633\u062a\u0627\u0630\u064f \u0641\u064a \u0627\u0644\u0645\u062f\u0631\u0633\u0629.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cThe teacher works at the school.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u0642\u0627\u0628\u0644\u062a \u0627\u0644\u0623\u0633\u062a\u0627\u0630\u064e \u0641\u064a \u0627\u0644\u0645\u062f\u0631\u0633\u0629.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cI met the teacher at the school.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u062a\u0643\u0644\u0645\u062a \u0645\u0639 \u0627\u0644\u0623\u0633\u062a\u0627\u0630\u0650 \u0641\u064a \u0627\u0644\u0645\u062f\u0631\u0633\u0629.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cI talked to the teacher at the school.\u201d<\/p>\n

The word (\u0627\u0644\u0623\u0633\u062a\u0627\u0630<\/span>) takes different endings according to its function as subject or object, or its location after a preposition.<\/p>\n

The case marking system is a very challenging aspect of Arabic grammar, yet it is very systematic and logical. In future posts, I will explain different cases related to different categories of words.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The case marking system (\u0627\u0644\u0625\u0639\u0631\u0627\u0628) is one of the most important concepts in Arabic grammar. The word (\u0625\u0639\u0631\u0627\u0628) means expressing, and it is true of the system, as it expresses relationships between different elements of an utterance in very clear and explicit way. In the case marking system, each word is marked by a certain…<\/p>\n

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