We added the vowel ا to the middle of the word. In fact, changing the small markings turned the noun into a verb: now it means to act justly. Since the root is the same, we know this word is close in meaning to justice. But ignoring that small change, all the letters are the same: ع - د - ل. This is a subtle change, but with focus: the little markings at the top of each letter have changed from before. Now let’s change the vowelization of the word (the tiny markings on top of the letters) a little bit:
We covered the 🖋 Arabic writing system in another article.)
Well, since there are only three letters in the word, each of them is part of the root! The root is ع - د - ل (and these letters look a bit different when written together, of course. Since most Arabic words have a three-letter root, what do you think are the root letters of this word? It’s best if you can read Arabic, but you can also follow along with the letter shapes you see: They all share the meaning of power and control because they share the root -archy. From it come the words anarchy, monarchy, oligarchy, hierarchy. This is how roots work in English, and many other languages around the world.Īn example of a root in English is -archy. A root is a shared set of letters that form the core meaning of the word. In Arabic, most words are derived from a set of root letters, usually just 3 letters. Let’s learn these rules now-they’re very intuitive. Through this system, we can expand our vocabulary and understand much more from all we read and hear. We only need to know the rules for word construction.īut chances are, when we ‘make’ a ‘new’ word, we’re actually finding a word that already exists in the dictionary. We can make our own words because Arabic has a system for doing that! Using this system, everyone can make words that everyone else can understand. The first issue: if I make up a word by myself, how can anyone else know what it means? That’s a big statement which raises more questions than it answers. In Arabic, you can create words all by yourself.
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