Saudi Arabic Curriculum (لغتي) — Grade 4, Semester 2 — Page 13

Arabic text · النص

Line-by-line translation · المعاني

كَمَا ظَهَرَتِ الْحَاجَةُ إِلَى وَضْعِ حَرَكَاتٍ لِضَبْطِ الْكَلِمَاتِ وَفْقًا لِقَوَاعِدِ اللُّغَةِ الْعَرَبِيَّةِ، تَحَاشِيًا لِلْخَطَأِ فِي قِرَاءَةِ الْقُرْآنِ الْكَرِيمِ.

A need also arose to develop vowel marks to regulate words according to the rules of the Arabic language, preventing errors in reading the Holy Quran.

وَكُلِّفَ أَبُو الْأَسْوَدِ الدُّؤَلِيُّ عَامَ ٦٧ - ٨٦م، فَاسْتَعَانَ بِالنُّقَطِ؛ لِلتَّمْيِيزِ بَيْنَ عَلَامَاتِ الرَّفْعِ وَالنَّصْبِ وَالْجَرِّ.

Abu al-Aswad al-Du'ali was commissioned between 67 and 86 AH, and he used dots to distinguish between the grammatical cases of nominative, accusative, and genitive.

وَكَانَتْ طَرِيقَةُ الدُّؤَلِيِّ فِي شَكْلِ أَوَاخِرِ الْكَلِمَاتِ، بِكِتَابَةِ نِقَاطِ الْحَرَكَاتِ بِلَوْنٍ مُخَالِفٍ لِلَوْنِ كِتَابَةِ الْكَلِمَاتِ بِحُرُوفِهَا.

Al-Du'ali’s method for diacritizing the ends of words involved writing the vowel dots in a color different from that of the letters themselves.

فَإِذَا فَتَحَ شَفَتَيْهِ عَلَى آخِرِ حَرْفٍ نَقَطَ نُقْطَةً وَاحِدَةً بِالصَّبْغِ الْمُخْتَلِفِ فَوْقَ الْحَرْفِ فَيَكُونُ هَذَا هُوَ الْفَتْحُ.

If he opened his lips on the final letter, he placed a single dot of the contrasting color above it to indicate the fatha.

وَإِذَا خَفَضَ شَفَتَيْهِ عِنْدَ آخِرِ حَرْفٍ نَقَطَ نُقْطَةً وَاحِدَةً تَحْتَ الْحَرْفِ بِالصَّبْغِ الْمُخَالِفِ فَيَكُونُ هَذَا هُوَ الْكَسْرُ.

If he lowered his lips at the final letter, he placed a single dot of the contrasting color below it to indicate the kasra.

فَإِذَا ضَمَّ شَفَتَيْهِ جَعَلَ النُّقْطَةَ أَمَامَ الْحَرْفِ فَيَكُونُ هَذَا هُوَ الضَّمُّ، وَالتَّنْوِينُ كَانَ نُقْطَتَيْنِ فَوْقَ بَعْضِهِمَا.

If he rounded his lips, he placed the dot in front of the letter to indicate the damma, while the tanwin was marked by two dots placed one above the other.

مُرَاجَعَةُ الْمُكْتَسَبَاتِ السَّابِقَةِ.

Review of previous concepts.

وَعِنْدَمَا كَثُرَتِ النُّقَطُ كَانَتِ الْحَاجَةُ إِلَى ضَبْطِ الْحَرَكَاتِ وَتَمْيِيزِهَا عَنْ نُقَطِ الْحُرُوفِ.

As the number of dots increased, a need arose to standardize these vowel marks and distinguish them from the dots used to identify letters.

فَوَضَعَ الْخَلِيلُ بْنُ أَحْمَدَ الْفَرَاهِيدِيُّ الْحَرَكَاتِ الْإِعْرَابِيَّةَ بِخُطُوطٍ صَغِيرَةٍ عُلْوِيَّةٍ وَسُفْلِيَّةٍ؛ لِلدَّلَالَةِ عَلَى الْفَتْحِ وَالْكَسْرِ.

Al-Khalil ibn Ahmad al-Farahidi introduced grammatical vowel marks using small lines above and below the letters to indicate the fatha and kasra.

وَرَأْسِ وَاوٍ لِلدَّلَالَةِ عَلَى الضَّمِّ، وَإِذَا كَانَ الْحَرْفُ مُنَوَّنًا تَكَرَّرَتِ الْعَلَامَةُ.

He used a small 'waw' shape to indicate the damma, and if the letter was marked with tanwin, the sign was doubled.

وَالسُّكُونُ يَكُونُ رَأْسَ خَاءٍ بِدُونِ نُقْطَةٍ أَوْ دَائِرَةٍ، وَالشَّدَّةُ تَكُونُ عَلَى رَأْسِ حَرْفِ الشِّينِ بِدُونِ نُقَطٍ.

The sukun was represented by the head of a 'kha' without its dot or a circle, while the shadda was represented by the head of a 'shin' without its dots.

وَلِلْهَمْزَةِ رَأْسُ عَيْنٍ؛ لِقُرْبِ مَخْرَجِ الصَّوْتِ بَيْنَ الْهَمْزَةِ وَالْعَيْنِ.

The hamza was marked with the head of an 'ayn' because the articulation points of the hamza and the 'ayn' are close.

وَغَدَا مُمْكِنًا بَعْدَ هَذَا التَّطْوِيرِ أَنْ يَجْمَعَ الْكَاتِبُ بَيْنَ كِتَابَةِ الْحُرُوفِ بِنُقَطِهَا وَحَرَكَاتِهَا بِلَوْنٍ وَاحِدٍ دُونَ لَبْسٍ بَيْنَهُمَا.

Following this development, it became possible for writers to use the same color for both letters and their vowel marks without causing confusion.

لِذَا فَالنَّقْطُ وَالشَّكْلُ أَثَرٌ مِنْ آثَارِ الْإِسْلَامِ فِي الْكِتَابَةِ الْعَرَبِيَّةِ.

Thus, the system of dotting and diacritization stands as a lasting contribution of Islam to Arabic script.

Vocabulary · المفردات (13 verbs · 57 nouns)

• ظَهَرَ — to appear
• كَلَّفَ — to assign
• اِسْتَعَانَ — to seek help
• كَانَ — to be
• فَتَحَ — to open
• نَقَطَ — to dot
• خَفَضَ — to lower
• ضَمَّ — to join/damma
• جَعَلَ — to make
• كَثُرَ — to become numerous
• وَضَعَ — to place
• تَكَرَّرَ — to repeat
• جَمَعَ — to collect
• حَاجَة — need
• وَضْع — placing
• حَرَكَة — vowel mark
• ضَبْط — control/setting
• كَلِمَة — a word (grammatical term)
• قَاعِدَة — rule
• لُغَة — language
• خَطَأ — error
• قِرَاءَة — reading
• قُرْآن — Quran
• عَام — year
• نُقْطَة — dot
• تَمْيِيز — distinction
• عَلَامَة — sign
• رَفْع — raf'
• نَصْب — nasb
• جَرّ — jarr
• طَرِيقَة — Path/method
• شَكْل — diacritization
• آخِر — end
• كِتَابَة — script
• لَوْن — color
• حَرْف — letter
• شَفَة — lip
• صَبْغ — dye
• فَتْح — fatha
• كَسْر — kasra
• ضَمّ — damma
• تَنْوِين — tanwin
• مُرَاجَعَة — review
• مُكْتَسَب — acquired
• خَطّ — line
• دَلَالَة — indication
• رَأْس — head
• وَاو — letter waw
• سُكُون — sukun
• خَاء — Kha (letter)
• دَائِرَة — circle
• شَدَّة — shadda
• شِين — shin
• هَمْزَة — final (hamza)
• عَيْن — ayn
• مَخْرَج — articulation point
• صَوْت — (sound)
• وَصْل — wasl
• مَدّ — madd
• تَطْوِير — development
• كَاتِب — writer, author
• لَبْس — confusion
• أَثَر — trace
• إِسْلَام — Islam
• مُخَالِف — contrary
• قُرْب — closeness
• مُمْكِن — possible
• إِعْرَابِيَّة — grammatical
• وَاحِدَة — one (feminine)
• مُخْتَلِف — different