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    82 views3 pages

    Declinable or Indeclinable

    Uploaded by

    Badrul Ahsan

    Copyright:

    © All Rights Reserved
    Download as DOCX, PDF, TXT or read online from Scribd
    Flag for inappropriate content
    of 3

    Declinable or Indeclinable?

    – ‫االعْراب‬
    In Arabic words are divided into two categories: ‫ْرب‬َ ‫( ُمع‬declinable) and ‫َم ْبنِي‬
    (indeclinable). In simple terms this concept concerns whether a word can
    take changes to its case ending (declinable) or not (indeclinable).

    So what causes these changes?

    Words can change case-endings for two reasons:


    (1) The position they occupy within a sentence [subject, object…] and

    (2) They are over-powered by the case of a governing particle.

    Examples are below:

    (1) Changes caused to a word because of its position in a sentence:


    Look at the following sentences: ‘the man read a book’, ‘I saw a man read the
    book’, ‘I read the book with the man’. Focus on the the phrase ‘the man’. In
    the first sentence ‘the man’ is the subject therefore: ar-rajulu ‫ال َّر ُج ُل‬. In the
    second sentence ‘the man’ is the object therefore: ar-rajula ‫ال َّرج َُل‬. In the last
    sentence ‘the man’ is majroor therefore ‘ar-rajuli‘ ‫ال َّر ُج ِل‬.This is how words
    that are ‫ ُمع َْرب‬change cases depending on their position within a sentence.

    (2) Changes caused to a word because of a governing particle: Let’s take


    for example prepositions. Imagine a muslim coming across a non-muslim.
    The muslim invites the non-muslim to become Muslim. If the non-Muslim
    agrees then he has to take the shahadah (declaration of faith) to become
    Muslim. He is also no longer called a non-Muslim, he is now called a Muslim.
    Now change ‘Muslim’ with harf-jarr ‫ َحرْ ف َجر‬and ‘non-Muslim’ with ism ‫اِسْم‬.
    Imagine a ‫ َحرْ ف َجر‬coming across an ‫اِسْم‬. The ‫ َحرْ ف َجر‬ invites the ‫ اِسْم‬to
    become ‫ َمجْ رُور‬. The ‫ اِسم‬takes a ‫ َجر‬case ending to become ‫ َمجْ رُور‬. The ‫ اِسْم‬is
    now called ‫اِسْم َمجْ رُور‬. An example of this would be ‫ت‬ ٌ ‫ بَي‬+ ‫فِي‬
    ٍ ‫ْت = فِي بَ ْي‬

    These changes which have occurred are called ‫اال ْعراب‬. ِ Words can be fully
    declinable ‘‫ص ِرف‬ َ ‫ ’ ُم ْن‬meaning that the word can take all case endings (e.g. ٌ ٍ ً ).
    They can also be partially declinable ‘‫ص ِرف‬ َ ‫ ’ َغ ْي ُر ُم ْن‬meaning that the word
    cannot take all case endings (i.e. ُ َ َ ) for example, as mentioned in the
    previous post, words such as feminine names cannot take a kasra or tanween
    but can take a dhamma or fatha; and therefore it is declinable to an
    extent. So, words which accept changes by ‫ال َعوا ِمل‬  (governing elements) are
    called ‫ ُمع َْرب‬  and words which cannot change are called ‘‫’ َم ْبنِي‬. So what are the
    changes then?
    The changes caused by ‫ال َعوا ِمل‬ are of 4 types (‫)الحاالت‬:
    1) The nominative case –  ‫َم ْرفُ ْوع‬

    ُ ‫َم ْن‬
    2) The accusative case –  ‫صوب‬

    3) The genitive case –  ‫َم ْج ُرور‬

    4) The jussive case –  ‫َم ْج ُز ْوم‬

    Once you’ve identified a word’s correct case ending depending on its ‫عَوا ِمل‬
    – what are the signs used to indicate this? It is through two ways. Think back
    to post week 2 where we formed that table with all the signs and cases and
    how case endings are indicated either through diacritics – ‫ ا ِال ْعرابِّ ال َح َركات‬ – or
    also through letters – ‫اال ْعرابِّ ال ُحرٌوف‬
    ِ .

    However not all words accept these changes. These words are called
    ‫ َم ْبنِي‬ where, despite the ‫ال َعوا ِمل‬ the word retains its positions and diacritics and
    does not accept the concept of ‫ا ِال ْعراب‬. In this case the opposite of ‫ا ِال ْعراب‬ 
    occurs which is called ‫البَناء‬. We mentioned at the beginning of this post that
    words can change for two reasons; because of its position within a sentence
    and because it comes after a governing particles which overrides its case
    ending. Let’s use those examples again using ‫ َم ْبنِي‬words:

    (1) Changes caused to a word because of its position in a sentence: Focus on


    ‘this man’ within the following three sentences: This man read a book, I saw
    this man read the book, I read the book with this man. In each of these
    examples we used the demonstrative pronoun ‘this’-‘‫‘هذا‬- this word is ‫َم ْبنِب‬
    and although ‫ ال َّرجُل‬takes a different ending in each example ‫ هذا‬remains the
    same. Note, however, that although it looks the same in each example
    intrinsically the case is still changing.

    (2) Changes caused to a word because of a governing particle: If we add a


    ٌ ‫هذا البَي‬+ ‫فِي‬
    governing particle before a ‫ َم ْبنِي‬word it does not change.  ‫ْت = فِي هذا‬
    ‫ت‬
    ِ ‫اابَ ْي‬
    To sum up this information the following chart I put together may prove
    useful. It is an indepth breakdown of what type of nouns, verbs and particles
    are declinable or indeclinable. It basically shows that:

    (1) All nouns are ‫ ُمع َْرب‬with 7 exceptions – these exceptions are ‫ َم ْبنِي‬  only
    because they resemble characteristics of the ‫ َم ْبنِي االصل‬. For example,
    attached pronouns ‫ض ِميْر‬ َّ ‫ ال‬are ‫ َم ْبنِي‬because they consist of very few letters e.g.
    ‫ ك‬,‫ ها‬much like particles (one of the ‫) َم ْبنِي االصل‬.

    (2) the ‫ َم ْبنِي االصل‬are the original indeclinables meaning that they were
    always ‫ َم ْبنِي‬ . There are 3 groups: all particles, the part tense verb (active and
    passive) and the command (including prohibition).

    (3) This leaves us with the category of present/future tense verbs which are
    ‫ ُمع َْرب‬. They are ‫ ُم ْع َرب‬because their case ending can change if a governing
    particular comes before it. The examples are listed in the box.

    Each of the 7 indeclinable nouns will have a post dedicated to them under
    this page. That’s all for now and keep a look out for my next nahw post – it
    will attempt to summarise the fundementals.

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