Arabic-L:TRANS:allaah

[Dilworth B. Parkinson]

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Arabic-L: Fri 23 Nov 2001
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1) Subject: allaah

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1)
Date:  23 Nov 2001
From: Farghaly01 at aol.com
Subject: allaah

  The recent postings on the distinction between ‘/allaah/, /rabb/ and
/ilaah/ are very interesting and intriguing. As was said and
demonstrated all three, as well as many others,  are used to refer to
God. I will dwell here on some distinctions I find interesting in the
linguistic distribution and behavior of each.

1.  The word ‘allaah/  exhibits  unique morphological and syntactic properties:

a.  It is a definite NP and   thus can  form an Arabic sentence when
followed by an indefinite adjective as in /allaahu kabiirun/ and form
an NP when followed by a definite Adjective such as  /allaahu
rraHiimu/.

b.  Although it begins with the alif laam (the Arabic definite
article) but  it is the only word in Arabic where  the alif laam is
inseparable. Hence  the ungrammaticality of /*laah/.  It is the only
word in Arabic that  incorporates the definite article such that the
definte article is lexicalized and has become an integral part of the
lexical item.


c.  It  does not occur  as  a  first term of an idaafa construct,
which points out to its definiteness.

d.  It  does not accept Pronominal clitics.


e.  Although is is a singular masculine noun, it does not allow
morphological inflection such as dual, plural or  feminine markers.

2.  The morphological properties of the word /ilaah/  differs
drastically from those of the word /allaah/. Consider:

a.  It can be either definite or indefinite as in /ilaah/ , al-ilaah/

b.  It  inflects for gender as  in /venus ilaahatu aljamaal/ ‘Venus,
the goddess of beauty’. It also inflects for number as in /ilaahaan,
ilaahayn/ and the masculine broken plural /?aaliha/.


c.  accepts pronominal clitics as in /ilaahukum/ , /ilaahuna/

3.  The word /rabb/ is similar in its morphological and synatcic
behavior to the word /ilaah/. Consider
a.  It inflects for gender and number. E.g. /rabbatu baytin/ ‘a
housewife. It has broken plural ‘?arbaab’
b.  It accepts an optional  definite article as in /alrabbu waaHidun/
‘God is unique’.
c.  It accepts pronominal suffixes and can occur  as the first term
if an idaafa construct.

4.  There are important semantic and usage differences. This may also
go under implications for teaching Arabic. I would tell my students
the following:

a.  use ‘allaah’ whenever you are referring to the image of God as
presented in monotheistic religions.

b.  The word ‘ilaah’ can be used to refer to God as envisioned by any
group or thinking. So it used in Arabic and in the Quran to refer to
the idols which  were worshipped in Mecca before Islam. Similarily
The word is appropriately used to refer to Greek gods and goddesses.

c.  The word /rabb/ has  a wider meaning as in /rabbu l?usra/ ‘the
head of the family’ and /rabbu alsamaawati wa l?arDi” ‘creator of the
space and land, and ‘rabbu lbayti’ ‘the owner of the house.

Finally we visual the semantic relationship among the three words as
a continuum starting from the general to the specifci as follows :

Rabb à ilaah à allaah

Ali Farghaly
Senior Linguist
YY Technologies

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End of Arabic-L:  23 Nov 2001