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<DIV><FONT face=Arial><EM><SPAN class=628202520-27092007>>> </SPAN>Of
course the vowels have to be "recovered" somehow. <SPAN
class=628202520-27092007>... </SPAN>I have no idea how the words are recognized
if they might share consonants but differ in their vowels. <SPAN
class=628202520-27092007> </SPAN>How are Arabic verb forms/tenses recognized
without explicit vowels?</EM></FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><SPAN class=628202520-27092007><FONT face=Arial>You automatically recognize
them from the context. Everything that gets left out can be deduced
from what is explicit within the word itself and from the surrounding
syntax. </FONT></SPAN><SPAN class=628202520-27092007><SPAN
class=628202520-27092007><FONT face=Arial>You can read this way easily because
Arabic voweling is systematic. </FONT></SPAN><SPAN
class=628202520-27092007><FONT face=Arial> </FONT></SPAN></SPAN></DIV>
<DIV><SPAN class=628202520-27092007><SPAN class=628202520-27092007><FONT
face=Arial></FONT></SPAN></SPAN> </DIV>
<DIV><SPAN class=628202520-27092007><SPAN class=628202520-27092007><FONT
face=Arial>To slightly oversimplify -- if you see a word with yABC (like
<EM>yktb</EM>, he writes)<EM>,</EM> where ABC are random
consonants, you know that it's a present tense form of the verb with root
ABC (where ABC is a broad concept, like "writing" when ABC =
<EM>ktb</EM>). Because you know <EM>yktb </EM>is present tense 3rd person
masc. sing., you know what the missing vowels are. If you see ABCuuaa
(<EM>ktbuuaa</EM>, they wrote) where a verb should be, you know it's past
tense "they" and what the missing vowels are. </FONT></SPAN><SPAN
class=628202520-27092007><FONT face=Arial>If you see AaaBC <EM>(kaatb</EM>,
writer)<EM>,</EM> you know it's someone who does ABC, and along with that,
the missing vowel. These patterns reoccur again and again in a lot of
different words -- the same short vowels are always left out and the same long
vowels and non-root consonants are always written, whether it's verbs or nouns
or verbal nouns or whatever else. When you see a certain pattern of long
vowels and non-root consonants, you can deduce the vowels (even if you don't
know what the word itself means...).</FONT></SPAN></SPAN></DIV>
<DIV><SPAN class=628202520-27092007><SPAN class=628202520-27092007><FONT
face=Arial></FONT></SPAN></SPAN> </DIV>
<DIV><SPAN class=628202520-27092007><SPAN class=628202520-27092007><FONT
face=Arial>Sometimes, though two different words share the same written
consonants -- the written <EM>ktb</EM>, for instance, could be <EM>kataba
</EM>("he wrote") or <EM>kutub</EM> ("books"). However, this
situation is actually pretty uncommon, and the intended word is almost always
clear from context -- you can easily tell from the syntax whether <EM>ktb
</EM>is being used as a verb or a noun, for instance, and from there derive the
correct vowels.</FONT></SPAN></SPAN></DIV>
<DIV><SPAN class=628202520-27092007><FONT face=Arial></FONT></SPAN> </DIV>
<DIV><SPAN class=628202520-27092007><FONT face=Arial>Y cn lmst d t wth nglsh,
except it's much harder because vowels in English don't follow any regular
patterns.</FONT></SPAN></DIV>
<DIV><SPAN class=628202520-27092007><FONT face=Arial></FONT></SPAN> </DIV>
<DIV><SPAN class=628202520-27092007><FONT
face=Arial>Pam</FONT></SPAN></DIV></BODY></HTML>