Arabic-L:LING:one letter words

[Dilworth Parkinson]

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Arabic-L: Tue 05 Mar 2013
Moderator: Dilworth Parkinson <dilworth_parkinson at byu.edu>
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1) Subject:one letter words

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1)
Date: 05 Mar 2013
From:mcredi at cloud9.net
Subject:one letter words

In a previous submission I wrote that the general principle is that a
letter cannot be a word in Arabic. While this is still generally speaking
true, there are instances of one-letter words. This is mainly found in the
imperative of certain verbs. For instance, the imperative of the verb وفي
(wafaa = to live up to) is فِ (fi). Arab grammarians call these kinds of
verbs اللفيف المفروق. The imperative of the verb  أتى ('ataa = to come) is
تِ (ti) Arab grammarians call these kinds of verbs المهموز الناقص. The
imperative of the verb رأى (ra'aa = to see) is رَ (ra). Arab grammarians
call these kinds of verbs الفعل المهموز العين والناقص.
Notwithstanding the above, the conjunction of coordination "waaw"
morphologically speaking is definitely not a word and should be attached to
whatever follows.

Medhat Credi

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