Modern Arabic Language

Perhaps, if we were to concern ourselves with the presentday Arabic language and evolve its laws inductively, we would find other things and possibilities indicating what the vowel endings, which no longer exist, used to indicate, things that exist in the (present-day language) and that have their own peculiar rules.

Certain rules apply to the endings of (the words of the present-day Arabic language, only) in a manner different from that which existed originally in the language of the Mudar. Languages and (linguistic) habits are not matters of chance.

The relationship of the Mudar language to the Himyarite language was of the same type.

Many of the meanings and inflections of the words of the Himyarite language were changed in Mudar usage. This fact is attested by the transmitted material available to us. It is contrary to the opinions of those whose deficient (knowledge) leads them to assume that the Mudar and Himyar languages are one and the same, and who want to interpret the Himyarite language according to the formations and rules of the Mudar language. For instance, certain of these persons assume that the Himyarite word qayl “leader” is derived from qawl “speaking,” 1344 and so on.

This is not correct.

The Himyarite language is another language and differs from the Mudar language in most of its (conventional) meanings, inflections, and vowels, (and has) the same relationship (to it) that the Mudar language has to present-day Arabic.

The only difference is that the interest in the Mudar language which, we have stated, exists on account of (the connection of that language with) the religious law, caused 1345 (scholars) to evolve and derive (its rules). There is nothing nowadays to move us to do the same (for presentday Arabic).

A characteristic feature of the language of present-day Arab (Bedouins), wherever they may live, is the pronunciation of q. They do not pronounce it as the urban population pronounces it and as it is indicated in works on Arabic philology, namely, where the hindmost part of the tongue meets the soft palate above it.

Neither 1346 is it pronounced as k is pronounced, even though k is articulated in a place below that where q is articulated in the vicinity of the soft palate, as it is (whenproperly articulated). It is pronounced somewhere between k 1347 and q. This is the case with all Arab Bedouins, wherever they are, in the West or the East. It has eventually become their distinguishing mark among the nations and races.

It is a characteristic of theirs that no one else shares with them. This goes so far that those who want to Arabicize themselves and to affiliate themselves with the Arabs imitate the Arab pronunciation of (q). (Arabs) think that a pure Arab can be distinguished from Arabicized and sedentary people by this pronunciation of q. It is thus obvious that this is the (pronunciation of q found in) the Mudar language. The largest and leading group of Arab Bedouins who still live in the East and the West consists of descendants of Mansur b. ‘Ikrimah b. Khasafah b. Qays b. ‘Aylan 1348 through Sulaym b. Mansur and through the Banu ‘Amir b. Sa’sa’ah b. Mu’awiyah b. Bakr b. Hawazin b. Mansur. Nowa-days, they constitute the most numerous and powerful nation of the inhabited part of the earth. They are descendants of the Mudar.1349 They and all the other (Arab Bedouins) of the Banu Kahlan 1350 are the model for the pronunciation of q mentioned. It was not invented by these Arab Bedouins but inherited by them over the generations. This makes it obvious that it was the pronunciation of the ancient Mudar. Perhaps it is the very pronunciation that was used by the Prophet. ‘Alid jurists made that claim. They thought that he who reads in the first surah the words “the straight path” (as-sirata l-mustaqima) 1351 without pronouncing the q (in al-mustaqim) as is done by (present-day) Arab Bedouins, commits an error, and his prayer is not valid.

I do not know how this (differentiation in the pronunciation of q) came about. The language of the urban population was not invented by the urban population itself, either. It was transmitted to them from their ancestors, most of whom belonged to the Mudar, when they settled in the cities at the time of the (Muslim) conquest and later. The Arab Bedouins did not invent (their pronunciation of q), either. However, they had less contact with the non-Arab urban population. Therefore, the linguistic features found in their (speech) can preferably be assumed to belong to the language of their ancestors. In addition, all Arab Bedouins in the East and the West agree upon that (pronunciation of q). It is the peculiar characteristic that distinguishes the Arabs from halfbreeds and sedentary people. It 1352 is obvious that the pronunciation of q as practiced by (present-day) Arab Bedouins is the same as that of the ancient speakers (of Arabic). The place (where the sound) of q may be produced is wide, ranging from the soft palate to the place next to where k is articulated. The velar pronunciation is the urban one. The pronunciation close to k is that of (present-day) Arab Bedouins. This fact refutes the statement of the ‘Alids that failure to pronounce the q in the first surah (as it is pronounced by present-day Bedouins) invalidates one’s prayer. All the jurists of the (great) cities hold the contrary opinion. It is improbable that all of them would have overlooked this (point). The matter is to be explained as we have stated it.

We do say (however) that the Arab Bedouins’ pronunciation (of q) is preferable and more proper, because, as we have mentioned before, its continuity among them shows that it was the pronunciation of their early Arab-Bedouin ancestors and the pronunciation of the Prophet. The fact that they assimilate q to k (in pronunciation) because of the proximity of the places where the two sounds are articulated, also makes this (assumption) appear preferable. If it were pronounced far back, as a velar, as is done by the urban population, it would not be close to k in its place of articulation and would not be assimilated (to it).

Arab philologists have mentioned this q which is close to k, as pronounced by present-day Arab Bedouins. They consider it a sound intermediary between q andk, and an independent sound (phoneme). This is improbable. It is obvious that it is a q pronounced at the end. of the wide range of articulation available for q, as we have stated. The (philologists) then openly denounced (that q) as an ugly, un-Arabic sound, as if they did not recognize that (the way in which it was pronounced) was the pronunciation of the early Arabs. As we have mentioned, it belonged to (Arab) linguistic tradition, because (the Arabs) inherited it from their ancestors, generation after generation, and it was their particular symbol. That is proof that (the way in which it is pronounced) was the pronunciation of the early Arabs and the pronunciation of the Prophet, as has all been mentioned before. There is a theory that q as pronounced by the urban population does not belong to the (original) q-sound, but is the result of their contact with non-Arabs.

They pronounce it as. they do, but it is not an Arabic sound. However, our afore- mentioned statement that it is (all) one sound with a wide (range of) articulation is more appropriate.