This was originally posted by ArtemisGunhilde
I recently had two realisations while working through the Hobbies 2 unit. Nothing earth-shattering. Just the kind of little 'a-ha' moments that I love about language learning. I wanted to put them out there so that others can confirm or deny. (And please feel free to chip in with your own 'a-ha' moments.)
اَلْحَمْدُ لِله .1
Alhamdulillah is usually translated on Duo as 'praise be to God'. But in this unit we are introduced to a li- prefix, used to show that the preceding item or concept is 'for' the word modified by li. And we already know the al- prefix means 'the'. So does alhamdulillah literally translate to something more like 'the praise is for God'?
تَعَلُّم / اَلْعُلوم .2
In this unit we have started learning about root words. To me it looks like the word for 'to learn' might have the same root as the word for 'science'. Is this true? And does that mean that the word for 'science' essentially means 'learning'? Because if so, I love that!
Comment by fatimable
1) I had a similar moment with this phrase. I would translate it as "praise god" and get it wrong, and only understood its meaning when I picked it apart.
2) Most words in Arabic have a 3-letter root word. The root word for both 'learning' and 'science' is "ilm", which means 'knowledge'. I believe this word is used for science because the sciences were a catch-all for all knowledge that was derived through observation, study, and practice, which is in fact the core of the scientific theory. In much the same way in the West that "philosophy" used to encompass biology, chemistry, astronomy, etc before each of those subjects became independent of each other. You would find that most emerging sciences today are even lumped under 'science' because we don't know much about them until we have more info. Who knows, "computer science" might one day be only known as "machine learning" as we get closer and closer to the purpose of that subject.
Comment by Muhammad027
Yes, that is the direct translation but Praise be to God is the formal translation. For science, I see it as "THE Knowledge" to say that science is the knowledge that encompassing every other knowledge.
Comment by hassibah
IT's related but not unlike in other languages it's possible for one word to have more than one meaning depending on context. Not all words that share a root have a relation in meaning but most do.
Off the top of my head I can think of the verb بعث which can mean to send a delegation or to revive, or a few other things.
If you are curious, pick up a hans wehr dictionary or another that is organized by root and not word spelling and see for yourself.