About the final "n" Topic is solved

[gmads]

Why are there two ways to write a final "n" in Arabic? Take for instance the following two words:

1. شكرًا (shukran)
2. لبنان (lubnan)

What's their difference?

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  ㆍالعربية

[wayfarer]

Briefly:
The first is a grammatical ending and the second is just a normal word end.

A bit more in-depth:

The second word above, لبنان , is just a word that happens to end with an ن , an N sound. That end letter is part of the word and not a grammatical sign. So that uses a letter ن

But with the first word, شكرًا , the actual word ends in a ر, an R sound and the N sound is added by the two lines over it, the 'double fathah' diacritc, which is called a Fathahtayn (which means 'double fathah') and is an example of TANWEEN.

Each of the three short vowel sounds - the Fathah, the Kasrah and the Dhammah has its corresponding TANWEEN - i.e Fathahtayn, Kasrahtayn and Dhammahtayn

The main purpose of TANWEEN is as a marker for an indefinite noun (adjectives are also classed as nouns in Arabic). Having the tanween is like adding an 'a' or 'an' in English or a 'un' or 'una' in Spanish before the noun

So a word like كِتَابْ just means 'BOOK' but كِتَابٌ, with a tanween (in this case the dhammahtayn), means A BOOK. Once you make the noun definite you lose the double diacritic (the dhammahtayn in this case) and just have a single one instead, with the word for THE, ال , added at the front: i.e الْكِتَابُ , THE BOOK.

In other words you'll never have a noun with ال (The) in front of it and a Tanween on the end. It'll be one or the other because ال indicates that the noun is defiite and the Tanween indicates that the noun is indefinite

Which of the three versions of Tanween - Fathatayn, Kasrahtayn or Dhammatayn - you use depands on the grammatical role of the word in the sentence.

• Dhammahtayn tends to indicate Nominative case (subject)

• Fathahtayn tends to indicate Accusitve case (direct object)

• Kasrahtayn tends to indicate Genitive case (possessive) or following a preposition

The same case rules apply to the single Dhammah, Fathah or Kasrah as well, but for definite nouns.

Obviously there's a bit more to it than that (because there always is with languages, right? ), but that's a basic introduction.

[gmads]

Briefly:
The first is a grammatical ending and the second is just a normal word end.

Got it.

A bit more in-depth:

The second word above, لبنان , is just a word that happens to end with an ن , an N sound. That end letter is part of the word and not a grammatical sign. So that uses a letter ن

But with the first word, شكرًا , the actual word ends in a ر, an R sound and the N sound is added by the two lines over it, the 'double fathah' diacritc, which is called a Fathahtayn (which means 'double fathah') and is an example of TANWEEN.

Each of the three short vowel sounds - the Fathah, the Kasrah and the Dhammah has its corresponding TANWEEN - i.e Fathahtayn, Kasrahtayn and Dhammahtayn

The main purpose of TANWEEN is as a marker for an indefinite noun (adjectives are also classed as nouns in Arabic). Having the tanween is like adding an 'a' or 'an' in English or a 'un' or 'una' in Spanish before the noun

So a word like كِتَابْ just means 'BOOK' but كِتَابٌ, with a tanween (in this case the dhammahtayn), means A BOOK. Once you make the noun definite you lose the double diacritic (the dhammahtayn in this case) and just have a single one instead, with the word for THE, ال , added at the front: i.e الْكِتَابُ , THE BOOK.

Great! Crystal clear. It would be like the "s," for example, in Spanish, where we can have a regular s-ended word, like "adiós" ("goodbye"), and an s-suffixed word to indicate a plural: mano / manos (hand / hands), or to indicate a particular conjugation.

In other words you'll never have a noun with ال (The) in front of it and a Tanween on the end. It'll be one or the other because ال indicates that the noun is defiite and the Tanween indicates that the noun is indefinite

This is why it is easy to recognize a particular group of Spanish words of Arabic origin, as most of them start with "al:" alacrán, alameda, albóndiga, álgebra, almohada and alquimia. The following is an interesting article about this: Arabic language influence on the Spanish language.

Which of the three versions of Tanween - Fathatayn, Kasrahtayn or Dhammatayn - you use depands on the grammatical role of the word in the sentence.

• Dhammahtayn tends to indicate Nominative case (subject)

• Fathahtayn tends to indicate Accusitve case (direct object)

• Kasrahtayn tends to indicate Genitive case (possessive) or following a preposition

The same case rules apply to the single Dhammah, Fathah or Kasrah as well, but for definite nouns.

Obviously there's a bit more to it than that (because there always is with languages, right? ), but that's a basic introduction.

You foresaw what my next question would have been

شكرا جزيلا لمثل هذا الشرح الكامل لك!

Thank you very much for such a complete explanation!