Ishkal Sarfi wa-Jawabuhu - dimn Athar al-Muallimi
- Author died
- 1386 AH
- Editions
- Dār ʿĀlam al-Fawāʾid lil-Nashr wa-al-Tawzīʿ
Ishkal Sarfi wa-Jawabuhu (A Morphological Problem and Its Solution) is a short treatise on Arabic morphology by the Yemeni scholar Abd al-Rahman al-Muallimi al-Yamani (1313–1386 AH / 1895–1966 CE), published within his collected works (Athar al-Muallimi) .
Context and Scope
The treatise is included as the seventh text in the volume of grammatical and linguistic treatises (Majmu Rasa'il al-Nahw wa-al-Lughah, Volume 20) in the collected edition of al-Muallimi's works . In it, al-Muallimi addresses a specific morphological conundrum regarding the plurals of certain nouns on the pattern of fa'ilah and related forms .
Content and Method
The core problem examined by al-Muallimi is why the plural of words such as khati'ah (خطيئة), baliyyah (بلية), bari'ah (بريئة), baghuyy (بغوي), and hawiyyah (حوية)—which yield plurals such as khataya (خطايا), balaya (بلايا), and baraya (برايا)—does not conform to the standard pluralization pattern of fa'a'il (فعائل) seen in words like rasa'il (رسائل), saha'if (صحائف), and 'aja'iz (عجائز) .
Al-Muallimi resolves the issue by explaining the phonological consequences of applying the default rule to these roots :
- Applying the standard pattern would force these plurals to become defective nouns (manqus) .
- In roots ending in a hamzah, a terminal hamzah preceded by a broken hamzah is phonologically substituted with a ya' (as in al-ja'i), which would likewise turn the plural into a defective noun .
- A defective noun, when indefinite, takes nunation (tanwin), which would yield forms like khata'in (خطاءٍ) and bala'in (بلاءٍ) . This would lead to direct confusion (iltibas) with verbal nouns (masdars) .
- To prevent this confusion, the letter following the plural alif was substituted with an open ya' (ya' maftuhah), followed by an alif, producing forms like khataya .
He also analyzes the behavior of the waw after the alif in words like da'awa (دعاوى) and fatawa (فتاوى), noting that because the waw in their singulars is not equivalent to the prolonging waw in words like 'ajuz, it is not inverted into a hamzah; rather, it is sometimes treated like 'ajuz (giving da'awi and fatawi) and sometimes like baghuyy (giving da'awa and fatawa) . Al-Muallimi notes in closing that this explanation became clear to him after prolonged contemplation of the problem .
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