Sighat Faalan wa Istikhdamatuha fi al-Lugha al-Arabiya
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- Majallat al-Jāmi‘ah al-Islāmīyah bi-al-Madīnah al-Munawwarah
Sighat Fa‘lān wa-Isti‘mālātuhā fī al-Lughah al-‘Arabiyyah (The Pattern Fa‘lān and Its Usages in the Arabic Language) is a specialized grammatical and morphological monograph by the Egyptian linguist Mustafa Ahmad al-Nammas . The study examines the various manifestations, syntactic rules, and morphological behaviors of Arabic words built upon the root pattern fa‘lān and its vocalic variants (fi‘lān, fu‘lān, and fa‘alān) .
Background and Purpose
The treatise was authored by Mustafa Ahmad al-Nammas while serving as an assistant professor at the College of Da‘wah and Usul al-Din and published across two installments in the Journal of the Islamic University of Madinah (issues 39 and 40) . Al-Nammas states that his objective was to consolidate the widely scattered rules governing the fa‘lān form across Arabic grammar and morphology into a unified study .
Structure and Contents
The work addresses the diverse functional categories and morphological transformations of the pattern:
- Semantic Categories and Derivatives: The author examines fa‘lān as a proper noun (‘alam), such as Marwān and Badrān; as a generic noun (ism jins), such as sa‘dān; and as an adjective (ṣifah mushabbahah) derived standardly from intransitive verbs on the pattern fa‘ila to denote fullness, satiation, void, or internal heat (e.g., sakrān, shab‘ān, gharathān, ghaḍbān) . He also records rare verbal noun (maṣdar) usages on fa‘lān, such as layyān and shan’ān .
- Feminine Forms and Dialectal Variation: While the standard feminine counterpart to fa‘lān is fa‘lā (e.g., sakrā, jaw‘ā), the author discusses the exceptional terms taking the feminine ending -ah (fa‘lānah) as cataloged by Ibn Malik (twelve items, expanded by commentators to include khamṣān and alyān) . He details the dialect of Banu Asad, which regularly applies -ah to all such adjectives (e.g., sakrānah), and cites the resolution of the Cairo Arabic Language Academy validating this usage .
- Diptosy (Man‘ min al-Ṣarf): The study analyzes the conditions under which fa‘lān is diptotic, contrasting the positions of classical grammarians—such as Sibawayh, Ibn al-Hajib, al-Radi al-Astarabadhi, al-Zamakhshari, Ibn ‘Asakir, and Abu Hayyan al-Gharnati—on whether the operative condition is the absence of -ah or the explicit existence of fa‘lā, particularly in unique cases such as the divine name al-Raḥmān and masculine-only adjectives such as liḥyān .
- Pluralization and Common Errors: The treatise outlines pluralization rules, noting that adjectives pairing with fa‘lā cannot take the sound masculine plural except under poetic necessity or according to Ibn Kaysan, but instead take broken plurals such as fi‘āl (e.g., ghiḍāb), fa‘lā (e.g., sukrā), and fa‘ālā/fu‘ālā (e.g., sakārā/sukārā) . It highlights widespread linguistic errors, such as the incorrect pluralization of ‘uryān as ‘arāyā, demonstrating from Sibawayh that its regular plurals are ‘uryānūn and ‘urāh .
- Diminution (Taṣghīr): Detailed phonological rules for forming diminutives of words ending in additional alif and nūn across proper names, adjectives, and generic nouns, distinguishing between cases where the alif is changed to yā’ and where it is retained .
- Plural Patterns Fi‘lān and Fu‘lān: The author details fi‘lān and fu‘lān as regular broken plural patterns of multitude (jam‘ kathrah) for specific singular forms (e.g., ghurāb / ghirbān, ḥūt / ḥītān, raghīf / rughfān), alongside non-analogous (samā‘ī) and rare instances, as well as verbal nouns on fu‘lān (e.g., ghufrān, shukrān) .
- The Pattern Fa‘alān: The study concludes with the pattern fa‘alān (with voweling on the first and second radicals), showing its regular function as a verbal noun for intransitive verbs indicating movement, agitation, and disturbance (e.g., ṭawafān, ghalayān), while providing a commentary on Ibn Malik's verses that list non-masdar words occurring on this weight .
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