Seam (Arabic abbreviation)
A seam ( Arabic نحت, DMG naḥt ) in the Arabic language is the contraction of several words into one with a reduction in the number of components. Adam Gacek defines seam as "a contraction in which two or three words are put together in a suitcase word " and gives the words Basmala and Hamdala as examples . Thus the seam corresponds roughly to an acronym : A new term is derived as an abbreviation from the first letters of a construction consisting of two or more words. It mainly concerns the formation of religious formulas of Islamic piety.
Word origin
The word is a verbal noun derived from the transitive verb naḥata in the meaning of chisel, plane, carve, form, shape from wood, stone, etc. In this sense, the verb occurs in four places in the Koran:
... so that you made castles for yourselves in its plains and carved the mountains into houses! : Sura 7 , verse 74; in this sense see also sura 15 , verse 82 and sura 26 , verse 149.
In sura 37 , verse 95, in the polemic against pre-Islamic idolatry , the verb means to chisel figures, idols (from stone): Do you want to worship something that you (yourself ) chisel ...
With the object “the word” ( naḥata l-kalimata ) the verb gets a further meaning: to put a word together from two or three words (to shape, to form) . This process is called naḥt in codicology . The new word as a result of this process is called in Arabic linguistics mantūt : the (newly) formed, shaped (word) .
As-Suyūṭī refers in his linguistic work al-Muzhir fī ʿulūm al-luġa wa-anwāʿihā to the book of a certain and largely unknown scholar aẓ-Ẓuhair ibn al-Ḫaṭīr al-Fārisī al-ʿUmānī under the title Tanbīʿh al-bʿrialīn -manḥūt min kalām al-ʿarab , in which the author describes the process of naḥt with a comparison as follows: ... this means that the word is formed from two words (manḥūta), just as the carpenter carves two boards and then put them together to form a (board) .
Examples
- Basmala = bi-ʾsmi ʾllāh (In the name of God);
- Ḥamdala = al-ḥamdu li-ʾllāh (praise be to God);
- Ḥauqala or Ḥaulaqa = lā ḥaula wa-lā qūwata illā bi-ʾllāh (There is neither power nor strength as with God);
- Ṣalwala and ṣalʿama = ṣallā ʾllāhu ʿalaihi (wa-sallam): Speaking the wish of blessing on the Prophet Mohammed. This abbreviation, which appears after the prophet has been mentioned, is often avoided in the written language of classical Arabic literature and replaced by the complete eulogy.
- Ṭalbaqa = aṭāla llāhu baqāʾahu (May God give him a long life);
- Sabḥala = subḥāna llāh (praised be God).
The Arab philologist Aḥmad b. Fāris b. Zakariyāʾ al-Qazwīnī (died around 1004) has compiled several examples of naḥt from two or three words from profane literature and poetry in his large-scale linguistic dictionary Muʿǧam maqāyīs al-luġa according to older sources .
Individual evidence
- ↑ Adam Gacek: The Arabic manuscript tradition. A Glossary of Technical Terms & Bibliography. Brill, Leiden 2001. p. 138. with reference to as-Suyūṭī : al-Muzhir fī ʿulūm al-luġa wa-anwāʿihā . Volume 1, p. 482
- ↑ Adam Gacek: Arabic Manuscripts. A Vademecum for Readers. Brill, Leiden 2012. pp. 2-4 and 270
- ↑ For this Rudi Paret : " The passage obviously refers to the carved out of the rock monuments in al-Ḥiǧr (Hegra) that were originally grave chambers, but later as a residential a submerged people (just the Thamud) were interpreted." : The Koran . Commentary and Concordance p. 165; see. also p. 278
- ↑ al-Muʿǧam al-wasīṭ . (Academy of the Arabic Language. 2nd Edition. Cairo. 1972. P. 906)
- ↑ al-Muzhir fī ʿulūm al-luġa wa-anwāʿihā . (Cairo, undated) Volume 1, p. 482
- ↑ Adam Gacek (2012), page 4
- ↑ When Adam Gacek (2012), p.2 mistake: Tala
- ^ Carl Brockelmann : History of the Arabic literature. Volume 1. pp. 133-134. Brill, Leiden 1943
- ↑ Ed. Abd as-Salām Hārūn. Cairo 1946
- ↑ See there under: ḫ - ǧ - a; ḫ - ǧ - b; d - d - n; ǧ - ṯ - m; ṣ - r - ṭ; etc.