Encyclopedia of Arabic Language and Linguistics

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The Encyclopedia of Arabic Language and Linguistics Online comprehensively covers all aspects of Arabic languages and linguistics. It is interdisciplinary in scope and represents different schools and approaches in order to be as objective and versatile as possible. The Encyclopedia of Arabic Language and Linguistics Online is cross-searchable and cross-referenced, and is equipped with a browsable index. All relevant fields in Arabic linguistics, both general and language specific are covered and the Encyclopedia of Arabic Language and Linguistics Online includes topics from interdisciplinary fields, such as anthropology, psychology, sociology, philosophy, and computer science.

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Kalām

(3,275 words)

Author(s): Tamás Iványi
The word kalām means ‘speech’; it is used for the pure, uncorrupted speech of the Bedouin Arabs, as a synonym of ʿarabiyya. Kalām, however, also means any length of words uttered in a grammatically correct form; it is “a complete [series] of sounds, beneficial [for the hearer]” ( al-kalāmu llaḏī lā yakūnu ʾillā ʾaṣwātan tāmmatan mufīdatan). Therefore, ‘the Qurʾān is kalām Allāh ‘God's speech’, because it is complete, and self-sufficient ( muktafī bi-nafsihi; Ibn Manẓūr, Lisān k-l-m; for the theological implications of speech as an attribute of God, see Peters 1976). In …
Date: 2018-04-01

Kalima

(2,183 words)

Author(s): Aryeh Levin
1. Introduction The form kalima (pl. kalim), commonly denoting ‘a word’, sometimes occurs as a grammatical term corresponding in sense to the modern linguistic term ‘morpheme’. This sense of kalima is inferred from Sībawayhi ( Kitāb II, 330.15–339.19), al-Mubarrad ( Muqtaḍab I, 36–52), Ibn as-Sarrāj ( ʾUṣūl III, 171.1–179.5), and Ibn Yaʿīš ( Šarḥ I, 21.5–20 ed. Jahn; I, 18.29–19.15 Cairo ed.). The discussion of kalima by al-Mubarrad and Ibn as-Sarrāj resembles that of Sībawayhi. Ibn Yaʿīš's short discussion of this topic is mentioned by Fleischer (1888:III, 540). 2. Division into p…
Date: 2018-04-01

Kāna wa-ʾaxawātuhā

(2,778 words)

Author(s): Aryeh Levin
1. Introduction The expression kāna wa-ʾaxawātuhā lit. ‘ kāna and its sisters’ occurs as a grammatical technical term in the sense of kāna and the verbs that grammatically resemble kāna. This term refers to a category of verbs sharing with kāna the same grammatical qualities and occurring in the same syntactic constructions. In their discussions of this category of verbs, the grammarians focus on two main kinds of kāna: kāna at-tāmma and kāna an-nāqiṣa (Levin 1979:185). The grammarians also briefly discuss two other marginal kinds of kāna: kāna az-zāʾida and kāna allatī fīhā ḍamīr aš…
Date: 2018-04-01

Kanuri

(1,685 words)

Author(s): Sergio Baldi
1. Kanuri and Arabic The first contact between Islam and the empire of Kanem, situated near Lake Chad, was made through trade. Kanem had commercial links with Tripoli in North Africa via Kawar and the Fezzan. This trade “provided the gateway for Islam to enter Kanem” (Clarke 1982:67). In the second half of the 8th century, a more permanent Muslim presence was established on the Kanem-North African trade route with the establishment of the small states of Ajar Fazzan and Zawila; Zawila, further south and close to Kanem, was a center for Ibadite Islam. Kanem became Muslim at …
Date: 2018-04-01

Kaškaša and Kaskasa

(1,193 words)

Author(s): Munira Ali Al-Azraqi
The terms kaškaša and kaskasa refer to the phenomenon of using the suffixes /š/ and /s/, respectively, for the attached object pronoun of the 2nd person feminine singular (cf. Jindī 1983:I, 359–364). These suffixes were not used in Classical Arabic, but they occurred in some dialects in the Arabian Peninsula. The Arab linguists describe this phenomenon, although there is some inconsistency in their descriptions. Sībawayhi ( Kitāb IV, 199–200), Ibn Jinnī ( Sirr aṣ-ṣināʿa I, 219; Xaṣāʾis, II, 11–12), and Ibn Yaʿīš ( Šarḥ al-Mufaṣṣal II, 9.48–49) recognize two groups of people in …
Date: 2018-04-01

Kazakh

(1,393 words)

Author(s): Robert Ermers
Kazakh is a Central Asian Turkic language spoken by approximately 10 million people in Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan, Mongolia, and China. It belongs to the Qipchaq subgroup of the Turkic languages, within which it is in the first place closely related to Karakalpak, Bashkir, and Altay and secondly to Kyrghyz, Karachay-Balkhar, Kumyk, and Tatar (on the history of Kazakh, see Balaqaev and Sayrambaev 1997; Sïzdïqova 1993, 1994). Like most Turkic languages, the Kazakh lexicon includes a considerable number of Arabic loanwords, albeit fewer than, for instance, Uzbek. Arabic words entered Kaza…
Date: 2018-04-01

Kenya

(5 words)

see East Africa
Date: 2018-04-01

Key features

(43 words)

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Date: 2018-04-01