Broken Plural Arabic

[Billie Kjergaard]

Inlinguistics, a broken plural (or internal plural) is an irregular plural form of a noun or adjective found in the Semitic languages and other Afroasiatic languages such as the Berber languages. Broken plurals are formed by changing the pattern of consonants and vowels inside the singular form. They contrast with sound plurals (or external plurals), which are formed by adding a suffix, but are also formally distinct from phenomena like the Germanic umlaut, a form of vowel mutation used in plural forms in Germanic languages.

There have been a variety of theoretical approaches to understanding these processes and varied attempts to produce systems or rules that can systematize these plural forms.[1] However, the question of the origin of the broken plurals for the languages that exhibit them is not settled, though there are certain probabilities in distributions of specific plural forms in relation to specific singular patterns. As the conversions outgo by far the extent of mutations caused by the Germanic umlaut that is evidenced to be caused by inflectional suffixes, the sheer multiplicity of shapes corresponds to multiplex attempts at historical explanation ranging from proposals of transphonologizations and multiple accentual changes to switches between the categories of collectives, abstracta and plurals or noun class switches.[2]

In Arabic, the regular way of making a plural for a masculine noun is adding the suffix -ūn[a] (for the nominative) or -īn[a] (for the accusative and genitive) at the end. For feminine nouns, the regular way is to add the suffix -āt. However, not all plurals follow these simple rules. One class of nouns in both spoken and written Arabic produce plurals by changing the pattern of vowels inside the word, sometimes also with the addition of a prefix or suffix. This system is not fully regular, and it is used mainly for masculine non-human nouns; human nouns are pluralized regularly or irregularly.

In Persian this kind of plural is known by its Arabic term jam'-e mokassar (جَمِع مُکَسَّر, literally "broken plural"). However the Persian Academy of Literature (Farhangestan) does not recommend the usage of such Arabic plural forms, but instead the native Persian plural suffix -hā.

Full knowledge of these plurals can come only with extended exposure to the Arabic language, though a few rules can be noted. One study computed the probability that the pattern of vowels in the singular would predict the pattern in the broken plural (or vice versa) and found values ranging from 20% to 100% for different patterns.[3]

A statistical analysis of a list of the 3000 most frequent Arabic words shows that 978 (59%) of the 1670 most frequent nominal forms take a sound plural, while the remaining 692 (41%) take a broken plural.[4] Another estimate of all existing nominal forms gives over 90,000 forms with a sound plural and just 9540 with a broken one.[4] This is due to the almost boundless number of participles and derived nominals in "-ī", most of which take a sound plural.

In addition, there are many other cases where historical sound changes have resulted in stem allomorphy between singular and plural forms in Hebrew (or between absolute state and construct state, or between forms with pronominal suffixes and unsuffixed forms etc.), though such alternations do not operate according to general templates accommodating root consonants, and so are not usually considered to be true broken plurals by linguists.[6]

In a previous post, you learned that Arabic plural nouns are three forms: sound masculine plural جَمْعُ المُذَكَّرِ السَّالِم, sound feminine plural جَمْعُ المُؤَنَّثِ السَّالِم, and broken plural جَمْعُ التَّكْسِيْر. The first two are regular because their formation entail adding a suffix (i.e. ون and ات, respectively) to the end of the singular without a change in the form and diacritics of the singular. In this post, you will learn about broken plurals. A good many broken plurals are based on hearing; however, the majority are rule-based. Since there are many rules, only the most common patterns will be highlighted in this post.

This kind of brokenness or change does not happen with the sound masculine and feminine plurals. Take the word مُهَنْدس / مُهَنْدِسَة as an example. When changing them into the plural form, no change happens to the diacritics of the singular, and no addition or dropping of letters occurs except for the plural suffix, hence مُهَنْدِسُوْن and مُهَنْدِسَات.

There are two types of broken plurals: plural of a few جَمْعُ القِلَّة, i.e. from three to ten, and plural of manyجَمْعُ الكَثْرَة , from three to infinity. The irregularity and complexity of this type of plural, is resolved, to a great extent, by using the morphological measure. Weighing the singular noun (see the Arabic Morphological Measure) helps in forming it plural. For the plural of a few, there are four main morphological patterns: أَفْعُل, أَفْعَال, أفْعِلَة, and فِعْلَة. For the plural of many, there are around twenty-five patterns, of the which only the most common will be explained.

Marhaban! I am from Yemen. I am a language teacher. I teach English and Arabic. In this blog, I will be leading you through Arabic language learning in a sequential fashion. I will focus on Modern Standard Arabic. To learn more, you can also visit my website Ibnulyemen Arabic or my facebook page.

The Arabic language is known for its complex grammatical structures and fascinating features, one of which is the broken plural. Broken plurals are unique to Arabic and differ significantly from the regular plurals found in other languages. This article will explore the various aspects of broken plurals, including the rules for forming them, the types of broken plurals, and examples to deepen your understanding of this fascinating aspect of Arabic grammar.

Broken plurals refer to irregular plural forms of nouns that involve a change in the structure of the word itself. Unlike regular plurals, broken plurals do not follow a specific pattern, and their formation can be unpredictable. Rather than simply adding a suffix or prefix to the singular noun, broken plurals often involve alterations in the root letters, making them challenging for learners to master.

The formation of broken plurals is heavily based on the root system in the Arabic language. The root system consists of a set of three or four consonants, from which multiple words with related meanings can be derived. The formation of broken plurals typically involves inserting or altering vowel patterns within these root consonants.

Broken plurals in Arabic grammar are an intriguing and complex aspect of the language that sets it apart from other linguistic systems. By understanding the various rules and patterns associated with broken plurals, as well as the types and examples provided, learners can gain a deeper comprehension of Arabic grammar and improve their mastery of the language. Despite the challenges, mastering broken plurals is crucial for achieving fluency in Arabic.

This paper aims to examine types and patterns of the broken plural in Arabic and the impact of phonological rules and ascending and descending diphthongs on the formation of the broken plural in Arabic. It also highlights particular phonological processes such as assimilation, dissimilation, and ascending and descending diphthongs so that it appears that these diphthongs have been phonetically changed by virtue of sound elision, sometimes accomplished by compensation (sound replacement) and sometimes without compensation; on the other hand, the diphthong may remain unchanged since it maintains the clarity and easiness of the linguistic form. Based on what I have so far studied in Arabic grammar, ancient Arabic grammarians explained these patterns alongside the linguistic changes that occur whilst contemporary Arabic scholars used creative and innovative ways to explain them more precisely and accurately. It could be argued that phonetic transcription has played a key role in that. Therefore, this paper is an academic endeavor to study the linguistic aspects of the broken plural in Arabic, with a particular focus on their syntax, phonetics and phonology.

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This article proposes a theory of prosodic domain circumscription, by means of which rules sensitive to morphological domain may be restricted to a prosodically characterized (sub-)domain in a word or stem. The theory is illustrated primarily by a comprehensive analysis of the Arabic broken plural; it is further supported by analysis of a number of processes from other languages, yielding a formal typology of domain-circumscription effects. The results obtained here depend on, and therefore confirm, two central principles of Prosodic Morphology: (1) the Prosodic Morphology Hypothesis, which requires that templates be expressed in prosodic, not segmental terms; and (2) the Template Satisfaction Condition, which requires that all elements in templates are satisfied obligatorily.

We are indebted to Mark Aronoff, A. R. Ayoub, M. G. Carter, Morris Halle, Michael Kenstowicz, Armin Mester, and three anonymous reviewers for valuable comments on this article. Special thanks go to Linda Lombardi for a very close reading of the entire manuscript that contributed much to the content and exposition.

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