The Formation of Arabic Broken Plurals

Abstract

There are no rules for the formation of Arabic plurals, in the sense that we have them for Turkish, Hebrew, Greek, Latin, or even German. The grammars, native and European, give lists of plurals that usually go with certain singulars; but the plural form is, except in a few cases, unpredictable; and it remains a matter for the dictionary, that is, for the memory. Most singulars are capable, in theory, of several plurals; and in practice they have some one, or several, of these plurals. The grammarian passes them over, without effort or in despair. They are supposed to be purely arbitrary. Now, of course, nothing in language is purely arbitrary; although the laws involved may be so intricate, and so much complicated by analogy and phonetic influences, particularly in their decadence, that they are not easily discovered. Perhaps grammarians generally, and grammarians of Arabic in particular, are too 'easily satisfied with recording the phenomena, and too little interested in explaining the mental processes underlying the phenomena. The speculative side of language study is, of course, risky, and not popular with the more orthodox. But where orthodoxy fails, speculation has a right to go forward. And there are many beginning students, and many teachers of beginners, who will welcome, I think, such an examination of the most vexing array of facts in the whole of a most difficult grammar. Let us attempt a classification of the common broken plurals. 1. When the singular has short vowels only, the plural has a long vowel; the other factors are immaterial: kalb-kilab gamal-gimal cabd--abid qalb-qulab gund-gun'fd