Declinable or Indeclinable?
– االعْراب
In Arabic words are divided into two categories: ْربَ ( ُمعdeclinable) and َم ْبنِي
(indeclinable). In simple terms this concept concerns whether a word can
take changes to its case ending (declinable) or not (indeclinable).
So what causes these changes?
Words can change case-endings for two reasons:
(1) The position they occupy within a sentence [subject, object…] and
(2) They are over-powered by the case of a governing particle.
Examples are below:
(1) Changes caused to a word because of its position in a sentence:
Look at the following sentences: ‘the man read a book’, ‘I saw a man read the
book’, ‘I read the book with the man’. Focus on the the phrase ‘the man’. In
the first sentence ‘the man’ is the subject therefore: ar-rajulu ال َّر ُج ُل. In the
second sentence ‘the man’ is the object therefore: ar-rajula ال َّرج َُل. In the last
sentence ‘the man’ is majroor therefore ‘ar-rajuli‘ ال َّر ُج ِل.This is how words
that are ُمع َْربchange cases depending on their position within a sentence.
(2) Changes caused to a word because of a governing particle: Let’s take
for example prepositions. Imagine a muslim coming across a non-muslim.
The muslim invites the non-muslim to become Muslim. If the non-Muslim
agrees then he has to take the shahadah (declaration of faith) to become
Muslim. He is also no longer called a non-Muslim, he is now called a Muslim.
Now change ‘Muslim’ with harf-jarr َحرْ ف َجرand ‘non-Muslim’ with ism اِسْم.
Imagine a َحرْ ف َجرcoming across an اِسْم. The َحرْ ف َجر invites the اِسْمto
become َمجْ رُور. The اِسمtakes a َجرcase ending to become َمجْ رُور. The اِسْمis
now called اِسْم َمجْ رُور. An example of this would be ت ٌ بَي+ فِي
ٍ ْت = فِي بَ ْي
These changes which have occurred are called اال ْعراب. ِ Words can be fully
declinable ‘ص ِرف َ ’ ُم ْنmeaning that the word can take all case endings (e.g. ٌ ٍ ً ).
They can also be partially declinable ‘ص ِرف َ ’ َغ ْي ُر ُم ْنmeaning that the word
cannot take all case endings (i.e. ُ َ َ ) for example, as mentioned in the
previous post, words such as feminine names cannot take a kasra or tanween
but can take a dhamma or fatha; and therefore it is declinable to an
extent. So, words which accept changes by ال َعوا ِمل (governing elements) are
called ُمع َْرب and words which cannot change are called ‘’ َم ْبنِي. So what are the
changes then?
The changes caused by ال َعوا ِمل are of 4 types ()الحاالت:
1) The nominative case – َم ْرفُ ْوع
ُ َم ْن
2) The accusative case – صوب
3) The genitive case – َم ْج ُرور
4) The jussive case – َم ْج ُز ْوم
Once you’ve identified a word’s correct case ending depending on its عَوا ِمل
– what are the signs used to indicate this? It is through two ways. Think back
to post week 2 where we formed that table with all the signs and cases and
how case endings are indicated either through diacritics – ا ِال ْعرابِّ ال َح َركات – or
also through letters – اال ْعرابِّ ال ُحرٌوف
ِ .
However not all words accept these changes. These words are called
َم ْبنِي where, despite the ال َعوا ِمل the word retains its positions and diacritics and
does not accept the concept of ا ِال ْعراب. In this case the opposite of ا ِال ْعراب
occurs which is called البَناء. We mentioned at the beginning of this post that
words can change for two reasons; because of its position within a sentence
and because it comes after a governing particles which overrides its case
ending. Let’s use those examples again using َم ْبنِيwords:
(1) Changes caused to a word because of its position in a sentence: Focus on
‘this man’ within the following three sentences: This man read a book, I saw
this man read the book, I read the book with this man. In each of these
examples we used the demonstrative pronoun ‘this’-‘‘هذا- this word is َم ْبنِب
and although ال َّرجُلtakes a different ending in each example هذاremains the
same. Note, however, that although it looks the same in each example
intrinsically the case is still changing.
(2) Changes caused to a word because of a governing particle: If we add a
ٌ هذا البَي+ فِي
governing particle before a َم ْبنِيword it does not change. ْت = فِي هذا
ت
ِ اابَ ْي
To sum up this information the following chart I put together may prove
useful. It is an indepth breakdown of what type of nouns, verbs and particles
are declinable or indeclinable. It basically shows that:
(1) All nouns are ُمع َْربwith 7 exceptions – these exceptions are َم ْبنِي only
because they resemble characteristics of the َم ْبنِي االصل. For example,
attached pronouns ض ِميْر َّ الare َم ْبنِيbecause they consist of very few letters e.g.
ك, هاmuch like particles (one of the ) َم ْبنِي االصل.
(2) the َم ْبنِي االصلare the original indeclinables meaning that they were
always َم ْبنِي . There are 3 groups: all particles, the part tense verb (active and
passive) and the command (including prohibition).
(3) This leaves us with the category of present/future tense verbs which are
ُمع َْرب. They are ُم ْع َربbecause their case ending can change if a governing
particular comes before it. The examples are listed in the box.
Each of the 7 indeclinable nouns will have a post dedicated to them under
this page. That’s all for now and keep a look out for my next nahw post – it
will attempt to summarise the fundementals.
