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FOLIA ORIENTALIA voL.49' 2012 Ignacio Ferrando University of Cädiz(Spain) ENLARGING ARABIC LEXICON BY NON CONCATENATIVE PROCEDURE S. THE CASE FOR FAfLALA PATTERN IN MODERNARABIC l. Arabic, just like any other language, needs to coin new words to refer to new realities and concepts, specially technical and abstract meaningsappearing every day in our globalizedworld. Many of these new words come from English or, not so frequently, other Europeanlanguages such as French, German,Italian or Spanish. It is well known that theselanguages, in order to producenew terms, resort frequentiy to a powerfui tool, namely sulhxation, that is to say, adding a segment called suffix to a lexical basis just to denote a derivativenew meaning. This type of procedure is labeled in morphologystudies as concatenative, based on stringing morphemes together. 2. However, Arabic, as a Semitic language,does not rely mainly on concatenative procedures. While it is true thatArabic do have a setof inflectional suffixes (number and gender), and one derivational suffix, called in native terminologynisba(-Ilya), someof the most characteristic morphological devices of this languageare basedon the non concatenative morphology, also called discontinuous or introflectional. As Arabic morphology largely relies on a three consonant root, just like a skeleton, which canbe modifiedandadapted according to many fixed patternsconveying different meaningsand semanticnuances, the non concatenative procedures are simple to be applied and become powerful at every historical stageof the language. Prominent samples include the formation of the so-called'brokenplural'r or the diminutive, both by meansof modifying the root and not by adding suffixes. I An excellent study of the non concatenative morphology of Arabic and Semitic in respect to broken plural is Ratcliffe (1998),together with someprevious work on the sameline, such as McCarthy & Prince (1990). 151
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Enlarging Arabic Lexicon. The case for faclala pattern in modern Arabic

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Page 1: Enlarging Arabic Lexicon. The case for faclala pattern in modern Arabic

FOLIA ORIENTALIAvoL.49' 2012

Ignacio Ferrando

University of Cädiz (Spain)

ENLARGING ARABIC LEXICON BY NONC ONCATENATIVE PROCEDURE S.

THE CASE FOR FAfLALA PATTERNIN MODERNARABIC

l. Arabic, just like any other language, needs to coin new words to refer tonew realities and concepts, specially technical and abstract meanings appearingevery day in our globalizedworld. Many of these new words come from Englishor, not so frequently, other European languages such as French, German, Italianor Spanish. It is well known that these languages, in order to produce new terms,resort frequentiy to a powerfui tool, namely sulhxation, that is to say, adding asegment called suffix to a lexical basis just to denote a derivative new meaning.This type of procedure is labeled in morphology studies as concatenative, basedon stringing morphemes together.

2. However, Arabic, as a Semitic language, does not rely mainly onconcatenative procedures. While it is true thatArabic do have a set of inflectionalsuffixes (number and gender), and one derivational suffix, called in nativeterminology nisba (-Ilya), some of the most characteristic morphological devicesof this language are based on the non concatenative morphology, also calleddiscontinuous or introflectional. As Arabic morphology largely relies on a threeconsonant root, just like a skeleton, which can be modified and adapted accordingto many fixed patterns conveying different meanings and semantic nuances, thenon concatenative procedures are simple to be applied and become powerful atevery historical stage of the language. Prominent samples include the formationof the so-called'broken plural'r or the diminutive, both by means of modifyingthe root and not by adding suffixes.

I An excellent study of the non concatenative morphology of Arabic and Semitic inrespect to broken plural is Ratcliffe (1998), together with some previous work on the same line,such as McCarthy & Prince (1990).

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3. In this paper we will explore the way in which Arabic incorporates toits lexicon some Western words and concepts based on the addition of a set ofsuffixes taken from Latin, namely, -ation, -ization, and -isation, found in manyEuropean languages, in addition to English -ing. The purpose is to form newnouns denoting the act, process, or result of doing something, or of makingsomething. When we say, for instance, 'programming', we refer to the actionof creating and producing programs (especially in computer sciences). Whenwe say 'internacionalizaciön' (Spanish), we mean that a given action or conceptacquires an international dimension and comes to be found in many countries.When we use the newterm '6valuation'(French), we seek to indicate the processof assigning a given value to an action.

4. The first choice ofArabic to reproduce this new terms is clearly the patterncalled by native grammarians taffil', which symbolizes a noun having a first 't'

followed by u'a' vowel, the first consonant of the root, the second consonant,a long 'f' vowel and finally the third consonant of the root2. This may also berepresented as [tal2ß1. This pattern is the masdar (verbal noun, having sometimesthe value ofwestern infinitives) ofthe second derivate verb inArabic, characterizedby a doubled middle consonant (but not in the masdar taffrl). It stands to reason tochoose this pattern, as the second verbal form usually denotes causative and factitivemeanings, and it is frequently employed to coin a deverbal noun starting from apre-existing simple noun to express the action of doing, giving or transformingsomething according to the basic noun. So, if si;'äsa rneans "politics", Arabic cancreate a new term tasyTs, by inserting the three brisic consonants of the first noun [s,y, s] in the pattern tafFtl, thus producing the aforementioned tasyrs, which means' politization' . Other samples include:

Basic noun Meaning New noun Meaning AC3 w4

J isr bridge tajsrr bridging t 5 9 0

jamäd lnanimate body tajmrd Freezing. blocking 5038 X

2 The three symbols f-9-l are taken from the root [f-Q-l], which refers to the concept of'action, doing'.

3 The figure in this column indicates the number of occurrences of the term in the databaseArabiCorpus maintained by Dilworth Parkinson (www.arabicorpus.blzu.edu), abbreviated as AC.The search was performed on the newspapers section of the database, as it reflects the actualnowadays language. It should be observed that including a word in this paper does not necessarilymean that this word is well established in actual language use, only that we have documented theword in at least one source. Among a variety of sources, we have relied on Moroccan press, wherea good deal of samples have been attested.

o A 0 means that the word is not attested in Hans Wehr's dictionary (Wehr 1979), whereasan X means that the word is included therein.

rs2

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JAYS Army taJyrs mobi l iz ing 294 X

hajm Size tahjTm srzrng 1212 0hiss Perception tahsTs sensibil ization l 2 3 s 0hiqba Period, age tafqTb periodization 49 0t -

n rn Time tal.ryrn actualization 47 0dawla State. nation tadwTl internation alization 804 I

Sayx Old men ta5yTx agerng 0 0tifl child tatfrl infantilization 0 0garb West tagrlb Westernizing 614 0qrma value taqylm Evaluation 8788 I

kabd Affection, pain takbTd infl icting 102

makän Place tamkln empoweflng 4922

nazm Order. system tanzTm organlzatlon 39278 I

namls Margin tahmTS marginalization 3043 0

Enlarging Arabic lexicon by non concatenative procedures. The.case for faflala...

Some of these new coinages (and other simiiar terms not included in theabove chart) can be found in Modern Arabic dictionaries. However, many ofthem, in spite of being currently used, did not find a way into lexical works,and continue to be analyzed and discussed by language academies and scholarsinterested in lexicology6. This process is known in native linguistic studies asi5tiqäq, that is to say, resorting to an existing Arabic pattern and inserting theskeleton (three consonants) of a given root to denot" a tre* meaning relatäd tothe same lexical root. As this is the preferred way to coin new terms in Arabic,Academies usually accept it7. The fact that dictionaries, even the recent ones, donot include many of these new terms, reveals some gap between language usageand lexicography works. A question of time, to be sure.

s Almost every instance of this word is attested in the Moroccan material used in theArabiCorpus, the newspaperAttajdid, as this term is widespread in Morocco, but quite unusual inother Arabic countries.

6 In fact, almost every term included in the above chart is discussed in the works by fAbdal-lAzIz2007, and, to a lesser extent, payfl990, among many other studies devoted to the lexicalcreation process in Arabic.

7 As stated by (Abd al-iAzn (2007:190), these coinages can be accepted on the basis thatthey come t9 fill a gap in the root derivates, or to complete the morphological potential of a root(takmila furü[ mädda lugawiyya lam ta{kur baqiyyatahä l-mafäjim).

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5. However, there are many new words which entered Arabic fromEnglish, or, not so frequently, other European languages such as French,German, Italian or Spanish, which contains four or more than four consonants.So they do not conform with genuine Arabic patterns, mostly formed by threeconsonants. In this case, taffrl pattern, applied only to three consonant words,is no longer useful. Some of these borrowings, specially those having five ormore consonants, remain unchanged, or with slight modifications, such astiknülüjiyä 'technology', dtmuqratiya'democracy', diblümäsiyä 'diplomacy',

and ?aydiyülüjiyä'ideology', among many others. But if the foreign term can bereduced to a skeleton of four consonants, Arabic resort to another nominal patternto form new nouns based on the borrowed term, called fa9lala8 in native grammarterminology, which can also be represented as [1a23a4a]. Interestingly enough,native terminology uses only three distinct consonants in the symbol fa(lala, thelast 'l' standing for any consonant, not necessarily for the same third consonant,which could give raise to I a23a3a]e. That may be somehow confusing, but theway Arab grammarians analyzed and described the language was entirely basedon the three consonants pattern, symbolized by f-f-I. A fourth consonant is felt,at least from this angle, as an addition.

6. As regards to the morphological mapping of faglala,itmay be composedby four different consonants: handasa,tarjama, haykala. This is the basic patternin which the native representation is based. Another possible formation consistsof three 'original' consonants with the insertion cf a "r,,': fawlama, hawsaba,hawkama. In this case, Arabic linguists use the pattern faw(ala to refer to it.Other faQlala variant includes an insertion o a'y' : baytara. saydala, thus gettinga pattern labeled as fay9ala. A final 'n' may be added to produce another variant:qarsana, Saxsana, fardana. The pattern which refers to this type of nouns is,consequently, faQlana.r0 Other faflala samples are formed by the duplicationof a supposed bilateral root, like xasxasa, ragrafa, zaQzala, waswasa. As ourmain concern in this paper is to explore the synchronic dimension of new Arabiccoinages based on faflala, we can leave aside the question of the originality ofits components and the historical and diachronical perspective.

7. Faflala was already in use in pre-modernArabic, probably to incorporatenew borrowings by means of adapting them to a pattern which sounded not too

8 The pattern ends with a ta? marbüta in Arabic writing: .tcJ.F. We don't represent thisfinal-t, for it is only realized in context form, when the noun is followed by other word. In pausalform, no -t is perceived, or only a weak -h in careful pronunciation.

e For a detailed study of quadriconsonant words in Arabic, see Fleisch (1979:425-464),and also the native point of view in Sibawayhi (256-304)

r0 Arab grammarians and linguists devoted many pages of theirtreatises to discuss if thisfinal 'n', in every word it is attached to, belongs to the original root or must be considered as asuffix. See, for instance, Sibawayhi (1V,299-300 ). See also a detailed study of faglana in modernArabic by al-Aqta5 (201 I ).

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Enlarging Arabic lexicon by non concatenative procedures. The case for faflala...

strange at Arabs' ears. Some prominent samples of these relatively old termsinclude tarjama, falsafa, handasa, dahraja, qantara,zaxrafa. Interestingly enough;'these terms refer mostly to an activity which may be projected into an object, butmay remain also in the intransitive domain, whereas the new terms coined afterfa{lala in modern Arabic are mainly transitive an need an object, as we statebelow.

8. It is important to have in mind that faflala is a verbal noun, a masdaraccording to Arabic terminology. Consequently, it is often possible to create averbal form derived from itrr. Consider, for instance, the term ma$raba 'make

somethin g o r so me one Mo roc c an, Moro c c a nization' . Autom atic ally, fo I I o wingthe morphological rules of Arabic, a verb magraba (past) yumagribu (present)may be posited, meaning "to make something or someone Moroccan'. And, inthe same line, a derivate verbal noun and a finite verb can be created starting fromma$raba, by adding a ta- prefix and modifying the noun pattern by insertion ofan -u- vowel and deletion of the final -a(t): tamagrub. This new noun is usedto account for an intransitive and reflexive action, and should be translatedas'to make/become (oneself) Moroccan'. And, once again, a finite verb maybe formed on the same basis: tamaSraba (past) yatamagrabu (present)'2. Thisformation process clearly shows the power of non concatenative morphologyin a Semitic language like Arabic, giving rise to a considerable number ofnew words which cover somehow the area that are covered by suffixation inEuropean languages.

9. The first set of examples considered here are new fa(lala coinagescreated from previous Arabic words with four or more consonants. When thebase noun has five or more consonants, it is reduced to only four by means ofdeleting letters which can be seen as additional, not belonging to the originalroot. This is the case of barmaj a'programming', formed from the noun barnämaj'program'by deletion of the'n'and the'-a't3, or ?astara, derived from ?ustürawith deletion of 'ü'.

rr This is not the place to discuss what comes first, the masdar or the finite verb. Arabgrammarians have largely dealt with this point, but from the perspective applied in this papeq thequestion is of l i tt le interest.

12 Interestingly enough, there are some cases in which only the second intransitive form isin use. For instance, the verb tamahwara yatamafwaru 'to focus on'(yatamahwar an-niqäS [rawlamawdüf al-mustawtanät al-?isrä?iliyya'discussion focuses on lsraeli settlements'), derived froma base noun mihwar 'axis'through a hypothetical *mahwara with its verb *mahwara yumahwiruwhich is not in use. Another sample is that of the verb tamarkaza yatamarkazu'to concentrate',whereas the transitive form *markaza yumarkizu is not attested.

13 A similar procedure in the formation of broken plurals of nouns whose singular consistof 5 or 6 consonants is observed and analyzed in Moujib ( 1998).

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Ignacio Ferrando

10. A second set of new words showing the pattern faglala consists ofcoinages made by means of borrowing foreign words, after determining the fourconsonants skeleton on which the derivative process is to be based

14 All these 21 cases are attested in the Moroccan material used in the ArabiCorpus, thenewspaper Attajdid.

r5 Compare with tajyT5 as mentioned above.'6 This new word has been attested in Moroccan press. It refers to the movement of 20th

February 2011, when many cities lived social contestations and demonstrations headed bv theyoung generation

r7 Some of these nouns do not have a clearly independent status in Arabic. They have beenborrowed just like they arrived from other languages, with only slight modifications.

r56

Basic noun Meaning New noun Meaning AC w?ijrä? proceeding ?ajra?a

implementation,formal izat ion 27t4 0

?ustüra legend ?astara, legendarization ) ) 0?islam Islam ?aslama Islamization 382 0?insän human kind ?ansana humanization 210 0barnämaj rogram barmaja programming 825 Xdustfir constitution dastara constitutionalization l 7 0saratan cancer sartana cancering, producing cäncer l t 09askar army faskarar5 militarization 394 0fibräyir february fabrarar6 februarization 0 0kahraba? electricity Kahraba electrization Xmu/assasa institution ma?sasa institution alization 406 0mu{jam dictionary mafjama

including in a dictionary,dictionarization 0 0

mi9yär Criterion mafyara, applying criteria l 0 0namü{aj model nam{aja taking as a model 64 0minhaj Method manhaja making methodological l 8 0haykal structure haykala structuration 4034 0

Basic nounrs Meaning New noun Meaning AC w?ütümätiki authomatic ?atmata making authomatic 722 0?aydiyülüjiya Ideology ?adlaja ideologization 129 0?ida{a Radio ?a{yafa broadcasting 0 0uksid Oxid ?aksada oxidization 241 Xbastärais pasteurizing bastara pasteurization 5 Xtllifizyfin Television talfaza televising r039 X

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tilifün Telephon talfana telephoning I Xtwitar Twiter tawtara twitering 0 0düblaj Doubbling dablaja dubbing 9 1 0rädikäli Radical radkala radicalization a

J 0risaykl Recycle raskala recycling 0 0

galfanais galvanize Galfana/ialfana

galvanization 9 X

fabrika factory fabraka fabrication 256 0fays bük facebook fasbaka f-acebooking 0 0hallüsin hallucination halwasa hallucination r77 X

Enlarging Ardbic lexicon by non concatenative procedures. The case for faflala...

The figures at the two last columns show that, while some of these newterms are relatively well established in Arabic (talfaza, atmata, fabraka, adlala),others remain unknown to the general public'8. As to the morphological anglö, itis clear that an abstraction process led to a theoretically new root made of forrtconsonants, by means of deleting every consonant or glide felt by Arabic earsas additional not belonging to the root. Language purists do not easily acceptthese new coinages, just because they are not based on genuine Arabic roots.This process is generally called tafnb, that is to say, carabization', a methodof creating lexical items which must be avoided unless the first and preferredmethod, called i5tiqäq 'internal derivation frcm a pre-existing Arabic root'cannot be used. Aparticular case is that of the noun'democratization', based on'democracy', which entered into Arabic in an "extended" non regular pattern:damaqrata, consisting of five consonants, and thus theoretically not acceptablein Arabic (tafaflala). Some linguists, like qAbd al-iAzrz (2007:225-6)t, treatthis question and propose a shortening of the pattern, giving rise to daqrata, oreven maqrata. However, a quick perusal on ArabiCorpus database reveals 380occurrences of damaqrata against 5 cases of daqrata and 3 cases of maqrata.These figures indicates that such a popular and widespread new word imposeshimself in actual language use in spite of being a non heterodox pattern.

I 1. The next set of samples included in the chart below are formed ina pattern labeled by natiVe linguists as faglana, because it is based on a giventhree consonants root plus a'n'suffix, forming a new quadriconsonantal root.It is important to have in mind that a pattern taffTl should have been applied

r8 We would l ike to emphasize at this point that our aim is to describe language use, even ifit is not widespread. Concerning the terms that do not appear in Wehr nor in Parkinson's database(a{yafa, tawtara, raskala and fasbaka) are attested in a variety of sources, mainly Moroccan press.This is not surprising if one has into account that the edition of Wehr we used here was edited inthe late seventies, and most sources of Parkinson press database are newspapers dating back to lateninet ies.

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to the.O"rr; the trilateral root. However, this is not the case, mainly becausea word conforming to taffil pattern does exist, but with anothei meäning. Soothe semantic space is occupied, and language has to create a new form. a"goodsample of this is the word 'personalization', which, in principle, should havebeen translated as ta5xrs, taking the root [S-x-S]

'person'. But ta5xls is frequentlyattested with the meaning of 'diagnosis'. For that reason a new word is createdby adding an 'n' suffix: Saxsana, according to faflana pattern. The same maybe said concerning Saklana, because of the spreading ofia5kil with the sense of'formation, creation', or ?arxana, because tairlx is semantically occupied by themeanings of 'date; history'.

The flgures at the right side of the chart point to the same situation wediscussed in the above chart: some of the neologisms are relatively widespreadin nowadays Arabic, while others remain unknown or not frequentiy used.

12. As to the pattern faw(ala, which is a variant of fa?lalä in which the fourbasic consonants include a 'w' in the second position, it is clear that an 'ä'presentat the surface of the basic noun has been reinterpreted as a'w'. This is a verycommon phenomenon in the realm of broken plural patterns in Arabic, where a

re Some of these nouns do not have a clearly independent status in Arabic. They have beenborrowed just like they arrived from other languages, with only slight modifications.

20 Compare with ta1frl, with the same meaning.

1 5 8

Basic nounre Meaning New noun Meaning AC wta?rix date ?arxana 'datation'

0 0tilqä?i spontaneous talqana 'making spontaneous' 0 0Sabaka net Sabkana 'to use the internet' 0 0SAXS person SAXSANA

'personalization212 0

SarQ Law 5ar{ana 'to make something legal' 162 0Safb people SaSbana 'popularization

I 0Sakl form Saklana 'formalization'

4 0

9asr Time, period 9asrana'make somethingconteiilporaneus, rnodern 28t 0

{udw member fadwana 'make someone a member' 0 0faql Mind, intellect faqlana 'rationalization'

213 X(i lm Science,

knnrv lc r loc 9almana ' laicization, secu lar ization' 295 0

fard One, sin!'lenerson fardana 'individualization'

5 0

fu9!rä ClassicalA r a h i e fashana 'classizication'

0 0walad boy, child waldana29 'infantilization

3 l 0

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Enlarging,Arabic lexicon by non concatenative procedures. Tle caseforfaflala...

singular fäqil or fäQila produces a plural fawäQil, because the 'äl is reinterpretedas an'w'in the deep structurelevel2r. The word l.rawkama, however, is somehowproblematic, as it is not easy to detect the basic noun. bould it be connectedto häkim 'ruler, sovereign', and then the new term hawkama could design the(positive) way a ruler acts?

13. Another interesting set of samples are taken from names of countriesand regions, to convey the general -.utritrg of making someone or somethinglike it were from the country or region which performs as the noun base. Let usconsider the next samples:

Basic noun25 Meaning New noun Meaning AC wal-?urdun Jordan ?Ardana jordanization 8 0?isbaniya Spain ?asbana hispanicizaton 3 0?isrä?il Israel ?asrala israelization 58 0?almäniya Germany ?almana germanization 2 026?amrika America ?amraka americanization 267 027?injltira England ?anjala anglicization 4 0al-bahrayn Bahrein bahrana making bahreini t 6 0al-balqän The Balkans balqana balcanization 85 0t(inis Tunis ia tawnasa making tunisian 4

2t Consider for example rätib 'salary' pl. rawätib, or xätima 'conclusion, end ,pl.xawätim.

22 Some of these nouns do not have a clearly independent status in Arabic. They have beenborrowed just like they arrived from other languagls, witi only slight modifications.23 An alternative form hakäma is attested, but only 4 times in ArabiCorpus.2a There is another form for this meaning: xasxasa, by doubling the two basic consonants,which is much more frequent (4596 times in Arabicorpus).

25 Some of these nouns do not have a clearly independent status in Arabic. They have beenborrowed just like they arrived from other languages, with only slight modifications._26 Wehr's dictionary includes the derived form ta?almana'to be Germanized,27 Wehr's dictionary includes the derived form ta?amraka 'to become America nized,

Basic noun22 Meaning New noun Meaning AC whäsüb computer hawsaba, Computering 243 0hukm Power hawkama2r governance 248 0XASS Prfvate xawsasa2r privatization 232 0(älam World fawlama Globalization 8834 0qänän law qawnana codification 74 0

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as-sa?ädiya Saudi Arabia saQwada2s making saudian 176 0

sahyün Zion sahyana zromzauon t42 0

as-sümäl Somalia sawmala somalization 40 0

Siräq Iraq garqana2e iraqization 25 0

(umän Oman (amnanaro making omani 1 0

faransä France farnasa gallicization 3 8 X

qatar Qatar qatranar/ qatarization 3 0

lubnän Lebanon labnana lebanization t34 0

al-magrib Morocco magraba making Moroccan l l

*hillinus Greece halyanar2 hellenization I X

As it was the case with other fa(lala derivates, it is possible to form a

second derivate with intransitive and reflexive meaning according to the verbal

pattern tafaqlala (past) yatafa9lalu (present) and tafa9lul (verbal noun, masdar).

For instance, tafarn asayatafarnasu tafarnus 'to becomes a French-man, to behave

like a French-man'. It is also interesting to observe that this is a very productive

derivation, by means of selecting the four consonants skeleton, thus implying

a reduction in the country names that have more than four consonants33. Even

countries whose name is formed with only three consonants exhibit a fa9lala

form alongside with a taffrl form (masrana, gamnana, qatrana, halyana)' just

because of the spreading of these tbur consonant coinages. In two cases, to the

best of our knowiedg., o-trly the taffrl derivate is used: takwTt 'making Kuwaiti'34,

and tamglr' Egy Ptianization"3514. Finaily, rorn. cases of fa(lala pattern are detected to form new terms by

the composition oftwo preexisting nouns. This process is called by native linguists

�onthistermthattheexpectedchoice,sa(dana,waSel |udedin order to avoid the confusidn with sa(dän "ape". :

2e Al-Aqtaö (201 1 :66) mentions that peopole don't usefarqana, but our figures states the

opposite. only on. rur. of tafrlq in this sense is found in ArabiCorpus, just because dictionaries

state that ta$r-rq means 'taking, striking roots'.30 Another taftTl form is attested: ta9mTn (5 occurrences in ArabiCorpus).3r TaqlTr is two times attested with this meaning in ArabiCorpus32 A taffTl form is also attested: tahlTn, documented by Wehr, but not in ArabiCorpus.33 One could legitimately wonder how could be said in Arabic 'making andalusi'from al-

?andalus. Following the deletion process observed in other terms, it could be ?adlasa, dropping the.n,, or maybe ?andälasa, according to the way exhibited in damaqrata and falasfana, in which the

five consonants remain. Howeveq we could not attest any occurrence of this term in the consulted

sources.34 29 occurrences of takw-rt are attested in Arabicorpus.35 Included by Wehr through the verb massara yumassiru with this meaning, and attested

72 times in ArbiCorPus.

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Enlarging Arabic lexicon by non concatenative procedures. The case forfaflala...

naht, 'composition', and is it not well considered, because it does not fit well intothe Arabic language patterns. Examples include ansala 'rcbotization' from thecompound insän äh 'automatic man, robot' , zamiana 'demineralization', fromthe compound izalat al-maQädin 'to remove minerals', sarnama 'sonambulism',

from as-sayr fi-n-nawm 'to walk while sleeping', or naqhara 'transliteration',

from naql al-[rurüf. These compounds do not find an easy way to become anintegral part ofArabic lexicon, unlike other older compounds firmly established,like basmala 'to say the formula bismillahi r-rahmän ar-rahTm (in the nameof God the Merciful the Compassionate)', hawqala'to pronounce the formulalä hawla walä quwwa illä billäh (there is no power and no strength save inGod)', hamdala'to say al-hamdu lilläh (thanks to God)'36, or ra?smäl 'capital', acompound of ra?s 'head' and mäl 'goods, possessions'.

15. Conclusion. Enlarging the lexicon is one of the main challengesfor any language. In the case of Arabic, a language without suffixes (or onlywith a few), it is necessary to explore other ways to give account for the hugenumber of new terms coined after suffixation models. One of the most promisingways is precisely the formation of new verbal nouns and verbs according to aquadriconsonantal pattern faflala, by reduction the word to an abstract root madeof four elements and so mapping it into this pattern. This is a typical procedurein a language whose morphology can be labeled as non concatenative. This wayof creating neologisms is quite powerful, as we have tried do show by quotinga good number o samples. While it is true that Arabic Academies, and alsodictionaries, are quiet conservative and remain reluctant to include these newcoinages in the official lexicon, it is hard to deny, in our opinion, that borrowingforeign words without adapting them into the morphological patterns of Arabicleads to an impoverishment of the language. With some caution and a good dealof good sense, the faglala mechanism, as other similar procedures (broken plural,taffrl, nisba suffix), can be very useful to the unavoidable task of enlarging Arabiclexicon and renewing the language.

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Ignacio Ferrando

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