Re: questions about Arabic

<<Well, Arabic still underwent some changes due to phonological changes. For
instance, semivowels in verbs often disappeared in the past tense (like verb
*kawana: to be, pronounced /kawana/, then /kO:na/, and finally kâna /ka:na/,
while present stayed yakwanu /jakwanu/ IIRC) bringing a whole class of
irregular
verbs called "sick" in Arabic>>

"kawana" is a verb in Arabic, with a shaddah over the [w]. I think it means "to
become", though I can't remember.

<<Well, alif has no pronounciation whatsoever. It's just a graphic carrier for
different things, like the hamza (or glottal stop), vowels for the rare words
beginning with a vowel, or the tanwîn /an/ at the end of a noun in indefinite
accusative case. It is also used as a graphic mark for a long â /a:/, in
whichcase it has to be preceeded with a consonnant bearing a fatha (just like
a kasra
followed by a yaa marks a long î, and a damma followed by a waaw marks a long
û.
But contrary to yaa and waw, alif doesn't have any phonetic value).>>

I was talking only about when it's a vowel. We were talking about variations of
Arabic phonology, not Arabic phonology in general. That was already known (or
at least I assumed).

-David

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