The Arabic Language

6.4 Morphology
Both nouns and verbs may undergo further derivations. We have seen above that 
most approaches to Arabic morphology assume a root-and-pattern morphology, 
in which derivations take place by applying a pattern to a root, for instance, when 
the root 
k-t-b 
is combined with the pattern 
maCCaC
(in the traditional notation, 
mafʿal
) to produce the word 
maktab 
‘place of writing; office’. Larcher (2006) calls 
into question the standard practice of deriving all words from a consonantal 
root. He refers to words like 
maktaba 
‘library’ and 
maṭār 
‘airport’, which cannot 
be derived directly from the consonantal roots 
k-t-b 
‘to write’ and 
ṭ-y-r 
‘to fly’, but 
must be derived from the nouns
 kitāb
‘book’ and 
ṭayyāra 
‘airplane’. Likewise, the 
verbal measure IX 
ifʿalla 
is always connected with adjectives of the form 
ʾafʿalu
denoting colour or physical defect, for example, 
iṣfarra
‘to be yellow’ and 
iḥdabba 
‘to have a hunchback’
 
from 
ʾaṣfaru
‘yellow’ and 
ʾaḥdabu 
‘hunchbacked’. This shows 
that they are not directly derived from an abstract consonantal root, but from an 
adjective. The same observation applies to denominal verbs of measure II, such 
as 
ʿarraba 
‘to Arabicise’ (from 
ʿarabī
‘Arabic’) or 
raḫḫama 
‘to pave with marble’ 
(from 
ruḫām
). This direct derivation of verbs from nouns, rather than from a root, 
shows that, at least in some cases, the semantic unity of the consonantal root is 
an emergent quality rather than an original feature of an abstract root.
Masculine
Feminine
Singular
Dual
Plural
Singular
Dual
Plural
nominative
jamīl-un
jamīl-āni
jamīl-ūna jamīl-at-un jamīl-at-un jamīl-āt-un
genitive
jamīl-in
jamīl-ayni jamīl-īna
jamīl-at-in jamīl-at-in jamīl-āt-in
accusative
jamīl-an
jamīl-ayni jamīl-īna
jamīl-at-an jamīl-at-an jamīl-āt-in
Table 6.3 Nominal endings of 
jamīl 
‘beautiful’

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The Structure of Arabic 
93
In nouns, most derivational processes take place through root-and-pattern 
morphology. There is only a small number of suffixes, among them the sound 
plural and dual suffixes, the nunation and the feminine ending (Table 6.3), and the 
so-called 
nisba 
suffix 
-iyyun
(e.g., from 
jism 
‘body’ 
jism-iyyun 
‘corporeal’) 
The main non-suffixed derivations of the noun are the broken plural and the 
diminutive. Broken plurals do not occur in all Semitic languages; in fact, this 
grammatical device is sometimes regarded as one of the distinctive traits of the 
South Semitic languages (but see above, Chapter 2, pp. 18f.). With respect to 
the broken plurals in Arabic, standard grammars identify as many as thirty-one 
different patterns. This variation can be reduced considerably by generalisation. 
McCarthy (2008) points out that many nouns have a plural pattern of the form 
CvCvv …, a so-called iambic pattern, which is found with such diverse singulars as 
nafs
/
nufū-s
‘soul’; 
rajul
/
rijā-l 
‘man’; 
jazīra
/