“Open Feminine Ta” In Arabic Language And Its Use In Qur’an


It can be said that the perception of gender in languages has started to be formed from the beginning of the history of humanity. While in some languages there is no gender classification, in many languages it is categorized in two ways namely feminine and masculine or in three ways namely feminine, masculine and neutral. In Arabic, gender is categorized in two ways as feminine and masculine. Masculine name as literal or appreciated name does not carry the signs of feminine on the other hand; feminine is the word that cash against. As in Arabic feminine is accepted as writ subject element, it needs the feminine signs. In nouns and verbs, the important thing is masculinity. Femininity is an incidental element. For this reason in Arabic books, as masculinity is accepted as a main element it does not locate as self-contained, femininity is handled as large and detailed structure as it is thought that it is originally added to the structure. Another reason of the importance given to femininity is that in the first years of Islam, a great proportion of language mistakes namely “lahn” is resulted from femininity and masculinity. The famous ta’nis signs that are dealt in Arabic Grammar are “ta, elif-i maksura and elif-i mamduda”. Besides these signs, there are other signs that are used with nouns, and also there are ta’nis signs used in verbs and prepositions. Suyuti states that there are fifteen ta’nis signs and eight of them are used in nouns, four of them in verbs and three of them in prepositions. In Arabic the third syllabic letter “ta” is different in respect to spelling at the end of the Word, pronunciation, the meaning it gives to the word added. Besides lots of grammar properties, the most famous and important function of it, as mentioned above, is becoming a “ta’nis sign”. It can be written both open and round way as “ta” at the end of the words. In the current Eloquent Arabic, round “ta” is only written in nouns as ta’nis sign, in the Drawing Ottoman Quran, in some words as opposed to rules “ta” is written open. For example the word ????? that is seen eleven times in Quran, in seven places ????? in sixty-six places the word and in one place ??? the word ??? are written open. It means the round word ta is converted into open ta. When the ta letter is used with a verb, as a general admission by linguistics, it is written as open ta. In waqf and al wasl situations, it is pronounced as “ta”. As these “ta” letters that merge with verb is feminine subject, it is named as “tau’t-ta’nis. When it is with nouns, it is written as “tau’l-merbûta” (????). It is pronounced as “ta” in wasl situation and in waqf situation it is pronounced as “ha”. Together with this, ın some verses in the Drawing Ottoman Quran, this rule is violated and written as open “ta” in some nouns. Open ta is pronounced as ta in waqf and al wasl situations. There are different opinions about the conversion of open ta to round ta. Ganim Kadduri within the scope of Arabic writing’s historical development, states the reason of the open ta with these words: Tau’t-ta’nis is written as “ta” in waqf situation. As the Arabic writing improves, the writing that we use today has emerged. In the old Arabic and Nabati writing, it is seen the traces of these cahanges. Feminine names in Nabat languages is mostly written with open “ta”. As in the examples of ??????? (??????)? ????????? (????????)? ????????? (????????)? ????????? (????????)? ????????? (????????) , , in the Nabati writing of B.C III. and IV century, ??????? Word was written as ???????. This situation shows us that in 568 the Harran writing in the Gregorian and AH in article 31 in Cairo are written as open ta. When we look at the Cairo writing, tau’t-ta’nis is written in the old style and at the same time, in “????????” word its new styke “ha” is realized. From these statements it is understood that round “ta” emerged in the following centuries. Ganim Kadduri says that, open feniminine symptom


Keywords


Arabian, Quran, Gender, Open Feminine Ta, Round Ta.

Author : Ahmet KÖMÜRCÜ
Number of pages: 651-668
DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.7827/TurkishStudies.8212
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Journal of Turkish Studies
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