The Dual Paradigm in Arabic

Languages are the principal systems of communication used by particular groups of human beings within the particular society of which they are members (Lyons, 1981). Through this definition, we can say that language, like anything in life, can evolve and develop from generation to generation with the development of society. Most language changes and developments are subtle and unrecognizable for the most part. In this article, I will attempt to mention some differences in the dual form between Classical/Modern Standard Arabic and Arabic dialect based on the research of scholars, and explain the use of dual nouns, and dual verbs.

If we define morphology according to Mathews (1974) as the study of word formations in different constructs and uses, then we can say that dual form in the Arabic language is mainly a morphological concern even though syntax is involved and could affect how we use and structure the dual form that will be mentioned in this the article, but the main focus would be morphology. Al-Sharkawi (2010) stated that in general, in order for a certain aspect of language to develop, certain internal and external linguistic, sociolinguistic, and demographic factors must play a direct role in that development process.

There are a few factors that affect the development of any aspect of language, the dual paradigm in this case as it has developed in dialects more than it did in the modern standard Arabic or classical Arabic (Al-Sharkawi, 2010). What is relevant to us in this article is the differences that resulted between the classical or modern standard Arabic and Arabic dialects taking into consideration the development of the dual paradigm in the dialects.

There are a few differences between classical and modern standard Arabic when compared to dialects in their use of dual forms. One of these differences according to Al-Sharkawi (2010) is the lack of differentiation between the masculine and feminine in the dialects. (اتنين) in the Egyptian dialect neither represents particularly two masculine entities nor does it represent two particularly feminine entities as it can be used for both, and does not distinguish between the two.

On the other hand, in classical Arabic, (اثنان) indicates two masculine objects or people, and (اثنتان) represents two feminine objects or people.

Brustad (2000) stated that the dual category in dialects is only functional in the noun category which goes in line with what (Benmamoun, 2000) stated which is that in dialects, there is no agreement in gender or number between the noun itself and what follows after from verbs to adjectives. Brustad (2000) added that the agreement in the dual form in dialects is the same as the plural form and that it always uses the plural form. For example, (دول كتابين) can also be (دول 4 كتب) with no distinction between the two other than the noun itself. Therefore, there is no agreement.

Dual Nouns

The dual paradigm in the Arabic language is a grammatical number that indicates that an entity is precisely two in number. This grammatical item is added at the end of a noun to function correctly. In the Arabic language, a noun could be singular, dual, or plural. To further take it apart, in Arabic, a singular, dual, or plural noun is also indicated within the same word if it refers to a male/s or a female/s through the use of certain affixes. Nouns in Arabic are divided into three categories accordingly:

·       Singular, which indicates that the noun is one in number, for example, (طالبٌ، معلمٌ، كتابٌ).

·       Dual, which indicates an entity is exactly two in number, for example, (طالبان، معلمان، كتابان).

·       Plural, which indicates that the noun is three or more in number, for example, (طلاب، معلمون، كتب).

One thing we notice in the dual form is the addition of (ـان) at the end as it serves as a suffix, but it can be further broken into two parts, (ـا) and (ن). The (ا) is the marker that indicates that the noun is dual, while the (ن) is the replacement of the parsing marker that exists in the singular form (ضمة، فتحة، كسرة) or (تنوين الضم، الفتح، الكسر) in the indefinite nouns. It is (ـان) when the noun is the subject in a sentence, (ـين) when the noun is the object, when it comes after a preposition, or when it is in a genitive construction.

Therefore, the dual parsing marker is either (ـان) or (ـين) based on the position of the noun in the sentence. The singular noun can be written in three different forms depending on the sentence and the type of noun.

The first instance is when the noun is normative; for example, (أنا طالبٌ) / I am a student. We notice that at the end of the noun, there is a sign which is called “tanween dam” (تنوين ضم) that takes the place of the usual “dammah” (ضمة) in this case as they both serve the same purpose in indicating that the noun is normative.

Secondly, when the noun is in the accusative form; for instance, (درَّست طالبًا) / I taught a student. In this sentence, the noun is the object, and the sign for the accusative noun is “fathah” (فتحة), but for this case, it is the equivalent of (الفتحة) which is “tanween al-fath” (تنوين الفتح).

The third and final form of the singular noun is the genitive form. An example of that would be (ألعبُ مع صديقٍ) / I play with a friend. In this sentence, the noun comes after “مع” which makes the noun “صديق” genitive and with the signs either “kasrah” (كسرة) or “tanween kasr” (تنوين كسر).

The main difference between the dual form and the singular form is that in the singular form, we used signs at the end of the noun that indicated whether it was normative, accusative, or genitive, while the dual form uses the addition of letters as signs to indicate the form or type of the noun. For example, instead of saying (أنا معلمٌ) “I am a teacher” as the normative type of noun (the noun is the subject in the sentence), like in the previous example provided, we say (نحن معلمان) “We are two teachers”.

We notice that the only difference between these sentences in Arabic is at the end, in the dual form we added (ـان) on the original word with -of course- changing the pronoun (أنا) I, to (نحن) we. The sign of the normative in the singular form was (تنوين ضم) “tanween dam”, and in the dual form, the equivalent of (تنوين الضم/ الضمة) “tanween dam/dammah” is (ـان).

As for the accusative type of noun, I will also use the same example used previously for a more cohesive understanding and comparison between the singular and dual forms. When a noun is an object, we use the sign of (فتحة) “fathah” at the end of the word to indicate it is an accusative noun, like (كسرتُ نافذةً) “I broke a window”, we used the equivalent of (فتحة) “fathah” which is (تنوين الفتح) “tanween alfath”. When the noun is feminine, we change (ة) to (ت), then we proceed with changing the rest of the word in the following way. To transform this sentence into the dual form we ought to add (ـين) at the end of the sentence since it is accusative as we mentioned before. The sentence turns to (كسرتُ نافذتين) “I broke two windows”.

The third type of noun is the genitive noun where we add (الكسرة) “kasrah” at the end in the singular form, but as we previously explained, both the accusative and the genitive forms have the same sign in the dual form which is (ـين). We do the same things we did with the accusative type, which is to add (ـين) at the end of the word. What was (أكلتُ مع صديقٍ) “I ate with a friend” is now (أكلتُ مع صديقين) “I ate with two friends.

Dual Verbs

In Arabic, verbs can also be dual, and just like nominal dual nouns, the sign for the dual verbs is (ـان). However, the (ن) is only maintained in the indicative form as it takes the role of the “dammah” (ضمة) in the singular indicative form. The (ن) is dropped when the verb is in either the subjunctive or the jussive form. I will attempt to explain them separately in the following paragraphs.

The sign of (ـان) or (ـا) in the verb only occurs when the verb is preceded by the noun. If the verb comes after the noun, then we do not change the form of the verb. It stays the same as if it was singular. For instance, (أكل الولدان الطعام) “the two boys ate the food”. If the verb was to come after the noun (الولدان), we would add (ا) at the end of the verb, and the sentence would be as the following, (الولدان أكلا الطعام).

Firstly, the indicative form (المرفوع). As previously explained, this form has the sign of (ـان) and keeps the (ن) at the end, too. An example of this form would be (يمشيان/يدرسان/يأكلان). The noun also indicates that an entity is two in a sentence and the verb is dual. For example, (الطالبان يمشيان) “the two students are walking.”

Secondly, the subjunctive form (المنصوب). This form does not accept the addition of (ن) at the end of the verb. Instead, we only add (ا) at the end of the verb. The subjunctive form is recognized through (لن، حتى، أن، كي، لام التعليل، إذن، لام الجحود، فاء السببية). For example, (الولدان لن يأكلا الطعام) “the two boys will not eat the food”.

Thirdly, the jussive form also does not accept the addition of (ن). Just like the subjunctive form, the jussive form keeps the (ا) at the end to indicate that the verb is dual. The jussive form also has few tools that precede the verb to signal that the form as the jussive form like, (لم، لما، لام الأمر، لا الناهية). An example of the jussive form would be (المعلمان لم يشرحا الدرس) “the two teachers did not explain the lesson”. The next table also provides more examples of the jussive form.

The sign of the dual form only occurs if the verb is preceded by a dual noun. The signs are (ـان) for the indicative form, while the subjunctive and jussive forms have (ا) as a sign/marker with the absence of (ن). If the verb is not preceded by a dual noun, we do not mark it with the dual signs, and we only use its singular form. I will use a previous example to compare these two instances.

The first instance is when the verb is preceded by a dual noun like, (الولدان أكلا الطعام) the verb is in its dual form. On the other hand, when the verb comes before the dual noun, the dual marker is not added to the verb. For example, (أكل الولدان الطعام). In English, both sentences mean “the two boys ate the food”, but because the verb cannot occur before the subject, we cannot see a difference between the two sentences.

Conclusion

To conclude this article, there are differences in the use of dual forms between Classical/Modern Standard Arabic and Arabic dialects such as dialects not distinguishing between dual feminine nouns and masculine nouns. This article also attempted to explain the formation of dual forms, and how to add suffixes at the end of words to form a dual noun or verb. Arabic is a rich language and I hope with this humble attempt that I covered enough of this topic to form a cohesive understanding of the dual form rules.