And it came to pass....

In class on Sunday our grammar teacher introduced a new grammatical structure. This was a very interesting one that I quite enjoy and would like to share with the you...In Arabic there are 10 verb forms. There is no comparison in English and that is what makes it a semantic language, not a western language. The verb form takes the basic root of a word and changes the meaning, for instance the verb to laugh is yadhak(I hate writing it in english!--looks funny and sounds funny) the root is d-h-k so it can be lugged into another form by adding an 'a' in the beginning and it would change the meaning into making someone else laugh. For instance, to say 'I laughed so hard' and 'I made John laugh so hard' is the same verb--there is no need to say 'i made' it is simply the 'a' place in front of the root of the verb to laugh. There is another form that would make the same verb mean it's doing it by itself. Like, the word to break. If it is used in one verb form it mean I broke something then just my plugging the same letters into another 'model or form' it means i made you brake it or I made it brake , and again by plugging it into another form or model it means it was broken like it did it on it's own for example ' The window broke or the plate broke. Who broke it?? I don't know it was broken when I came in.'

it goes on and on for 10 different forms!! Obviously, not all verbs get plugged into all forms b/c it may not make any sense. The cool part is that the forms never change so you can take any root and plug it into a form and it means something else(the same something for each form--ie each form has a meaning)

sorry if it's confusing--that is one reason I study so much!

The cool thing we learned Sunday is a verb that means to change, become, or became. this is used to say--for example (literally) 'Changed the city Cairo crowded and busy' in normal English it would translate ' the city of cairo became crowded and busy' it also means all forms of change with people, places, things, events etc etc etc.

In class we had a sentence that said 'changed the tree under the window' we were very confused and asked the teacher to translate it into english--she said I don't know how to translate it--u guys tell me! We all gasped and said we don't know! how are we ever going to learn this...then we tried to figure it out--was the tree already there and changed or did it just appear or what??? Finally it hit me! We are speaking fosha like OLD stylish English. I said 'and it came to pass that there was a tree under the window' she said that was exactly correct. So reading the scriptures really pays off!!! When I translate Arabic so I can understand what is going on I always translate it the way I talk now, and many times forget I'm speaking a VERY old and formal language. I don't understand how people created such a rich, deep, and complicated language. It boggles my mind!

It takes a westerner and average of at least 3 years of intensive study to become comfortable in Arabic. The grammar isn't over until the end of the 2nd year and possibly into the 3rd. Right now it feels like this root I'm trying to uncover that as soon as I think I got it I realize I got a hold to just one small branch of the root and it branches off into complicated root systems and runs much deeper into the rich soil. It seems to have no end.