My favorite four linguistic characteristics found in Arabic language I wish they exist in English

It's been a while since I unleashed the nerdy linguist within. Well, here we go again; and this time, it'll be merrier than usual—I'll be talking about two languages at once. Here's a list of things I like in Arabic language and would've loved it if they had existed in English:


1- The nonexistence of "it"

The neuter pronoun "it"—that useless two-letter word coupled with singular, inanimate objects and abstracts—has always gotten on my nerves. In Arabic language, there is no "it;" you'd simply use the equivalents of "he/him/his" or "she/her" based on the word's grammatical gender. This can be utilized heavily in both poetry and prose to come up with more powerful imagery. For instance, an author could write a long introductory sentence describing something as simple as a tree; and the readers would be making wild guesses about the forthcoming noun, thinking it would turn out to be a beautiful lady, before they realize it is actually just a tree:

e.g. Alone where no one could disturb that cherished tranquility, she stood tall on that green hill as the winds fondled her. She's the tree under whom John liked to sit and read.

The above-mentioned example sounds creepily odd; but once you anglicize it by replacing the pronouns "she" and "her" with "it," and "whom" with "which," it will sound okay. Thanks for having feminine and masculine nouns in Arabic, there's no need for a neuter pronoun; and thus, that same example wouldn't be odd at all in Arabic.

2- The dual

A noun in English could be either singular or plural, period. In Arabic, however, there's a third possibility: dual. Although this entails having more grammatical rules—as verbs are conjugated differently with dual nouns, which also have their own unique pronouns—I think this adds more aesthetics and lovely accuracy to the language.

So, based on this fact and the one mentioned earlier (the advantage of having grammatical gender) the English pronoun "you" has five equivalent Arabic pronouns: one for singular, feminine nouns; one for singular, masculine nouns; one for plural, masculine nouns; one for plural, feminine nouns; and one for dual nouns with different accompanying forms of verbs for feminine and masculine nouns. Here are six different Arabic sentences demonstrating the English language's "you" variations:

أنتَ محق

أنتِ مُحقّة

أنتم محقّون

أنتن مُحقّات

أنتما مُحقان

أنتما مُحقّتان

Believe it or not, if there was no contextual basis whatsoever, the six sentences above would be all translated into English the same: "You are right." Arabic simply provides a lot more details—the addressee in the first Arabic "You are right" sentence is one male; in the second, it's one female; in the third, the addressees are three or more males; in the fourth, the addressees are three or more females; in the fifth, the addressees are two males; and finally in the sixth sentence, the addressees are two females.

3- Elaborative verbs

In Arabic language, there is something called Məf'oul Mo͝otləq, which is a part of speech that serves as an intensifier of the action or event expressed in a sentence derived from the main verb in that sentence; hence the nomenclature "elaborative verb" I've come up with. It is a descriptive vocable that loosely works as an adverb in English language. But unlike an adverb, which modifies an adjective in a sentence, an elaborative verb modifies the main verb in the sentence—the same main verb it's derived from. Elaborative verbs have various types, but it would take ages to list them all in clear English language. Here's an example on the most common type:

أسعدتكَ إسعاداً بعد إسعاد

The aforementioned example consists of four words, three of which share the same root! How fucking cool is that? The first word, which in English means "to please," is the main verb along with an attached object—and that object is one male addressee. The second word is an elaborative verb. The third word is a preposition; and finally, the fourth word is a noun, which is loosely a gerund (pleasing.)

So, a fantasy-inspired English translation of this sentence would be as follows:

I've pleased you pleasingnessness unlike any pleasure.

The word ending with two consecutive ~ness suffixes is merely a nerdy-slash-childish attempt to coin an English counterpart that resembles the elaborative verb in Arabic.

A more realistic translation of the same sentence would be any of the following options:

I've given you heavenly pleasure.
I've pleased you to the fullest.
I have pleased you; indeed, I have.
Or, simply—I truly have pleased you so much.


4- Diacritics

I think everybody knows what diacritics are; but only few know they go by that ugly name, which sounds like a weird disease (Die-a-Kre-Ticks.) They're those tiny italic hyphens or signs written above or below the letters to guide you how you ought to pronounce them. English is not deemed a language of diacritics, yet numerous English words of foreign origin (mostly French) have diacritics. Among the most well-known examples of these words are fiancé/fiancée, café, déjà vu, and cliché,

In many other languages, these diacritics that lead you to vocalize the letters in a particular fashion, would simply be vowels. In Arabic, however, the vowels are more powerful than diacritics. Here's a simple example that provides a clearer picture of the linguistic significance of diacritics in Arabic:

1- عالَم
2- عالِم

The two words above consist of the same, exact letters; however, the two have completely different meanings: The first word is "world," and the second one is "scientist." How did that happen? Well, if you look closely at the first word, there's an upper diacritical mark placed above the third letter—it's called fat'ha; and in the second word, there's a lower diacritical mark placed below the third letter—it's called kasra.



Honorable mentions: Arabic is written from right to left; Arabic has phonemes that no other languages have.