jionhin

1. This is a draft copy, please do not cite or circulate
Arabic Language Ideology and Reification: the Debate over Naht as a Method
of Derivation - Matthew Chovanec
On the 27th of March, 1935, the Cairo Language Academy met for its 28th session. On
the agenda was the seemingly innocuous topic of magnetism. The group worked quickly through
a series of words in order to find their Arabic equivalent1
.
loadstone
poles of magnet
axis of magnet
magnetic substances
Most words posed little problem for the panel of experts, and any discussion was limited
to which Arabic synonym more precisely reflected the exact sense implied in the scientific term.
In regards to “double touch”, the council was soon able to agree that lamas was closer to the
sense of “touch” than damak, and the official translation was christened as al-lamas al-
mazdawaj.
The conversation continued peaceably until the council arrived at the word Electro-
magnetism. While discussing whether or not the word Kahraba (electricity) should be Arabized
from the Persian, the neo-classical poet and academic Ali-Jarim proposed combining the term
with Magnetism into one word, turning it into a portmanteau.
‫مؤلفي‬ ‫رأينا‬ ‫"لقد‬
‫أمر‬ ‫في‬ ‫البحث‬ ‫نستوفى‬ ‫ان‬ ‫نريد‬ ‫ونحن‬ .‫ومغنطيس‬ ‫كهربا‬ ‫كلمتى‬ ‫من‬ ‫نحتا‬ )‫(كهراطيس‬ ‫يقولون‬ ‫الطبيعة‬ ‫علم‬ ‫في‬ ‫ن‬
‫أكثر‬ ‫أو‬ ‫كلمتين‬ ‫من‬ ‫النحت‬
."
2
Before a conversation could even begin, fellow council member Sheikh Ahmed Al-
Iskandari stated in no uncertain terms that creating new words in Arabic by combining two
separate words like a portmanteau, known as naht, was a completely unacceptable deviation, and
threatened to withdraw immediately from the Academy if it was accepted as a way of creating
neologisms, saying
‫اللغة‬ ‫أوضاع‬ ‫قلب‬ ‫على‬ ‫أوافق‬ ‫ال‬ ‫"ألني‬
"
3
What had been a dull conversation up to that point about technical terminology in the
field of physics had suddenly become a fight to protect Arabic from an existential threat. What
1
Maḥāḍir al-jalsāt. Vol 2 1935 Majmaʻ al-Lughah al-ʻArabīyah. Cairo, Egypt.
pg. 289-297
2
Ibid pg. 293
3
Ibid pg. 294

2. could cause an intense reaction? What was dangerous enough about portmanteaus that they could
lead to a toppling over of the Arabic language?
The Arabic Language Academy in Cairo had been created in 1932 to resolve the urgent
problems of the language, and to adapt it to the needs of the 20th century4
. One of its primary
tasks was deriving terminology for new concepts in the sciences. The most commonly accepted
method of derivation was performed by extending the meaning from an already existing word
through a process of analogy, known as qiyas. Likewise, a new form could be created from a pre-
existing verbal root. This method had the advantage of preserving Arabic’s rare homogeneity,
“which is the pride of Arab writers and philologists and which they are zealous to protect”5
.
Words from foreign languages could also be arabized, in a process known as ta’rib, to adhere to
indigenous phonological patterns. The third method of derivation, and historically the least
common, was naht.
Naht literally means “to carve, chisel, or sculpt” and refers to the process of creating new
words in Arabic from the combination of two or more existing words. Most often, in the process
of combining terms, each word loses some part of its original letters. Examples of words made
from naht include multiradical (more than three) verbs formed by combining two trilateral verbs:
Harwal - to walk fast - from harab (to flee/escape) + walla (to run away)
or common expressions (usually religious) shortened into an acronym
basmala - from bismillah al-Rahman al-Rahim
or two complimentary nouns or adjectives combined to create a new connotation
julmud - large rock, boulder - from jaluda (hard, strong) and jamada (solidifying)
Another form of derivation related to naht was known as terkib al-mazaji in which no
part of either of the separate words was deleted in the process of combining the two words. This
type of derivation was even less common in historical sources that the traditional use of naht.
Although the etymology given for the preceding examples are largely undisputed, the
original roots for most multiradical verbs could not be objectively deciphered, or indeed said
definitely to have been created through naht at all. Nonetheless, many linguists and Arab
scholars, including the likes of Al-Suyuti and Ibn-Faris (who believed that all quadrilateral verbs
could be explained as the combination of two previous verbs), had attempted to divine the origin
4
Hamzaoui, Rached. L’academie De Langue Arabe Du Caire. Tunis: Publications De
L’Universite De Tunis, 1975. Print. pg. 15
5
Stetkevych, Jaroslav. The Modern Arabic Literary Language; Lexical and Stylistic
Developments. Chicago: U of Chicago, 1970. Print. pg. 7

3. of these words6
. Their findings were largely speculative. Nor was there a consensus on the
precise number of words in Arabic that had been formed by naht.
During the Arab Nahda in the late 19th and early 20th century, many Arab scholars
would turn their attention again to the phenomenon. Naht could potentially offer a simple and
effective method for translating new scientific terminology from European languages, which
were themselves largely neologisms created using an almost identical method of derivation. If
the process were to be sanctioned, it could allow for a great deal of flexibility in coining
neologisms, all the while relying solely on Arabic’s existing lexicon.
However, the overwhelming concern of those scholars interested in naht, both those in
support and those who were against it, had little to do with technical considerations. Early 20th
century discussions on the use of naht were largely ideological: attempts to construct a
representation of the Arabic language which served dominant social interests7
. These scholars
were almost all involved in state education and cultural projects, or worked directly for
governments or authoritative religious institutions. Deciding on whether naht could be used as a
form of derivation was, for them, a question of whether it presented a threat to their status as
experts.
That languages are visualized in such a way as to benefit the interests of language
decision makers who “if they are elite… make policy in order to maintain or extend their
privileges,8
” has become abundantly clear through recent scholarship on language ideology. The
most common way of visualizing language for ideological ends relies on references to social
groups as well as attempts to reinforce social divisions by identifying, creating, and reinforcing
linguistic difference. Normative forms of language practice are decided upon by these elites,
often through a process of recognizing and differentiating one register as privileged using
semiotic processes such as indexicality and erasure (Irvine and Gal, 2000) The status of these
registers are then reinforced as their linguistic features come to index social features (Agha
2003).
What is interesting about the modern debate surrounding the use of naht is that normative
arguments were made without any reference to social groups or the differences between them. In
the discussion over the use of naht in Arabic, mention of those who actually spoke the language
was conspicuously missing. In arguing whether or not naht should be used, the only Arabic
speakers who seem to be consulted are those living at the mythological genesis of Fusha
sometime in the last millennium. In the case of naht, the model for building normative practices
is not based on a particular social class, but on a conception of an abstract and ideal Arabic
6
Baʻlabakkī, Ramzī. The Arabic Lexicographical Tradition: From the 2nd/8th to the 12th/18th
Century. N.p.: n.p., n.d. Print. pg. 238
7
This definition relies on the wording from Owen, David. "Reification, Ideology and Power:
Expression and Agency in Honneth's Theory of Recognition." Journal of Power 3.1 (2010): 97-
109. Web.
8
Cooper, Robert L. Language Planning and Social Change. Cambridge: Cambridge UP, 1989.
Print. pg. 90

4. language, independent and autonomous of contemporary social relations. In a word, this
ideological argument is based on a “reification” of language.
This was a common rhetorical move made both by those who limitedly supported naht,
and those who were completely opposed to its use. They imagined and represented the Arabic
language as not merely a social and historical construction used in communication, but as an
autonomous entity that had anthropomorphic characteristics, a discrete history, and which was
governed by a set of logically consistent rules. What was permissible as a linguistic practice,
then, was dependent on what conformed with the language’s putatively inherent nature.
Arguments as to what this meant exactly varied according to the political perspectives and
strategic objectives of each scholar, but each involved a reified conceptualization of language
that shared the following discursive features.
1) Generalizing characteristics: The tendency to reify language as a discrete subject, to
make it “thing-like”. To refer to it in broad and anthropomorphic terms, as though a
language has characteristics which were consistent and immutable for all time, and which
were then suitable for certain linguistic practices and not others. This is often done
through analogy with other abstractions and reified concepts. This is similar to the
ideology of standard language proposed by Milroy, except that the anthropomorphic
analogy of language as an autonomous subject goes further, suggesting that this reified
language is able to impose (permit) standards of uniformity upon itself9
.
2) Unique History : Speaking as though language is the protagonist in its own historical
narrative, independent of a corresponding social history. Fetishizing the novelty of the
current historic moment, or the uniqueness of past historical ages through a teleological
conception of time.
3) Grammatical Logic: Grammar is not merely a descriptivist account of practices in
language, but is conceived as its logical essence. To speak about what is and is not
permitted in language according to a canonical (reified) grammatical tradition, rather than
what is practiced widely in history and society.
While at the same time paying homage to tradition and precedence, all of these scholars
share the tendency to abstract language from history. For them, Arabic had characteristics that
were universal for all times and places. Indeed, time plays a decisive role in the reification of
language as “speech-acts have always to be placed in a context, because meanings are temporal
and procedural. Not realizing this means reifying meanings.10
” For these scholars interested in
naht, history is not merely a guide or a resource, but the boundary of what is possible and the
9
Milroy, James. "Language Ideologies and the Consequences of Standardization." Journal of
Sociolinguistics 5.4 (2001): 530-55. Web.
10
Demmerling, Christophe. "Language and Reification. Some Remarks on Wittgenstein and
Critical Theory." Wittgenstein Studies 1 (1996): n. pag. Web. 9 Dec. 2014.
<http://sammelpunkt.philo.at:8080/475/1/11-1-96.TXT>.

5. judge of what is right. Through reification, grammar comes to precede and dictate language
practice rather than the other way around.
The advantage of this type of ideological representation for them is that it presents Arabic
as a preternatural structure whose logic could only be understood and built upon by those experts
who know its secrets. This was an act of obscurantism by those who would benefit from having
the sole control over expanding the lexicon of the language. To permit meaning to be created
outside of the logical processes enshrined by this reified concept of language would mean that
understanding these processes wasn’t vital to the development of the language. Because of this, it
was argued even by those supporters of Naht as a form of coining neologisms that it needed to be
controlled by experts, and limited to the realm of scientific and specialized knowledge, lest it
become a pandora’s box, allowing even lowly scientists and teachers to create new terms.
Religious Reification: Sheikh Ahmed Al-Iskandari
In all of the writings about the modern debates on Naht (Hamzaoui 1979, Stetkevych
1970, Rafa’at Hazim, El-Maloudi 1986, EL-Khafeifi 1985), the name most often mentioned as
having been in opposition is that of Ahmed Al-Iskandari (1875-1938). If any one person is
responsible for why naht was not adopted as an official method by the most important language
academy responsible of creating new words, it would be him. As we shall see, his opposition to
naht was largely based on Islamic conceptions of the sacred status of status of the Arabic
language.
Al-Iskandari began his education at a religious school in Alexandria where he memorized
the Qur’an, and then moved to Cairo against the wishes of his father to continue his education at
Al-Azhar11
. His education there would instill in him deeply conservative views, especially those
pertaining to the Arabic language.
“De tous ces collegeus de Dar Al-Ulum, il fut le plus marque’ par sa formation
azharienne. Son purisme frisait la passion car “il aimait la langue arabe, prenait parti pour elle
de telle sorte qu’il accusait de manicheisme celui qui la negligeait.”12
”
While trying to avoid offering his religious background as a reductive explanation for his
views on language, one can not help but notice Al-Iskandari’s penchant for describing language
practice in moralizing terms.
11
This biographical information is mainly taken from an article by Professor Muhammed Ahmed Biraniq in
Al-Risala commemorating his death. See Biraniq, Muhammed A. "Ahmed Al-Iskandari Bey, Bi-
munasibah Murur 'arba'in Yawman 'ala Wifatihi." Al-Risala 8 (1938): 1128-131. Print.
12
Hamzaoui, Rached. L’academie De Langue Arabe Du Caire. Tunis: Publications De
L’Universite De Tunis, 1975. Print. pg. 88

6. ‫وكان‬ .‫وااللحاد‬ ‫بالزندقة‬ ‫أمورها‬ ‫من‬ ‫أمر‬ ‫في‬ ‫يتهاون‬ ‫من‬ ‫يصف‬ ‫جعله‬ ً‫ا‬‫تعصب‬ ‫لها‬ ‫ويتعصب‬ ‫العربية‬ ‫اللغة‬ ‫يحب‬ ‫"كان‬
‫يعتبر‬
‫شنيعة‬ ‫جريمة‬ ,‫العربية‬ ‫اللغة‬ ‫لغزو‬ ,‫األجنبية‬ ‫للغات‬ ‫الباب‬ ‫وفتح‬ ‫التساهل‬
"
13
He would move to Dar Al-Ulum in 1894 where he would complete his studies, and then
returned to teach there in 1908. While working as an instructor at Dar Al-Ulum, Al-Iskandari
would author several books on Arabic literature, and would propose a course on Arabic
philology, the first of its kind at the college. This course included aspects of word derivation,
including naht. He would go on to teach at Cairo University, and then would be asked by the
education minister of Egypt to work as a consultant for designing school curriculums for
elementary and secondary schools, as well as their textbooks.
In these textbooks we can clearly see Al-Iskandari’s views on the Arabic language. These
views centered around a reified concept of Arabic as a language that was both perfectly logical
and unequivocally immutable. Originally published in 1919, Al-Wasit fi-Al-Adab Al-‘Arabi wa-
Tarikhih (The interpreter of Arabic literature and its history) is a textbook covering the history of
Arabic as well as several of its genres of its literature from the pre-Islamic age to the early 20th
century. It was published by Egyptian Ministry of Education and was used in those schools under
its jurisdiction, namely all teacher-training institutes and secondary schools14
. On its very first
page, we are treated to an eloquent reification of the Arabic language as a subject with fixed
characteristics.
‫محاسنة‬ ‫الدهر‬ ‫غير‬ ‫على‬ ‫وأدومها‬ ,ً‫ا‬‫صدر‬ ‫وأرحيها‬ ,ً‫ا‬‫أثر‬ ‫وأخلدها‬ ,ً‫ا‬‫قدم‬ ‫وأعرقها‬ ,ً‫ا‬‫كلم‬ ‫اللغات‬ ‫أغنى‬ ‫من‬ ‫العرب‬ ‫"لغة‬
‫أسلو‬ ‫وأسلسها‬ ,ً‫ا‬‫منطق‬ ‫وأعذبها‬ ,ً‫ا‬‫وصبر‬
‫في‬ ‫يجول‬ ‫أو‬ ,‫الحس‬ ‫تحت‬ ‫يقع‬ ‫ما‬ ‫لكل‬ ‫وأوسعها‬ ,‫مادة‬ ‫وأغزرها‬ ,ً‫ا‬‫تأثير‬ ‫وأروعها‬ ,ً‫ا‬‫ب‬
...‫أجزائها‬ ‫وتناسق‬ ,‫أوضاعها‬ ‫هندمة‬ ‫على‬ ‫وهي‬.‫مرافق‬ ‫وتعيين‬ ,‫خيال‬ ‫وتصوير‬ ,‫قوانين‬ ‫وسن‬ ,‫علوم‬ ‫تحقيق‬ ‫من‬ :‫الخاطر‬
"
15
Arabic seems not only to have taken on human characteristics such as rationality,
patience, and eloquence, but seems to possess them in supernatural quantities. With Arabic as the
privileged language of Islam, it is not surprising that this unreserved praise has the feel of a
hagiography. Through a religious discourse, language is set above social relations and into the
realm of the sacred.
‫زمان‬ ‫لكل‬ ‫مالئمة‬ ,‫جيل‬ ‫كل‬ ‫مع‬ ‫سائرة‬ ‫بعدهم‬ ‫وبقيت‬ ‫بادوا‬ ,‫الصين‬ ‫صنعة‬ ‫وال‬ ,‫اليونان‬ ‫حكمة‬ ‫في‬ ‫يكونوا‬ ‫لم‬ ,‫أميين‬ ‫قوم‬ ‫لغة‬ "
"‫سلطانها‬ ‫واستخذى‬ ‫وأنفت‬ ‫أقرانها‬ ‫ودرج‬ ‫ماخلدت‬ ‫عظيم‬ ‫روح‬ ‫ال‬ ‫لو‬ ,‫ومكان‬
16
13
Biraniq, Muhammed A. "Ahmed Al-Iskandari Bey, Bi-munasibah Murur 'arba'in Yawman 'ala
Wifatihi." Al-Risala 8 (1938): 1128-131. Print. pg. 1129-1130
14
"The Interpreter of Arabic Literature and Its History." Washington: Library of Congress, 2014.
World Digital Library. Web. 7 Dec. 2014. <http://www.wdl.org/en/item/12950/>.
15
Al-Iskandarī, Aḩmad, and Muşţafā 'Inānī. Al-Waşīt Fī Al-adab Al-'Arabī Wa Ta'rīkhihī. Cairo:
Dar Al-Ma'aref, 1979. Print. pg. 11
16
Al-Iskandarī, Aḩmad, and Muşţafā 'Inānī. Al-Waşīt Fī Al-adab Al-'Arabī Wa Ta'rīkhihī. Cairo:
Dar Al-Ma'aref, 1979. Print. pg. 11

7. A language ideology of reification is not the exclusive domain of any one political
viewpoint, and can be produced by both secular and religious discourses. However, it is perhaps
in tandem with religious thinking that we can most easily trace how ideologies visualize
languages in ways that make them into objective things. Not only is the language privileged
above the field of social relations along with other religious practices and symbols by nature of
its proximity to the sacred, but it becomes the medium of the sacred itself.
“In the Islamic tradition, until quite recently, the Qur'an was literally untranslatable (and
therefore untranslated), because Allah's truth was accessible only through the unsubstitutable
true signs of written Arabic….in effect, ontological reality is apprehensible only through a
single, privileged system of representation”17
While for other intellectuals in the early 20th century for whom a reification of language
came as an unintended effect of their discourse, religious conceptions often took as literal the
idea of language as something altogether different in substance. Not only does Arabic possess a
unique function as the means by which Islam was revealed, but the very structure of language
can be studied as a way for understanding truth.
“We find that, from a very early stage in Islamic intellectual history, Islamic mystics and
thinkers have explored assiduously the nature, structure, and meaning of the cosmos by means of
pondering the nexus of language, text, creation, and order.”18
This is the importance of grammar, and why Al-Iskandari was so intent to adhere to it.
Grammar describes the divine logic that underlies a sacred language. It is not only the message
that is important, but the means of communication that bear a relationship with divine truth.
As a leading member of the Academy, Al-Iskandari is said to have held a commanding
presence, and to have used his position in order to staunchly defend Arabic from any intrusions
or manipulations from what he perceived as its ideal state. He was in support of using classical
Arabic exclusively in all fields. At Dar Al-Ulum, he had been instrumental in stopping the use of
ta’rib, and would later work diligently in the Cairo Academy to stop its use there except in the
most urgent of circumstances. He was in good company along with other religious voices on the
council of the Cairo Language Academy.
So when the topic was raised as to whether naht could be used by Ali Al-Jarim in March
of 1935, Al-Iskandari was quick to pounce on the suggestion and to try to shut it down.19
After
17
Anderson, Benedict R. O'G. Imagined Communities: Reflections on the Origin and Spread of
Nationalism. London: Verso, 1991. Print. pg. 15
18
Siviri, Sara. "KUN – the Existence-Bestowing Word in Islamic Mysticism."The Poetics of
Grammar and the Metaphysics of Sound and Sign. Leiden: Brill, 2007. N. pag. Print. pg. 43
19
With Al-Iskandari in the role of the dour theologian, and Ali Al-Jarim as the eccentric poet
(whom the members of the academy “preferred to leave... to his muse, with whom he

8. Al-Jarim’s proposal was met with the threat by Al-Iskandari to withdraw from the academy,
Sheikh Hussein Wali attempted to calm the situation. A few members then gave their own
opinions on the matter. Abd Al-Qadir Al-Maghribi came out in support of Naht, remarking on its
historical precedence and seeing its value for conveying lengthy terms. Hussein Wali joined in,
stating that the Arabs had in fact permitted naht, that it was one of the normal features of the
language, and that it could be used in cases similar to those uses of naht found historically.
Father Anistas Al-Karmali brought up the fact that if the first Arabs had been in favor of
naht then they would have given it a set rule, but that there was none to be found. It is at this
point that Al-Iskandari gave his full reasoning for not allowing the practice.
‫اللغة‬ ‫أما‬.‫واألرية‬ ‫كالصينية‬ ‫الكلمات‬ ‫أخر‬ ‫الزيادة‬ ‫لغات‬ ‫مميزات‬ ‫من‬ ‫هو‬ ‫إنما‬ ,‫العربية‬ ‫اللغة‬ ‫مميزات‬ ‫من‬ ‫ليس‬ ‫النحت‬ ‫أن‬ ‫"عندي‬
‫االشتقاق‬ ‫فميزتها‬ ‫العربية‬
"
20
Al-Iskandari argues that the use of naht is simply not part of the Arabic language. Arabic
is a fixed language with only one appropriate method for creating neologisms - analogical
derivation. It is not a question of what is done by current Arabic speakers, or what they could
potentially find useful. The focus is on the essence of Arabic, and what complies with what are
its distinguishing features (‫)مميزة‬.
‫حاص‬ ‫هو‬ ‫كما‬ ‫رمزا‬ ‫الحرف‬ ‫هذا‬ ‫ويجعلون‬ ‫رسم‬ ‫كل‬ ‫من‬ ‫حفرا‬ ‫عدة‬ ‫كلمات‬ ‫من‬ ‫المركب‬ ‫من‬ ‫يأخذون‬ ‫فقط‬ ‫علماءنا‬ ‫رأينا‬ ‫وقد‬ "
‫في‬ ‫ل‬
‫كل‬ ‫جعل‬ ‫التي‬ )‫(سألمونيها‬ ‫كلمة‬ ‫مثل‬ ‫في‬ ‫نرى‬ ‫وكما‬ ,‫األشخاص‬ ‫أعالم‬ ‫في‬ ‫ذلك‬ ‫يكون‬ ‫ما‬ ‫وأكثر‬ )‫(الشاطية‬ ‫في‬ ‫ونراه‬ ,‫التجويد‬ ‫علم‬
‫معان‬ ‫على‬ ‫للداللة‬ ‫ال‬,‫واإلشارة‬ ‫للرمز‬ ‫المعروف‬ ‫فالنحت‬ )‫(سأل‬ ‫معنى‬ ‫على‬ ‫تدل‬ ‫ال‬ ‫لكلمة‬ ً‫ا‬‫رمز‬ ‫منها‬ ‫حرف‬
"
21
The cases of naht having been used in the past were merely symbols or images to be used
in recitation. It is sanctioned for use in writing as an abbreviation for expressions, but it cannot
itself take the place of a single word, which alone can represent meaning. This leads us to
another interesting example of how the structure of grammar carefully negotiates the relationship
between language and religious truth. In his work on ar-Rāġib Al-Iṣfahānī and conceptions of
ambiguity in medievel language traditions, Alexander Key helps us to understand the importance
of using single words as signs for representing ideas. In the classic tradition, when cases of
semantic ambiguity arose in a text, scholarship going as far back as Sibawayh had been
developed to show how this ambiguity could be worked out by reducing it to the binary
relationship between the sign and the signified.22
exchanged, on the tramways of Cairo, curious words accompanied by parabolic
gestures.” (Hamzaoui 85)), the record of their confrontation sounds like a caricature of itself.
20
Maḥāḍir al-jalsā t. pg. 295
21
Ibid
22
“Sībawayh, changed the face of Arabic intellectual history with a series of grammatical theories that
made systematic and heavy use of the pairing of expression and idea... It was an analytical division of
language into two spheres that would continue to function throughout the next millenium of Arabic-

9. “The Arabic and Classical Language Traditions may have disagreed about ambiguity, but
they tended to share the assumption that expression and idea constituted the primary conceptual
vocabulary for the interaction of language, mind, and reality.23
”
Many in the classical tradition may have debated the ways in which meaning and signs
interacted, but almost all of them took as the basic assumption of their argument the
irreducibility of the individual expression (word). Could the creation of new words through the
combination of two individual expressions present an affront to this tradition? Although none of
these explanations were given by Al-Iskandari, this intellectual tradition must certainly had an
influence on his thinking.
‫يسمى‬ ‫اشتقاقا‬ ‫هناك‬ ‫أن‬ ‫أعرف‬ ‫وأنا‬ .‫عليها‬ ‫نجرى‬ ‫قواعد‬ ‫لنا‬ ‫ونحن‬ .‫لعبا‬ ‫ليس‬ ‫اللغات‬ ‫ألن‬ ,‫النحت‬ ‫ونجيز‬ ‫نتساهل‬ ‫أن‬ ‫يجوز‬ ‫ال‬ ‫و‬ "
‫إ‬ ‫االشتقاق‬ ‫وهذا‬ ,‫فنحتوهما‬ )‫و(رج‬ )‫(دح‬ ‫من‬ ‫مركبة‬ ‫مثال‬ ‫فدحرج‬ .‫قياسي‬ ‫غير‬ ‫وهو‬ )‫األكبر‬ ‫(االشتقاق‬
,‫الكلمات‬ ‫نشأة‬ ‫عند‬ ‫كان‬ ‫نما‬
‫أيس‬ ‫وأن‬ )‫و(أيس‬ )‫(ال‬ ‫أصلها‬ ‫أن‬ ‫عرفت‬ )‫(ليس‬ ‫قلت‬ ‫فاذا‬ ,‫اللغة‬ ‫في‬ ‫أثرية‬ ‫تعتبر‬ ‫الحالة‬ ‫هذه‬ ‫فمثل‬ ,‫السنين‬ ‫ماليين‬ ‫الى‬ ‫يرجع‬ ‫أي‬
‫قواعد‬ ‫للغة‬ ‫وضع‬ ‫بعد‬ ,‫األن‬ ‫عليه‬ ‫أجري‬ ‫أن‬ ‫يجوز‬ ‫أنه‬ ‫ال‬ ,‫اللغة‬ ‫نشأة‬ ‫عند‬ ‫كان‬ ‫هذا‬ ‫أن‬ ‫أي‬ )‫شيء‬ ‫(ال‬ ‫أصلها‬ ‫لشا‬ ‫وكذلك‬ .‫أميتت‬
‫وطرق‬
".‫السنين‬ ‫مئات‬ ‫منذ‬ ‫عليها‬ ‫جرينا‬
24
Beyond being a reflection of divine truth, grammar is also part of the language’s
intellectual heritage. Here again is the central role of history in removing language practices
from the historical social forms that created them. With the passing of time, social practices turn
into orthodox traditions. Those standards and practices which have been canonized cannot be
flippantly disregarded as though they were a game.
The conversation about the permissibility of naht would continue briefly after this, with
the council eventually agreeing to keep the topic open for further discussion in the future25
.
Before moving on, however, Mansur fahmi warned the council that not deciding on the issue of
naht one way or the other would be very dangerous. Naht was bound to be adopted by scientists,
teachers, or inspectors, all of whom would have an influence over their students. The danger
would be in losing control over the process of creating words using naht. If a method was not
decided upon by the Academy, it would quickly lose its ability to control the process, and it
would be open to anyone, including those who would quickly influence their students.
An Organicist Analogy of Reification: Ismail Mazhar
language scholarship” Key, Alexander. "A Linguistic Frame of Mind: Ar-Ragib Al-Isfahani
and what it Meant to be Ambiguous." Order No. 3514471 Harvard University, 2012. Ann
Arbor: ProQuest. Web. 16 Nov. 2014. 205-7
23
Key, Alexander. pg. 16
24
Maḥāḍir al-jalsā t pg. 295
25
a decision not taken on the method until as late as 1969.

10. Ismail Mazhar is probably best known as being the first translator of Darwin.26
Born in
1891, Mazhar attended state schools, of which he would later complain bitterly, before
continuing his education through courses at Al-Azhar. He then continued learning
autodidactically, reading widely from Western texts, and exploring several different trends in the
sciences. This is perhaps what would give him his strict scientific outlook, which would cause an
uproar in the intellectual circles of Egypt in the 1920’s27
.
Translating Darwin provided a catalyst for thinking about the Arabic language, and for
working to develop and expand its scientific vocabulary. Two of the largest challenges presented
by the writings of Darwin were its dependence on references to animals unfamiliar to an Arab
audience (and certainly their lexicon), and for the names of biological and chemical elements
found at the microscopic level. Mazhar would work on and off for a period of almost ten years
before publishing a systematic translation of the Origin of Species in 1928. During this process,
he would develop several ideas about ways to reform Arabic, which would be compiled in his
book Renewal of Arabic, published in 1948. One of the most important of these ways was
opening the language up to new ways for creating neologisms. This would require Mazhar to
confront those who would idolize the principles of grammar, and resist any changes.
"‫القداسة‬ ‫من‬ ‫حالة‬ ‫البستها‬ ‫قد‬ ‫اللغويين‬ ‫من‬ ‫خلفها‬ ‫التي‬ ‫اللغوية‬ ‫القواعد‬ ‫إن‬ ‫يقولون‬ ‫الباحثين‬ ‫من‬ ‫"فئة‬
28
Mazhar considered there to be two schools of opinion with regards to Arabic grammar:
those who believed in the language rules set up in the past as standards that can not be disobeyed
or surpassed, and those who believed that changes should be made in order to make Arabic
suitable for the modern age. The original Arabs, upon whose traditions the original canon of
grammar rests, would themselves not have agreed to these type of restrictions, and were
themselves completely free in their use of the language. As the language has changed over time,
so to should the rules that describe it.
"‫النماء‬ ‫عليها‬ ‫امتنع‬ ‫إذا‬ ,‫األحياء‬ ‫جميع‬ ‫تموت‬ ‫كما‬ ‫يموت‬ ‫حى‬ ‫اللغة‬ ‫وأن‬ ,‫يتولد‬ ‫ثم‬ ‫ينمو‬ ‫ثم‬ ‫يولد‬ ,‫حى‬ ‫جسم‬ ‫بمثابة‬ ‫اللغة‬ ‫"أن‬
29
This view of language reflects an organicist conception of language, in which language
develops over time according to those same laws of evolution that Mazhar was working to
explain to an Arab audience30
. In order for this organism to continue to live, it requires the
sustenance of new elements. Pointing to other periods of history, Mazhar stresses the importance
of translation movements for bringing new energy into the language, and like others, points to
26
Elshakry, Marwa. Reading Darwin in Arabic. Chicago: U of Chicago, 2013. Print.
27
Saleh, Ahmed A. "Thinking Ahead." Al-Ahram. N.p., 4 Oct. 2001. Web.
<http%3A%2F%2Fweekly.ahram.org.eg%2F2001%2F554%2Fcu1.htm>.
28
Mazhar, Ismail. Tajdid Al-Arabiya. Cairo: Maktaba Al-Nahda Al-Masriyya, 1967. Print. pg. 4
29
Ibid pg. 7
30
Elshakry, Marwa. Reading Darwin in Arabic. Chicago: U of Chicago, 2013. Print. pg. 273

11. the Golden Age of Abbasid translation projects. Incorporating a new scientific discourse into
Arabic would represent an evolutionary advantage in the modern age.
At the same time, Mazhar is careful to distinguish between the need for a scientific
discourse, a new system for creating new words for foreign animals and plants, and Arabic’s
overall ability to express subtlety of meaning. Mazhar insists Arabic is absolutely capable in this
regard. Mazhar’s reified representation of Arabic as a living organism may reference the latest
scientific theories, and Mazhar may have been critical of a religious fetishization of the Arabic
language, but he was still careful to show his reverence for tradition.
Having laid out this reified concept of language as a living organism, Mazhar sets out the
task of objectively sorting through the various opinions surrounding an updated Arabic grammar,
and whether such a grammar would permit each of the various methods for creating neologisms:
ta’rib, naht, and qiyas.
As for naht, Mazhar begins by giving a historical background of those grammarians who
wrote on it before the modern age. He gives a few anecdotal examples from the works of Ibn
Faris and Al-Suyuti. He then speaks about the current debate surrounding its use, and asks
several questions as to how the rules for creating new words could be organized. He addresses
two questions. The first is whether or not this particular historical moment calls for using naht:
whether there is still a need for naht like that which produced those known words created by naht
in the past, or whether the time has passed. He addresses those who disagree with the use of naht
and refers to comments made by Ahmed Iskandari directly, saying
‫مضى‬ ‫قد‬ ‫زمانه‬ ‫فان‬ .‫الدائية‬ ‫الحال‬ ‫تلك‬ ‫مثل‬ ‫في‬ ‫جاز‬ ‫إذا‬ ‫النحت‬ ‫أن‬ :‫فقال‬ ,‫الموضوع‬ ‫هذا‬ ‫في‬ ‫مناقشة‬ ‫أثر‬ ‫األسكندري‬ ‫أحمد‬ ‫"الشيخ‬
‫أقول‬ ‫فأني‬ ‫التعليل‬ ‫لهذا‬ ‫احترامي‬ ‫مع‬ ‫وإني‬...‫نحت‬ ‫لغة‬ ‫ال‬ ‫اشتقاق‬ ‫لغة‬ ‫بقواعدها‬ ‫وأصبحت‬ ‫العربية‬ ‫اللغة‬ ‫تكيفت‬ ‫أن‬ ‫بعد‬ ,‫قفل‬ ‫وبابه‬
‫اللغة‬ ‫حاجة‬ ‫إن‬
‫في‬ ‫تزال‬ ‫ما‬ ‫فإنها‬ ,‫األلفاظ‬ ‫من‬ ‫عدتها‬ ‫استكملت‬ ‫قد‬ ‫الكريمة‬ ‫اللغة‬ ‫هذه‬ ‫كانت‬ ‫فإذا‬ .‫قائمة‬ ‫تزال‬ ‫ما‬ ‫للنحت‬ ‫العربية‬
.‫والنبات‬ ‫الحيوان‬ ‫طبقات‬ ‫مختلف‬ ‫على‬ ‫تدل‬ ‫التي‬ ‫األسماء‬ ‫إلى‬ ‫قصوى‬ ‫حاجة‬
"
31
This is another example of the use of history as a way to differentiate between correct and
incorrect practices in language. It is not merely the attempt to trace a history of linguistic
features. It is an argument based on the idea that historical precedence determines whether a
linguistic feature can and should be used. According to Mazhar, the current circumstances permit
the use of new methods for word creation, which at the same time will not upset the original
integrity of the language. The methods he is proposing are meant to be a novel but congruous
addition.
The second question Mazhar addresses is the way in which European languages have
created words for plants and animals: namely with compound words (terkib al-mazaji). There are
those who say this method conflicts with the historical practice of naht wherein a few letters are
erased in the process of combining terms. However, the advantage of compound words is that
31
Mazhar, Ismail. pg. 17

12. one can easily discern their etymology, and there is no need to guess as to which letter have been
deleted.
Mazhar gives a few examples of words formed with naht that did not delete any letters,
but admits that on the whole this is not the historical method of naht known in the Arabic
language. For a long list of words formed with naht he gives, the original words are hard to
guess.
‫صفح‬ ‫في‬ ‫هي‬ ‫كثرتها‬ ‫على‬ ‫الكلمات‬ ‫"هذه‬
‫هذه‬ ‫أصل‬ ‫نعلل‬ ‫أن‬ ‫لنا‬ ‫اللغوية؟‬ ‫أصولها‬ ‫ما‬ ‫ولكن‬ .‫العرب‬ ‫لسان‬ ‫من‬ ‫معدودات‬ ‫ات‬
‫الكلمات‬
"
32
Mazhar then looks through a long list of examples of words formed by naht in order to
find a set of grammatical rules governing their formation. He looks both at quadrilateral and
quintilateral roots who are suspected of having been formed through naht, as well as trilateral
verbs that could have been made through a process of combination. In combing through different
resources, he finds no shortage of examples.
‫ب‬ ‫أثبت‬ ‫وقد‬ "
‫جرد‬ ‫من‬ ‫والعجرد‬ ;‫وخرد‬ ‫صمد‬ ‫من‬ ‫والصمخدد‬ ;‫وختر‬ ‫ختع‬ ‫من‬ ‫منحوت‬ ‫خيتعور‬ ‫لفظ‬ ‫أن‬ ‫إدحاضه‬ ‫إلى‬ ‫سبيل‬ ‫ال‬ ‫ما‬
.‫المنحوتة‬ ‫االلفاظ‬ ‫من‬ ‫يحصى‬ ‫ما‬ ‫على‬ ‫اللغة‬ ‫مظان‬ ‫في‬ ‫نعثر‬ ‫ان‬ ‫نستطيع‬ ‫وقد‬...‫وعرد‬
"
33
However, the task is not only to find the historical precedence of words created by naht
in Arabic history. There must also have been a set of identifiable rules and principles that were
used to create them. Without rules, a feature is unusable. Despite a rigorous classification of
examples of words formed by naht, Mazhar is not able to isolate a specific set of rules. Like an
evolutionary biologist, Mazhar has conducted extensive field research looking at a specific
phenomenon in order to find the secret mechanism of its genesis. However, unlike Darwin, he is
not able to discover this hidden process. What then, can be done in order to enable the use of
naht in word formation?
“
‫في‬ ‫بها‬ ‫نستهدى‬ ‫قواعد‬ ‫أو‬ ‫قاعدة‬ ‫وضع‬ ‫يمكن‬ ‫وهل‬ ‫قاعدة؟‬ ‫غير‬ ‫على‬ ‫المنحوتة‬ ‫الكلمات‬ ‫أصول‬ ‫عن‬ ‫البحث‬ ‫في‬ ‫نجرى‬ ‫فهل‬
?‫الكلمات‬ ‫هذه‬ ‫أصول‬ ‫عن‬ ‫االسترشاد‬
"
34
Mazhar admits that he has not been able to find a set of rules for using naht, and hopes
that others will follow in his footsteps as naht can still serve as a valuable method for word
formation. In the meantime, Mazhar suggests that scientists benefit from this unorthodox method
( ‫ا‬
‫السماعية‬ ‫بالصيغ‬ ‫ستعنا‬ ) strictly in the field of creating scientific names for animals and plants, in the
same way that European languages have benefitted by creating terms from Latin and Greek.
32
Ibid pg. 19
33
Ibid pg. 24
34
Ibid pg. 47

13. ‫أنه‬ ‫قيل‬ ‫التى‬ ‫األسماء‬ ‫صيغ‬ ‫جميع‬ ‫على‬ ‫نكب‬ ‫أن‬ ‫هو‬ ‫المعقول‬ ‫"والسبيل‬
‫قياسها‬ ‫نجيز‬ ‫ثم‬ ,‫كامل‬ ً‫ا‬‫حصر‬ ‫ونحصرها‬ ‫قياسية‬ ‫غير‬ ‫ا‬
‫في‬ ‫الكالم‬ ‫عند‬ ‫قبل‬ ‫شرحناها‬ ‫التى‬ ‫القياسية‬ ‫غير‬ ‫الزيادة‬ ‫طريقة‬ ‫نستغل‬ ‫وأن‬ ,‫والنبات‬ ‫الحيوان‬ ‫أسماء‬ ‫وضع‬ ‫في‬ ‫عليها‬ ‫والصوغ‬
‫المسمى‬ ‫في‬ ‫الصفة‬ ‫لحظ‬ ‫شرط‬ ‫سنراعى‬ ‫دمنا‬ ‫ما‬ ‫العرب‬ ‫عليها‬ ‫جرى‬ ‫التى‬ ‫القاعدة‬ ‫على‬ ‫نخرج‬ ‫ال‬ ‫بذلك‬ ‫فأننا‬ ,‫النحت‬
‫عمل‬ ‫ما‬ ‫على‬
‫أسالفنا‬
"
35
Mazhar concedes to keeping this practice within the bounds of the field of biology, but
admits that it is his hope that it becomes more widely spread in the future.
‫ماقيل‬ ‫وهي‬ ‫األسماء‬ ‫صيغ‬ ‫فإن‬ .‫األدراك‬ ‫أتم‬ ‫ندركها‬ ‫أن‬ ‫يلزمنا‬ ‫حقيقة‬ ‫هناك‬
.‫أقتياسية‬ ‫نجعلها‬ ‫أن‬ ‫ونريد‬ ‫سماعية‬ ‫إنها‬
36
For all of his positivist fervor, Mazhar is unwilling to rebel against those conservative
forces which regard the language and its grammar as sacrosanct. Without being able to gain
permission to use naht by the linguistic traditions of Arabic, Mazhar is unable to offer more than
a partial solution. He is discouraged by these limits, but respects them, and and leaves the task of
creating words in other fields to others who feel emboldened to subject language to the spirit of
scientific discovery, rather than the other way around. If those methods used in the past can be
revived, it will make Arabic able to compete with any other language in the realm of science, and
will ensure its continued development.
In reading Ismail Mazhar’s discussions on scientific terminology and modern Arabic, we
see how important a role was played by his own reified conception of language. Mazhar
portrayed Arabic as a living entity, which was complex and competent, but at the same time
required new sustenance in order to ensure its survival. Again, this was not an understanding of
linguistic practices which indexed social groups. It was an attempt to engage with the author’s
own conceptual construction, which visualized Arabic as an autonomous organism.
Mazhar also worked to understand naht by cataloguing its use in the past. But this was
not to learn the historical circumstances involved as a way to understand the specific mechanics
of word formation. It was rather to legitimize its use based on historical precedence, and to lend
material to his own historicizing account of the history of the language. This account was based
on an evolutionary analogy in which language was a being which developed over time.
And while criticizing a moribund conception of grammar used by conservatives, Mazhar
still operated according to the idea that Arabic had a particular constitutive logic, identified as its
grammar, which needed to be discovered in order for innovations to be made in accordance with
the inherent structure of the language.
‫قاعدته‬ ‫على‬ ‫ال‬ ‫قمته‬ ‫على‬ ‫يرتكز‬ ‫فنجعله‬ ,‫األكبر‬ ‫مصر‬ ‫هرم‬ ‫نقلب‬ ‫أن‬ ‫نحاول‬ ‫أو‬ ,‫الموروث‬ ‫الوضع‬ ‫هذا‬ ‫نقلب‬ ‫أن‬ ‫لنا‬ ‫"فليس‬
."
37
Although Ismael Mazhar supported the use of naht as a creative way to develop new
words for the Arabic language, his use of a reified conception of the language made sure that it
35
Ibid pg. 62
36
Ibid pg. 62-3
37
Mazhar pg. 63

14. would be limited to a certain technical field, and that only a select group would be able to engage
with it.
The Volksgeist and Language Reification: Sati’ Al-Husri
Of those recommending the use of naht in the early 20th century, Sati’ al-Husri was its
boldest advocate. Al-Husri was a 20th century intellectual interested in theories of nationalism,
who spent a great deal of his professional life involved in educational policy. In his writings on
the Arabic language and nationalism, collected in Al-Lughah wa-l-adab wa 'alaqatiha bil-
qawmiya (Language and Literature and its Relationship to Nationalism), the Arabic language is
held up as the social force that could bring a sense of unity and pride to the Arab people.
‫العربية‬ ‫الدولة‬ ‫تفكك‬ ‫عصور‬ ‫أسوأ‬ ‫في‬ ‫حتى‬..."‫دة‬ ِ‫والموح‬ ‫دة‬َ‫ح‬‫"المو‬ ‫صفته‬ ‫على‬ ‫حافظ‬ ‫العربي‬ ‫األدب‬ ‫"أن‬
"
38
Sati’ Al-Husri’s ideas on language, and on the use of naht in particular, were a direct
result of his broader discourse of the nation and the spirit of nationalism. For Al-Husri, the nation
was a living entity that existed independently of its members. Nationalism could not be produced
by the efforts of people, but was an independent emotional phenomenon that arose from a sense
of shared language and history39
. This was the conclusion drawn by Al-Husri after having
working to discredit those attempts to define the nation on erroneous or unsubstantiable
categories such as religion or race. For the latter, he held special contempt.
“We are able to say categorically that unity of origin and blood with regard to nations is
only an imaginary idea which has taken possession of men’s minds without being supported by
evidence or proof.40
”
Language, then, was the best cultural construct upon which to build a theory of
nationalism, as it alone could produce “a community of feeling and thought”41
. This
conceptualization of the Arabic language would in turn require the use of a language ideology of
reification, which would make it both consistent in its form and autonomous from society, and
therefore able to act upon it. This involved not only presenting Arabic as unified throughout a
38
Al-Husri, Sati' Al-Lughah wa-Al-adab wa 'alaqatiha Bil-qawmiya. Beirut: Dar Al-tali'ah, 1966.
Print. pg. 24
39
Charif, Maher, Rihanat Al-nahda fi'l-fikr Al-'arabi, Damascus, Dar Al-Mada, 2000 pg. 204
40
Al-Husri, Sati’ Muhadarit ft nushu' al-fikrah al-qawmiyah. 3rd. ed. Beirut: Dir al-'Im li-al-Malayin, 1956. p.
110 translations from article by Kenny, L. M..
41
Ibid pg. 26

15. vast geography (the Zagros Mountains to the Atlantic Ocean) as well as historically consistent,
but it gave to language itself the decisive historical role in the formation of human societies.42
In his discussions on the Arabic language, we can see many interesting conceptual
parallels with Al-Husri’s theories on nationalism. In the distinction he makes between the
fatherland (watan) as both territorially and administratively bound, and the nation (Ummah) as
the emotional ideal for political unity43
, we can see similarities with the distinction Al-Husri
makes between the Arabic language and its grammar. The language itself is a living tradition that
resonates in the spiritual consciousness of people, while its grammar has largely become ossified
by those conservative forces which have tried to limit and control it.
‫عام‬ ‫بوجه‬ "‫"اللغة‬ ‫فان‬ "
-
‫المدونة‬ "‫العربية‬ ‫اللغة‬ ‫"قواعد‬ ‫أن‬ ‫حين‬ ‫في‬ ,‫بتطورها‬ ‫وتتطور‬ ,‫االجتماعية‬ ‫الحياة‬ ‫تأثير‬ ‫تحت‬ ‫تتكون‬
‫الت‬ ‫النظريات‬ ‫بتبدل‬ ‫وتتبدل‬ ,‫العلماء‬ ‫بها‬ ‫تقوم‬ ‫التي‬ ‫االبحاث‬ ‫من‬ ‫تتولد‬
‫هؤالء‬ ‫يضعها‬ ‫ي‬
"…
44
There is a strong indictment of the form of language reification performed by
grammarians. Husri states that Grammarians have done a lot of harm to Arabic by having had
too much of a focus on minutiae rather than the important elements for producing meaning.
‫من‬ ‫أكثر‬ ‫باالعراب‬ ‫االهتمام‬ ‫نزعة‬ ‫هي‬ .‫أساسية‬ ‫نزعة‬ ‫تأثير‬ ‫في‬ ‫فتتخلص‬ ,‫والشوائب‬ ‫النقائص‬ ‫لهذه‬ ‫المولدة‬ ‫االساليب‬ ‫"وأما‬
.‫المفهومة‬ ‫المعنى‬ ‫الى‬ ‫االستناد‬ ‫من‬ ‫أكثر‬ ‫المحسوسة‬ ‫العالمات‬ ‫على‬ ‫واالعتماد‬ ,‫المعنى‬ ‫الى‬ ‫االلتفات‬
"
45
These grammarians have regard as holy writ a system that had only ever been meant to
serve as a descriptivist guide. The over dependence on the dictates of the grammatical tradition
of Arabic acted as a barrier to the further development of language. In this way, grammar has
gone from a practical description of the social form of communication, to becoming a “thing-
like” entity separate from and ruling over society.
However, Al-Husri himself works from his own reified concept of grammar which, while
attempting to think critically of Arabic as a living tradition, still does not avoid working with the
same conceptual strategies we have already mentioned. For Al-Husri, grammar is not the
guardian of eloquent Arabic, but that which prevents it from its full potential.
‫قواعد‬ ‫أن‬ ‫المعلوم‬ ‫"من‬
‫اللهجة‬ ‫عن‬ ‫وبعيدة‬ .‫الصعوبة‬ ‫أشد‬ ‫وصعبة‬ ,‫التعقيد‬ ‫كل‬ ‫معقدة‬ ,‫الحاضرة‬ ‫حالتها‬ ‫في‬ ‫الفصحى‬
‫واالساليب؟‬ ‫القواعد‬ ‫تلك‬ ‫بجميع‬ ‫نتمسك‬ ‫أن‬ ‫الضروري‬ ‫من‬ ‫هل‬ :‫نتساءل‬ ‫أن‬ ‫بنا‬ ‫فيجدر‬ .ً‫ا‬‫كبير‬ ً‫ا‬‫بعيد‬ ‫الدارجة‬
"
46
Even after having criticized a reified view of Grammar, Al-Husri himself thinks of
Grammatical structures in generalizing terms. This stultified grammar acts as a barrier between
42
Kenny, L. M. "Sāṭi' Al-Ḥuṣrī's Views on Arab Nationalism." Middle East Journal 17.3 (1963):
231-56. JSTOR. Web. 06 Dec. 2014. pg. 238
43
Ibid
44
Al-Husri, Sati. pg. 81
45
Ibid 82
46
Al-Husri 42

16. the eloquent form of the language, and the vernacular versions used by normal speakers. Arabic
was a living tradition, and in order for Arabs to benefit from it, it required a shrinking of
diglossic distance. The task for scholars was to think critically and scientifically about the
grammar in place for Arabic, and to offer changes and improvements. And one of the ways to do
this was using naht for specific circumstances where using qiyas or ta’rib would be impractical.
In fact, Al-Husri goes one step further and suggests that the system of analogic derivation is
insufficient for the challenge posed by the modern age.
‫ال‬ ‫وحده‬ ‫االشتقاق‬ ‫ان‬ ‫في‬ ‫شك‬ ‫ال‬ ‫هذا‬ ‫"ومع‬
‫مقصور‬ ‫عمله‬ ‫ألن‬ ,‫البشري‬ ‫التفكير‬ ‫اليها‬ ‫تحتاج‬ ‫التي‬ ‫الكلمات‬ ‫لتوليد‬ ‫يكفي‬
‫العقلية‬ ‫المعاني‬ ‫جميع‬ ‫تستوعب‬ ‫أن‬ ‫تستطيع‬ ‫ال‬ ‫وولودة‬ ‫كثيرة‬ ‫كانت‬ ‫مهما‬ ‫والقواليب‬ ‫األوزان‬ ‫وهذه‬ ‫معينة‬ ‫وقوليب‬ ‫أوزان‬ ‫على‬
."
47
This itself is a reified form of thinking which conceptualizes linguistic practices as
having an innate capability to grasp meaning, or to create new words. Al-Husri believed that
other methods for creating neologisms have proved to be insufficient and that the use of naht was
required at this critical moment in time because of the amount of new scientific knowledge being
discovered. The current historical moment is unique in the history of Arabic, and it necessitates
what may have previously been seen as an incompatible method for creating new words.
‫ف‬ ‫المهمة‬ ‫المصطحات‬ ‫بعض‬ ‫"ولد‬
‫حاجتنا‬ ‫فيه‬ ‫اشتدت‬ ‫دور‬ ‫الى‬ ‫وصلنا‬ ‫بأننا‬ ‫نعتقد‬ ‫ونحن‬ .‫االولى‬ ‫الفكرية‬ ‫النهضة‬ ‫دور‬ ‫ي‬
‫المصطلحات‬ ‫من‬ ‫كبير‬ ‫بعدد‬ ‫عينا‬ ‫وتجود‬ .‫النشاط‬ ‫الى‬ ‫ستعود‬ ‫اللغية‬ ‫االفعولة‬ ‫هذه‬ ‫ان‬ ‫ونظن‬ ,ً‫ا‬‫كبير‬ ً‫ا‬‫اشتداد‬ ‫النحت‬ ‫من‬ ‫االستفادة‬ ‫الى‬
‫الفكرية‬ ‫نخضتنا‬ ‫في‬ ‫اليها‬ ‫نحتاج‬ ‫التى‬
"
48
What’s more, naht may even be in the spirit of the first Arabs, those with the most direct
connection with the authentic essence of the language. Quoting Mahmoud Shukri al-Alusi, he
says
‫وتأليف‬ ً‫ا‬‫نسق‬ ‫وأكملها‬ ‫وأتمها‬ ,‫وأساليب‬ ‫صيغة‬ ‫اللغات‬ ‫أحسن‬ ‫العربية‬ ‫"اللغة‬
‫ولو‬ .‫الضرورة‬ ‫اقتضاء‬ ‫عند‬ ‫النحت‬ ‫استعمال‬ ‫تسويغ‬ ‫مع‬ .ً‫ا‬
‫ذلك‬ ‫على‬ ‫لوضعوا‬ ‫االفرنج‬ ‫اخترعه‬ ‫مما‬ ‫ذلك‬ ‫ونحو‬ ‫والغاز‬ ‫التلغرف‬ ‫واسالك‬ ‫الحديد‬ ‫وسكك‬ ‫البواخر‬ ‫شاهدوا‬ ‫االولين‬ ‫العرب‬ ‫ان‬
.‫ناصة‬ ‫خاصة‬ ‫أسماء‬
"
49
This is an origin myth for an ideological view of the Arabic language interested in
defining it as innovative and open to expansion. In this narrative, Arabic was once a productive
and virile force that, like Arab nationalism, has been distorted and forgotten by time. In its
original state, Arabic was as progressive as it was eloquent. Over time, however, those foreign
powers who have ruled over the Arabs have weakened them and put obstacles in the way of their
unity. Those who impede the Arabic language from progress and development are the same who
aim to keep Arabs divided and subservient to foreign powers.
47
Al-Husri 126
48
Ibid 127
49
Ibid 131

17. It is for this reason that Al-Husri was eager to see naht used beyond the realm of the life
sciences, and the technical terminology for animal and plant species. Al-Husri believed that Naht
could be used for a wide range of scientific contexts. In the chapter of of Language and
Literature, al-Husri gives many examples of naht from both past and present, and then proceeds
to offer several of his own suggestions for words that can be created using this method. This
includes using naht to create prefixes which resemble European models50
. He experiments with
several prefixes that could be used, such as la (non-, un-) , gab (pre-) and qab (post-).
‫الـ‬ ‫مقابل‬ ‫نستعملها‬ ‫أن‬ ‫الممكن‬ ‫فمن‬ ,‫أخر‬ ‫شيء‬ "‫"بعد‬ ‫شيء‬ ‫حدوث‬ ‫على‬ ‫تدل‬ ً‫ال‬‫مث‬ )‫(غب‬ ‫"فلفظة‬
post
‫كأن‬ .‫االفرنجية‬
‫غبمدرسي‬ :ً‫ال‬‫مث‬ ‫نقول‬
postscolaire
…
( ‫غبجليدي‬ ‫نقول‬ ‫أن‬ ‫يمكننا‬ ‫وكذلك‬
postglacaire
‫غببلوغ‬ )
"
51
postpubere
Al-Husri even reveals his own casual thought process for forming these new words.
‫تقابل‬ ‫كلمة‬ ‫في‬ ‫أيام‬ ‫بضعة‬ ‫قبل‬ ‫أفكر‬ ‫كنت‬ ‫لقد‬
pedocentrique
‫كلمة‬ ‫استعمال‬ ‫ببالي‬ ‫فخطر‬ ‫دروسي‬ ‫في‬ ‫ألستعمال‬
‫طفل‬ ‫(من‬ "‫كزي‬ ‫"طفر‬
-
‫كبيرة‬ ‫مشاكل‬ ‫من‬ ‫يخلصنا‬ ‫المنوال‬ ‫هذا‬ ‫على‬ ‫النحت‬ ‫أن‬ ‫وأعتقد‬ ."‫خزية‬ ‫"طبر‬ ‫وزن‬ ‫على‬ )‫مركزي‬
"‫كزية‬ ‫"بشر‬ ً‫ال‬‫مث‬ ‫نقول‬ ‫ان‬ ‫يمكننا‬ ‫القبيل‬ ‫هذا‬ ‫فمن‬...‫لغاتنا‬ ‫ويغني‬
Antropocentrisme
‫(بشر‬ ‫من‬
-
"‫"انركزية‬ ‫و‬ )‫مركزي‬
egocentrisme
‫أنا‬ ‫(من‬
-
.)‫مركزي‬
This seems to be a very liberal view of the use of Naht. It also seems to avoid the
rhetorical tactic of reifying Arabic as a unalterable entity. However, he still uses the historical
framework for understanding and justifying the use of naht. Just as the Arab ancestors found it
necessary to use ‫البسملة‬ and ‫الحوقلة‬ in their social world, so can modern Arabs coin expressions
such as space-time (‫الزمن‬ ‫و‬ ‫الحيز‬ ‫(من‬ ‫حيزمن‬ and day-dream ( ‫حلقظة‬
-
‫ويقظة‬ ‫حلم‬ ‫من‬ ) in theirs.
Al-Husri disagrees with those who believe that the use of Naht comes without any limits.
‫التناسق‬ ‫مراعاة‬ ‫يصعب‬ ‫فال‬ ,‫الحال‬ ‫بطبيعة‬ ‫محدودة‬ ‫االصطالحات‬ ‫وهذه‬ ,‫العلمية‬ ‫االصطلحات‬ ‫ألجل‬ ‫النحت‬ ‫استعمال‬ ‫نقترح‬ ‫أننا‬
.‫تكوينها‬ ‫في‬
52
Naht will still be limited to the realm of the sciences, and intellectual thought, and will
remain the exclusive tool for scholars and academics. It will not fall into the hands of the general
public. What’s more, the real threat to the integrity of the Arabic language is not the liberal use
of naht, but in the encroachment by foreign languages which will surely come if Arabs do not
meet the challenge posed by new knowledge and sciences with an indigenous approach to word
formation.
Conclusion
50
Al-Husri has devoted an entire chapter to the Latin language and making a comparison
between Arabic and is quick to make comparisons.
51
Ibid pg. 139
52
Ibid pg. 142

18. Of all of the aspects pertaining to the phenomenon of language ideology, is it strangely
enough those unconscious (or intentionally obfuscated) motivations which lie at the root of its
political practices which are the easiest to identify and understand. It can practically be assumed
that all political and bureaucratic projects dealing with language are concerned in the last
instance with projecting and consolidating power. Each of the scholars we have examined openly
admitted that their concepts of the Arabic language, regardless of how they may have differed
individually, were united in opposition to what they perceived would be the state of affairs if
words could be created by anyone, without their supervision.
The task is then to understand what lies at the surface of language ideologies: the
mechanics of their rhetoric, and the dimensions of their representations. The question is that of
exactly how manipulating a social understanding of the nature of language works in the service
of cultural hegemony. Using terms such as hegemony, reification, and ideology comes with an
enormous intellectual tradition that has the potential to open numerous paths for thinking about
language and politics53
. However, as productive as it may be, and as much as it is against the
very spirit of this tradition to isolate social phenomenon, in this paper I have tried to limit my
discussion to how an ideological discourse about linguistic features can be made without
indexing social groups.
In the case of using naht for creating neologisms, visualizing language as independent
from any particular sociolinguistic or historical field was used as a rhetorical strategy by scholars
rather than employing semiotic processes of language differentiation. In working through how a
reified conception of language could be used for ideological ends, it was assumed from the outset
that the end goal behind such a representation was the maintenance or extension of elite
privilege. What has not been explained is why this form was chosen over those other ideological
strategies which index social groups.
Again, time plays a decisive role in the reification of language. In looking for novel
approaches for creating neologisms, these scholars were compelled to look to history rather than
outside their own social group for answers. Looking outside of classical Arabic to other classes,
dialects, or languages in order to find new methods for coining neologisms, or to admit that the
creation of new words was within the ability of any normal speaker of language, would threaten
the privilege of the historical form of the language which these scholars sought to protect for the
sake of ensuring their own legitimacy. Therefore, they were forced to find solutions within their
own tradition. But this grammatical legacy had, since its own beginning, worked against change
or development.
“This is not accidental, nor is it entirely due to the thoroughness and acumen of the Arab
philologists. It is due to the prominent place which the study of the works of these philologists
held in the education of those who wrote Arabic, combined with the constant reading of those
53
A good starting point could be Alex Honneth’s work on how a state of reification arises from an
amnesia of how knowledge is first acquired through relational stances. see Honneth, Alex. "Reification:
A Recognition-Theoretical View." The Tanner Lectures on Human Value. University of
California, Berkeley. 14-16 Mar. 2005.

19. very texts upon which the philologists had based their analysis: the Koran and the ancient poetry.
At least since the end of the Umayyad period, Classical Arabic was not a spoken language, and
like all purely literary idioms, naturally conservative, but the place occupied in its acquisition by
systematic grammar is, as far as I know, unique among languages.54
”
Trying to work with social constructs whose past is shrouded in mystery necessarily
entails a misunderstandings, or complete ignorance of the specific historical circumstances in
which they were formed. Among living languages, Arabic certainly offers one of the oldest and
most complicated histories, one that is all too easily susceptible to misreadings.
“Since, however, the langue remains the same throughout, and does not allow any such
deviations to become part of itself, a true diachronic treatment of Arabic grammar appears to be
an impossibility.55
”
As we have mentioned, without a context for speech-acts, we can not truly understand
their specific meaning. To submit to an ancient system of grammar without understanding what
it attempted to explain is to fetishize it. To work with a language tradition without understanding
its history is to reify it.
Although these scholars attempted to trace the use of naht through history, they had little
more than fragments to work with. Like their attempts to divine the etymology of multiradical
verbs from combinations of trilateral verbs - or the theory that trilateral verbs themselves were
created by combining even more fundamental elements, morphological artefacts from some even
older, primordial form of the language - the search for the historical origin and laws of those
words formed words through naht by these scholars rested mainly on conjecture. To speak of a
social construct, in this case language, without any idea as to how it came to be, entails a
reification. As much as it would have pained Al-Iskandari to admit, deciding on what an ancient
system of grammar does or does not permit for modern use consists of little more than guessing
games.
54
Ibid.
55
Rabin, C. "The Beginnings of Classical Arabic." Studia Islamica No. 4 (1955): 19-37. JSTOR.
Web. 10 Dec. 2014.

20. Bibliography
Agha, Asif. "The Social Life of Cultural Value." Language & Communication23.3-4
(2003): 231-73. Web.
Anderson, Benedict R. O'G. Imagined Communities: Reflections on the Origin and Spread
of Nationalism. London: Verso, 1991.
Baʻlabakkī, Ramzī. The Arabic Lexicographical Tradition: From the 2nd/8th to the
12th/18th Century. N.p.: n.p., n.d. Print.
Biraniq, Muhammed A. "Ahmed Al-Iskandari Bey, Bi-munasibah Murur 'arba'in Yawman
'ala Wifatihi." Al-Risala 8 (1938): 1128-131. Print.
Charif, Maher, Rihanat al-nahda fi'l-fikr al-'arabi, Damascus, Dar al-Mada, 2000
Cooper, Robert L. Language Planning and Social Change. Cambridge: Cambridge UP,
1989. Print.
Demmerling, Christophe. "Language and Reification. Some Remarks on Wittgenstein and
Critical Theory." Wittgenstein Studies 1 (1996): n. pag. Web. 9 Dec. 2014.
<http://sammelpunkt.philo.at:8080/475/1/11-1-96.TXT>.
El-Khafaifi, Hussein M. The Role of the Cairo Academy in Coining Arabic Scientific
Terminology: An Historical and Linguistic Evaluation. Diss. The U of Utah, 1985. N.p.:
n.p., n.d. University Microfilms International. Web. 16 Nov. 2014.
El-Mouloudi, A. (1986). Arabic Language Planning: the Case of Lexical Modernization.
(Order No. 8622323, Georgetown University). ProQuest Dissertations and Theses, , 341-
341 p. Retrieved from
http://ezproxy.lib.utexas.edu/login?url=http://search.proquest.com/docview/303464101?acc
ountid=7118. (303464101).
Elshakry, Marwa. Reading Darwin in Arabic. Chicago: U of Chicago, 2013. Print.
Hamzaoui, Rached. L’academie De Langue Arabe Du Caire. Tunis: Publications De
L’Universite De Tunis, 1975. Print.

21. Hazim, Rifa'at. "An-Naht Fi-l-Arabiya Qadiman Wa Hadithan." University of Ta'iz (n.d.): n.
pag. Print.
Honneth, Alex. "Reification: A Recognition-Theoretical View." The Tanner Lectures on
Human Value. University of California, Berkeley. 14-16 Mar. 2005.
Al-Husri, Sati’ Muhadarit ft nushu' al-fikrah al-qawmiyah. 3rd. ed. Beirut: Dir al-'Im li-al-
Malayin, 1956
Al-Husri, Sati' Al-Lughah wa-al-adab wa 'alaqatiha Bil-qawmiya. Beirut: Dar Al-tali'ah,
1966. Print.
Irvine, Judith, and Susan Gal. "Language Ideology and Language Differentiation." Regimes
of Language. Santa Fe: School of American Research, 2000. 35-83. Print.
Al-Iskandarī, Aḩmad, and Mustafā 'Inānī. Al-Wasīt Fī Al-adab Al-'Arabī Wa Ta'rīkhihī.
Cairo: Dar Al-Ma'aref, 1979. Print.
Al-Jarim, Ali. Jarmiyat bahuth wa maqalat ash-shaa’ir wa al-adib al-lughawi. Beirut: dar
al-sharouq, 1992.
Kenny, L. M. "Sāṭi' Al-Ḥuṣrī's Views on Arab Nationalism." Middle East Journal 17.3
(1963): 231-56. JSTOR. Web. 06 Dec. 2014.
Key, Alexander. "A Linguistic Frame of Mind: Ar-Ragib Al-Isfahani and what it Meant to
be Ambiguous." Order No. 3514471 Harvard University, 2012. Ann Arbor: ProQuest. Web.
16 Nov. 2014.
Maḥāḍir al-jalsāt. Vol 2 1935 Majmaʻ al-Lughah al-ʻArabīyah. Cairo, Egypt.
pg. 289-297
Milroy, James. "Language Ideologies and the Consequences of Standardization." Journal of
Sociolinguistics 5.4 (2001): 530-55. Web.
Owen, David. "Reification, Ideology and Power: Expression and Agency in Honneth's
Theory of Recognition." Journal of Power 3.1 (2010): 97-109. Web.

22. Rabin, C. "The Beginnings of Classical Arabic." Studia Islamica No. 4 (1955): 19-37.
JSTOR. Web. 10 Dec. 2014.
Saleh, Ahmed A. "Thinking Ahead." Al-Ahram. N.p., 4 Oct. 2001. Web.
<http%3A%2F%2Fweekly.ahram.org.eg%2F2001%2F554%2Fcu1.htm>.
Siviri, Sara. "KUN – the Existence-Bestowing Word in Islamic Mysticism."The Poetics of
Grammar and the Metaphysics of Sound and Sign. Leiden: Brill, 2007. N. pag. Print.
Stetkevych, Jaroslav. The Modern Arabic Literary Language; Lexical and Stylistic
Developments. Chicago: U of Chicago, 1970. Print.
Woolard, Kathryn A., and Bambi B. Schieffelin. "Language Ideology."Annual Review of
Anthropology 23.1 (1994): 55-82. Web.