Old Hijazi

1- Lack of nunation and final short vowels except in construct.

E.g.

هذا كتاب جديد (This is a new book)

Classical Arabic pronunciation: hādhā kitābun jadīd

The word kitāb (book) is the subject of the sentence so it took a final ‘u’ short vowel: kitābu. The word is also indefinite so it also took nunation: kitābun.

The word jadīd (new) should also take a final “un” but since that the word is in a pausal position (last word in the sentence) it remains in its original form without any suffix.

In Old Hijazi, the word kitāb remains in its original form: hādhā kitāb jadīd.

The only case where final short vowels are retained in Old Hijazi is in construct, for example:

هذا كتاب محمد (This is Muhammad’s book)

Old Hijazi and Classical Arabic pronunciation: hādhā kitābu Muḥammad.

since that the word kitāb (book) is the subject of the sentence, it takes the ‘u’ final short vowel. The two words “kitābu Muḥammad” are in construct (book of Muhammad). The possessed noun retains the final short vowel in Old Hijazi.

Note: Old Hijazi retains case inflection in the following situations where case is expressed with long vowels: The five nouns, the Dual and Sound masculine plural. (Putten Quranic Arabic, p.282)

2- The feminine ending is always “ah” and it only turns to “at” in construct or when a pronoun gets attached to it. E.g. :

المدرسة جديدة (the school is new)

Classical Arabic: al-madrasatu jadīdah.

Old Hijazi:           al-madrasah jadīdah

Example for construct:

هذه مدرسة الحي (This is the neighborhood’s school)

Classical Arabic and: hādhihī madrasatu l-ḥay

Old Hijazi: hādhih madrasatu l-ḥay

3- The indefinite accusative marker is always the ‘ā’ long vowel. E.g. :

اشتريت كتابا جديدا (I bought a new a book).

Classical Arabic: ishtaraytu kitāban jadīdā.

Old Hijazi: ishtarayt kitābā jadīdā.

4- The third person masculine singular pronoun is always a mere ‘-h’ with no vowel attached to it. E.g.

كتابه جديد (His book is new).

Classical Arabic: Kitābuhū jadīd.

Old Hijazi: Kitābuh jadīd.

In plural, the ‘-h’ pronoun only takes the “-hum” form as opposed to classical Arabic which also allows another form: “-him”. The same goes for the dual: Old Hijazi only has “-humā” while Classical Arabic has “-humā” and “-himā”.

E.g.

عليهم

Classical Arabic: ʕalayhim

Old Hijazi: ʕalayhum

5- Lack of Hamzah (glottal stop) except when it’s a word-final Hamzah preceded by the long vowel ā.

Classical Arabic: رأس raʾs

Old Hijazi: راس rās

Classical Arabic: ذئب dhiʾb

Old Hijazi: ذيب dhīb

6- The Alef Maqsūrah ى is pronounced as ē. E.g. :

هدى

Classical Arabic: hudā

Old Hijazi: hudē

8- The ض  letter is pronounced in a sound very similar to ظ  (ḍh) as apposed to the modern pronunciation ḍ (emphatic d).

In order to understand how the language of the QCT differs from the later classical Arabic it is now read in, it's important to understand the i'arab.

The i'arab system in Arabic is a set of grammatical endings attached to words to convey aspects such as case, mood, and voice in a sentence. This system has its origin in classical Arabic as formulated by the classical Arabic grammarians after the 8th century, and it continues to be used, with very little change, in Modern Standard Arabic (MSA), known in Arabic as fusha, the lingua franca of the Arab world and the language of books and official media such as government proclamations and news media.

In Classical Arabic and MSA, nouns (asma') can be marked for three grammatical cases: nominative (marfu'), accusative (mansub), and genitive (majrur). The markings consist of either a short vowel, a short vowel and an “n” sound, or (occasionally) a long vowel. Nouns can also be in the state of definiteness or indefiniteness, which each take different endings. The system of i'arab specifies the vowel endings for nouns in these different states (Fischer, 86).

It should be noted that Classical Arabic had a sentence structure of VSO: verb, subject, object, with some variation for emphasis and other reasons. MSA has moved (along with the Arabic dialects) to use more of an SVO (Subject-Verb-Object) system, although VSO is still more common in literature (kamal hasan, 7). In Classical Arabic and sometimes in MSA the case system was essential to understanding the meaning of some sentences; as MSA has changed to mirror the dialects, though, the importance of the system for understanding has diminished. Arabic has become a more “analytical” language relying on the positions of words in sentences to convey meaning, whereas classical Arabic was a more “synthetic” language that used the i’arab system to convey this information.

Here is a basic outline of i'arab for singular nouns:

1. Nominative case (marfu'): the noun takes a short -u for definite and -un for indefinite nouns. This case is typically used for the subject of a sentence.

2. Accusative case (mansub): the noun takes a short -a for definite and -un for indefinite nouns. This case is often used for the direct object of a sentence.

3. Genitive case (majrur): the noun takes a short -i for definite and -in for indefinite nouns. This case is commonly used for objects of prepositions and to express ownership or relation of one noun to another (Karing Ryding, 183-184).

These are the basic form for regular, singular nouns, there are other variations on these three cases for other types and classes of noun.

As for verbs (afa'al), they can take different endings based on tense, mood, and voice.

Present tense (al-mudari') verbs can have different endings based on the mood:

1. Indicative mood (marfu'): The verb ends in -u. This is used when the verb is in an independent clause.

2. Subjunctive mood (mansub): The verb ends in -a. This is used after certain particles or in clauses beginning with “that” id est “I wish that I was a swimmer” or “I wish that he goes” (in Arabic, it is normal to say “I want that he goes” or “I wish that he goes” rather than “I want him to go” or “I wish him to go” with an infinitive, as infinitive verbs strictly speaking do not exist; the closest equivalent to the infinitive is the verbal noun (“going” “being” etc), but most forms of Arabic prefer the subjunctive to the verbal noun).

3. Jussive mood (majzum): The verb ends in a sukun, indicating a full stop/lack of vowel. This is used in certain negative commands or after certain particles (Karin Ryding, 445).

The endings for nouns are thus u, a, and i, and for verbs they are u, a, and sukun (full stop, silent, no vowel). As with the nouns, modern Arabic dialects have completely lost these endings, and MSA may be spoken with or without them and be understood. They were, however, essential for understanding classical Arabic. All of the classical Islamic reading traditions feature full use of the I’arab system, for nouns and verbs. Despite the presence of the diacritical markings on every word indicating the presence of these short vowels, these endings are not pronounced at the end of a line of Quranic recitation. If the i’arab were to be pronounced at the end of all lines, the Qur’an would cease to rhyme; meanwhile, if the Qur’an is read without the i’arab, hundreds of new rhymes emerge.

The Qur’anic consonantal text (QCT) is the original consonantal skeleton of the text of the Qur’an. It is derived from two sources, the vast Uthmanic corpus of copies of the Qur’an created after the Uthmanic recension and the Sana’a palimpsest that provides us our only glimpse as a manuscript tradition which differs markedly from the Uthmanic tradition. Both the Uthmanic corpus and Sana’a palimpsest derive from an underlying text of the Qur’an and the two traditions do not differ greatly in their transmission of this underlying text. The QCT was written without many (but not without all) of the diacritical marks and dots which now typify Arabic texts, including inter alia short vowel marks, hamzahs, (many) consonant dot, and differs significantly from modern Arabic texts in the markings of some long vowels, particularly at the end of words.

The QCT shows a number of differences from both the later interpretation of it in the Islamic tradition and later medieval norms around writing Arabic.

Final Yaa’

In later Arabic, some words such as رأى and فتى are spelled with the letter “y”, “yaa’”, but pronounced with a long “a” sound. This letter, the so-called Alif Maqsurah, is not always represented as such in the QCT. In some cases, the sound is written out as a regular alif ا and in other cases it is written as would be later expected, with a yaa’ ى. The difference between these spellings is likely meaningful. The instances in which the yaa’ is spelled out likely had an original long e sound, whereas those written with an alif likely represented a pronounced long a. These sounds were later merged into a single long “a” realization. (Marijn van Putten Dissimilation of ē to ā in the Qurʾānic Consonantal Text).

The Hamzah

In most cases where later forms of Arabic and interpretations of the QCT would have a hamzah (the letter ء, in later Arabic used to represent the glottal stop) the Qur’an does not spell word with a hamzah in any position. The orthography of the QCT seems to indicate a total lack of the glottal stop in all cases save one:

1. Post consonantal mid-word hamzahs are just not written: يسأل “he asks” is spelled يسل with no hamzah, أفئدة “benefits” is written افده.

2 The sequence u/a ‘ u with a long u is written with a single waw و:

رؤوس “heads” is written روس

رؤوف “compassionate” is written روف

3. Final long a followed by a hamzah is written without the hamzah, so أبناء “sons” is written ابنا .

Unlike with the other hamzahs, where rhyme seems to indicate the glottal stop was not pronounced, the rhyms involving these words seem to indicate the hamzah may have been pronounced in this position, though it was never written

Ta Marboutah

In later Arabic, the final a sound indicating a feminine noun, the ta marboutah, is written as haa’ ه with two dots over it, the so-called ta marboutah: ة . The QCT never has these two dots. When it does appear, the pronunciation was not with a t followed by the I’rab ending, but rather a consonantal, breathy haa’ that would have rhymed with the third person attached pronoun -hu.

Nunation Lost

The QCT never writes out the tanwiin, the addition of a nun to the I’arab ending of a noun, with one exception, where the expression k’ayyin min “oh how many of” is written كأين من . Otherwise the 3rd person masculine accusative an is written just as a long a ا or else the tanwin is not written at all. All other forms of grammatical nunation, the addition of a nun to a word to mark a grammatical structure, have also been lost in the orthography of the QCT. The loss of nunation is such that in the majzum or jussive for the word kaana “to be” is written without final nunnation in several spots: 1sg. ak اك (Q19:20) 3sg.m yak ىك (Q8:53; Q9:74; Q16:120, Q19:67; Q40̈:28, 85; Q75:37) 3sg.f. tak تك (Q4:40; Q11:17, 109; Q16:127; Q19:9; Q31:16; Q40:50) 1pl. nak نك (Q74:43, 44) This also extends to the “energetic” verbal ending -an: Q96:15 (later Arabic: )la-nasfa’an لنفسعا ‘We will surely drag’Q12:32 Q12:32 (later Arabic: ) la-yakunan لىكونا ‘he will surely be’

A glottal stop naturally occurs in every language when the first word to be uttered begins with a vowel. The glottal stop in Arabic is called “Hamzah” and it has the symbol: ء . This symbol wasn’t invented yet at the time of Muhammad. The Hamzah can occur at the beginning, middle or end of a word.

Since that short vowels aren’t represented in Arabic writing, early Arabic texts written in non-Arabic scripts provide important pronunciation details as these scripts are free from Arabic spelling rules and do show short vowels.

These texts are mainly official documents belonging to the Umayyad caliphate which was founded by Muʕāwiyah, a companion of Muhammad. Although the Greek texts in these documents contain short Arabic phrases (mainly names and titles), they reveal that the documented dialect has the following features:

1-The loss of final short vowels and nunation.^[1]

E.g.:The name banī saʕd بني سعد is written without the final short vowel ‘i’ and without nunation (tanwīn):

Β(ανι) Σααδ β(εν) Μαλεχ / B(ani) saad b(en) malek / بني سعد بن مالك Classical Arabic pronunciation: Banī saʕdin ibni mālik

You can view the papyri here.

2- Final short vowels are retained In construct.

E.g.

Ομμου Ιωσεw / ommu yūsef/ أم يوسف ^[2]

But if the possessive noun begins with the definite article, the final short vowel of the possessed noun is replaced with the vowel of the ‘al’ article. E.g.: αβδαλλα/abdalla / عبد الله (Classical Arabic: Abdullah).

3- The feminine ending “ah” changes to “at” only in construct^[3]. Which proves the lack of final short vowels in non-construct.

Example for feminine “at” in construct:

The (female) servant of God أمة الله

αμαθαλλα : amatalla^[4]

4- Case inflection with long vowels is retained.

The word “father” in the nominative appears as abū while in the genitive appears as abī^[5].

E.g.^[6]

Αβου Σαειδ /abū saʕīd/ أبو سعيد

Οβαιδαλλα β(ιν) Αβιλαας / ʕobaydallāh b(in) ʾabī l-ʕās ̣/ عبيد الله بن أبي العاص

5-  The alef maqsūrah ى is pronounced as ē instead of the Classical Arabic pronunciation ā.

E.g. ^[7]

Μαυλε /mawlē/مولى

ιαειε /yaḥyē/ يحيى

ιαλε /yaʕlē/يعلى

An example of these Umayyad Greek-Arabic texts:

A Greek Inscription from Jordan Dated 42 AH / 662-63 CE

This inscription includes the Arabic pronunciation of the title and name of Muʕāwiyah, the first Umayyad caliph.

“In the days of the servant of God Muʕāwiya, the commander of the faithful, the hot baths of the people there were saved and rebuilt…”

In this inscription, not a single Arabic word recieved a final short vowel:

“The servant of God Muʕāwiya the commander of the faithful”

The Greek transcription:                ABDALLA MAAUIA AMIRAALMUMENEN

Classical Arabic pronunciation: ʕabdullāhi muʕāwiyatu amīru l-muʾminin

عبدُ اللهِ معاويةُ أميرُ المؤمنين

In classical Arabic, the first 4 words receive the following final short vowels:

“ʕabd” receives ‘u’. “Allah” receives ‘i’. Muʕāwiyah receives ‘u’ which turns the ‘ah’ to ‘at’: muʕāwiyatu. “amīr” receives ‘u’.

You can view the inscription here.

Another Umayyad Greek-Arabic text:

A Bilingual Umayyad Document From The Year 54 AH / 674 CE

This is an Umayyad Note to the people of the city of Neṣṣana demanding that they pay their due of the Jizyah (Tax on non-Muslims). It’s written both in Arabic and Greek. The Greek portion includes the following Arabic names that lacked any case inflection:

Alaaret b(en) Abd الحارث بن عبد

Classical Arabic: Al-ḥārithi bni ʕabd (The name in the document is in the genitive case, hence taking the ‘i’ final short vowel)

Adie B(en) Kaled عدي بن خالد

Classical Arabic: Adeyyi bni khālid (The name in the document is in the genitive case)

بني سعد بن مالك

B(ani) saad b(en) malek

Classical Arabic: Banī saʕdin ibni mālik

You can view the document here.

This document, dated to the third Islamic century, was discovered in the Umayyad Mosque in Damascus in 1900. It includes a translation of a portion of “The Book of Psalms” of the bible (Psalm 77). This Arabic translation is written with Greek letters. The translation is literal with strict adherence to the syntax and wording of the original language*, which caused parts of it to sound awkward and hard to understand.

The dialect of the Psalm Fragment has the following features:

1- The loss of final short vowels and nunation^[8].

E.g.

yuheyyī māy(i)deh li-šiʕb-hu(hi)^[9]

ὑεϳει μάϳδεὑ λιχχειγβὑϳ

يهيِّي (يهيء) مايدة (مائدة) لشعبه

Classical Arabic:

yuhayyiʾu māʾidatan li-šaʕbih

2- In construct, final short vowels are retained in some cases and lost in others^[10].

Example for the loss^[11]:

حول خيامْهُم

ḥawl ḫiyēm-hum

χαυλ χηέμὑμ

Example for retention^[12]:

بأوثانِهُم

bi-ʔaṯwāni-hum

βη αυθάνϳὑμ

3- The Alef maqṣūrah is pronounced as [ā] in backed and labial environments, but as [ē] otherwise^[13].

E.g.

أعطى  aʕṭā

αγτα

أتى  atē

Ατε

4- The “L” of the definite article doesn’t assimilate to the following coronal consonant^[14].

E.g.^[15]

οελναρ

wel-nār

والنار

Note: In the Greek transcriptions from the first Islamic century, the L is assimilated:

Αβδεραμαν^[16]

ʕabdərahṃān

5- The pronominal suffix of the 3^rd person masculine plural takes only the “hum” form. While classical Arabic has both “hum” and “him”.

In the following example^[17], the final pronoun should take the “him” form in accordance with classical Arabic rules. The psalm fragment instead uses the “hum” form.

بأوثانِهُم

bi-ʔaṯwāni-hum

βη αυθάνϳὑμ

6- The indefinite accusative is marked with ā instead of classical Arabic “an”.

This is attested twice in the word γεδδα [ǧeddā]^[18] which means “very”.

7- The Feminine Ending is “eh” instead of “ah” which matches modern Levantine Arabic^[19]

οελευδιεὑ [wel-ʾʔewdiyeh] والأودية^[20]

χαϳμετ σεϳλουμ [ḫaymet seylūm] خيمة سيلوم ^[21]

8- ā is realized as [ē] unless there is an inhibiting factor, that is, an emphatic or a labial^[22].

Examples:

Ζηεδ [ziyēd], Μελεχ [mēlek], Αβδελεση [ʕabdelʕēṣī]

The text of the Damascus Psalm Fragment

fa-sēlet mayyah wel-ʔewdiyeh fāḍat leʕal wa-ḫubz yeqdir yuʕtī

ʔeu yuheyyī māy(i)deh li-šiʕb-hu(hi) [sic] [*li-siʕbi-h(?)]

فسىلت (فسالت) مَيَّه والأودية فاضت لعل وخبز يقدر يعطي أو يهيِّي (يهيء) مايدة (مائدة) لشعبه.

li-dhālik semiʕ el-rab fa-ʔamtenaʕ wel-nār ʔeshteʕalet fī yaʕqūb wa ruǧz ṣaʕ(ad)

ʕalā ʔisrāel

لذلكْ سمع الرب فأَمتَنَع والنار اشتعلت في يعقوب ورُجُز صعد على إسراييل

li-ʔen(nahum) (la)m yūmi(nū) billāh wa-lā (tawa)kkelū ʕalā khalāṣ-h

لأنهم لم يومنوا بالله ولا توكلوا على خلاصه

wa ʔamar el-siḥēb min fawq wa ʔabwāb el-se…samā fateḥ

وأَمَر السحىب (السحاب) من فوق وأبواب السما فتح

wa ʔamṭar lehum m(ann)a liyā(kul)ū (wa) (ḫub)z min el-(semā) ʔaʕṭā-hum

وأمطر لهم منَّا لياكلوا و خبز من السما أعطاهم

(ḫub)z el-melēyke (ʔak)el ʔinsēn (ša)ba(ʕ) baʕaṯ la-hum ley(i)temellew

خبز الملايكة أكل إنسان شبع بعث لهم ليتمَلَّوْا.

ʔahāǧ el-teym(an) min el-semā wa ʔatē bi-quwwet-uh el-ʕāṣif

أهاج التيْمَن* من السما وأتى بقوته العاصف

* Al-Jallad Notes: The name of the south wind in Classical Arabic is al-ǧanūb. The use of Teym[an] here might be an Aramaicism, tayman “south.” An identical term is used in the Hebrew Bible, têmān. (p.83)

wa ʔamṭar ʕaley-hum mithl el-turāb luḥūm wa mithl raml el-buḥūr ṭiyūr

mujneḥah

وأمطر عليهم مثل التراب لحوم ومثل رمل البحور طيور مِجْنِحَة

fa-waqaʕat fī wasaṭ ʕasker-hum ḥawl ḫiyēm-hum

فوقعت في وسط عسكرهم حول خيامهم

fa-ʔakelūwa šebiʕū ǧeddā wa šehwet-hum ǧēb la-hum

فأكلوا وشبعوا جدا وشهوتهم جاب لهم

(la)m yuʕdemū (š)ehwet-hum wa ʕindmā kēn el-ṭaʕām fī fāh-hum

لم يُعدموا شهوتهم وعندما كان الطعام في فاهم

wa ʔabtelew wa marmarū el-ʔilēh el-ʕālī wa šehād(ā)t-uh lam yeḥfaḏ̣ū

وابتلوا ومرموا الإله العالي وشهاداتُه لم يحفظوا

fa ʔanqalebū wa ġadarū miṯl ābāy(i)-hum ʔanqalebū miṯl el-qaws el-ʕawǧē

فأَنقلبوا وغدروا مثل آبايهُم أَنقلبوا مثل القوس العوجى

wa (ʔa)sḫaṭū-h bi-ʔawθāni-hum wa bi-menḥūtēti-hum ʔaġārū-h

وأسخطوه بأوثانهم وبمنحوتاتهم أغاروه.

semiʕ allāh wa teġāfel (wa) ʔafsel ǧed(dā)—li-isra(il)

سمع الله وتغافل وأفسل جدا لإسراييل

wa ʔaqṣā ḫaymet seylūm el-mesken elleðī ʔesken fil-bašer

وأقصا خيمة سيلوم المسكن الذي أسكن في البشر

wa ʔas(l)e(m) lilseb(ī) (q)oe(t-hum)

وأسلم للسبي قوتهم.

A collection of papyri from Egypt includes Arabic texts written with Hebrew characters. These papyri predate 900 AD^[23].

Although the Hebrew script is defective and doesn’t write short vowels and many long ‘a’ vowels, these Judaeo-Arabic texts are still valuable as they don’t abide by Arabic orthography rules. E.g. A word pronounced as “kalbun”(with final short vowel and nunation) is written in Arabic as “klb” without the suffix in accordance with Arabic orthography rules. But when this word is written in Judaeo-Arabic as “klb”( instead of “klbn”) then this means it’s pronounced without the suffix because these texts are phonetic and don’t abide by Arabic orthography rules^[24].

In the following example^[25] from the Judaeo-Arabic Papyri, the word عافية ʕāfiyah is written as ʕfyh which means the word lacked nunation otherwise it would have been written as ʕfytn (ʕāfiyatin).

The same example also shows the word محمود  maḥmūd is written as mḥmwd which means the word lacked nunation otherwise it would have been written as mḥmwdn (maḥmūdun).

ונחן פי עפיה ואלה מחמוד עלא דלך

ونحن في عافية والله محمود على ذلك

(We are in good health thanks to Allah)

Litteral transcription: wnḥn fy ʕfyh walh mḥmwd ʕlā dlk

Pronunciation: wanaḥn fī ʕāfiyah wallāh maḥmūd ʕalā dhālik

Classical Arabic: wanaḥnu fī ʕāfiyatin wallāhu maḥmūdun ʕalā dhālik

Besides the loss of final short vowels and nunations, other features of these texts include:

1- Frequent loss of Hamzah^[26]:

Blau and Hopkins, Judaeo-Arabic Papyri, 1987, p.

https://www.academia.edu/38210910/Joshua_Blau_and_Simon_Hopkins_Judaeo-Arabic_Papyri_Collected_Edited_Translated_and_Analysed_Jerusalem_Studies_in_Arabic_and_Islam_vol._9_1987_87-160

אלרדיה (The cloaks الأردية )

Litteral transcription: alrdyh

Pronunciation: alardiyah

Classical Arabic: alʾardiyah

Note: The Hebrew letter א can be used to express the long vowel ā or a glottal stop. If the word for “the cloaks” was pronounced with a glottal stop, it would have been written with two א :  אלארדיה

תכוד (تأخذ  you take)

Litteral transcription: tkwd

Pronunciation: tākhudh

Classical Arabic: taʾkhudh

Note: If the word was pronounced with a glottal stop, it would have been written as: תאכוד

2- The indefinite accusative is marked with ‘ā’ instead of classical Arabic “an”^[27].

וידא

(and also) (وأيضا)

Litteral transcription: wydā

Pronunciation: wēḍā

Classical Arabic: waʾayḍan

וגדא

(and tomorrow) (وغدا)

Litteral transcription: wgdā

Pronunciation: waghadā

Classical Arabic: waghadan

3- The pronominal suffix of the 3^rd person masculine is ‘h’ with no vowel after it as opposed to classical Arabic forms: hū/hī, hu/hi^[28].

After consonants the pronoun is spelled as wh, to be pronounced uh or oh. And after vowels the pronoun is spelled h.

ולדוה

His son ولده

Litteral transcription: wldwh

Pronunciation: waladuh

Classical Arabic: waladuhū

מין אכיה

From his brother من أخيه

Litteral transcription: myn akyh

Pronunciation: min ʾakhīh

Classical Arabic: min ʾakhīhi

4- The pronominal suffix of the 3^rd person masculine plural takes only the “hum” form^[29]. As opposed to classical Arabic which has both “hum” and “him”.

In the following example, the pronominal suffix should take the “him” form in accordance with classical Arabic rules. But it’s written as “hum”.

עלא חאלתהום

In their condition على حالتهم

Litteral transcription: ʕlā ḥālthwm

Pronunciation: ʕalā ḥālatihum

Classical Arabic: ʕalā ḥālatihim

5- Loss of verbal moods^[30].

יהרובו

They are going to flee يهربوا

Litteral transcription: yhrwbw

Pronunciation: yahrubū

Classical Arabic: yahrubūn

Final short vowels and nunation (Iʕrāb) are fully employed in all of the canonical readings. This doesn’t necessarily mean Iʕrāb was part of the original language of the Quran since that the linguistic and historical analysis reveals that these readings were linguistically reworked^[31], none of them represents natural language^[32], they were full of innovation and didn’t strictly adhere to a supposed oral tradition that goes back to Muhammad. An example of this is the following report from Al-Kisāʾī, the founder of a one of the canonical readings. In his reading, he treats the word thamūd in the accusative as triptotic (thamūdan: i.e. it can take nunation and one of three possible final short vowels). He also treats the word in the genitive and nominative as diptotic (thamūda/thamūdu: i.e. can’t take nunation, and can take one of two possible final short vowels instead of three). Al- Kisāʾī breaks his own rule in verse Q11:68 where the word thamūd is mentioned twice: first in the accusative and second in the genitive. According to his rule, the first word in the verse should be treated as triptotic (thamūdan), and the second word as diptotic (thamūda), but instead he treats both of them as triptotic (thamūdan, thamūdin, respectively):

ʔa-lā ʔinna thamūdan kafarū rabba-hum ʔa-lā buʕdan li-thamūdin (Q11:68)”.

﴿أَلَا ‌إِنَّ ‌ثَمُوداً كَفَرُوا رَبَّهُمْ أَلَا بُعْدًا لِثَمُودٍ (٦٨)﴾  هود

Al-Kisāʾī was asked about this, and his response showed that his reasoning had no regard to oral transmission, he said: “It is ugly to have a word occur twice in two places (within the same verse) and then have them disagree [on triptosy/dipotsy], so I treated it [ṯamūdin] as a triptote because of it being close to it [ṯamūdan]." ^[33]

Marijn Van Putten comments on this report saying:

“While this account of course does not prove that the Quran was once composed without ʔiʕrāb, what it does show is how readers themselves thought about their role in applying ʔiʕrāb in recitation. Their role was not to faithfully verbatim the ʔiʕrāb as had been taught to them, but rather to argue and rationalize why a word should have the ʔiʕrāb that they would give it. In such cases even purely aesthetic arguments such as the one cited, was apparently enough to deviate from the way their teacher taught it (Ḥamzah, al-Kisāʔī’s direct teacher reads ṯamūda and li-ṯamūda in the relevant verse). As such the application of ʔiʕrāb by these readers can tell us nothing at all about the use of ʔiʕrāb of the original language of the qct. However, given that the choice of ʔiʕrāb was a rational endeavour explicitly based on both the rasm (QCT) and aesthetic preference rather than prophetic example, it becomes quite easy to envision that the presence of this very system was not original to the text, but was rather imposed on it sometime after the standardization of the QCT by ʕuṯmān.”^[34]

Another sign that the application of Iʕrāb wasn’t based on oral tradition, is the pseudo correct use of Iʕrāb, as in the following example^[35]:

The question word أيَّانَ ʾayyāna (when?) which is used in the Quran several times (such as Q7:187), is a merge between two words: أي  ʾayy (which) and  آنʾān (time). The original shape with Iʕrāb is: ʾayya ʾānin. The Hamzah is lost which allows the merge: ʾayyānin. Yet all of the readings have the word as “ʾayyāna” instead of “ʾayyānin” although ʾān in this structure should take the final short vowel ‘i’ and nunation according to classical Arabic rules: The word ʾayy is the possessed مضاف, and the word ʾān is the possessor مضاف إليه which means it should take the “in” suffix. What explains the readers giving “ayyān” a final -a is that the two words originally had no final short vowels: ayy ān, or ayya ān. And when the two words merged as “ayyān” and got treated as a single word, the readers gave it a final -a because they thought the word is similar to other words such as:

- Question words such as أينَ  ʾayna which only takes a fixed final -a and can’t take nunation nor any other final short vowel.

- Denotations of time which grammatically usually take a final -a, such as يومَ  yawma ‘on the day’ and حينَ ḥīna ‘at the time’.

The mysterious letters

Unlike what the readers did with the entirety of the Quran, the mysterious letters are the only verses they didn’t force case inflection on. These letters appear at the beginning of 29 Surahs, such as Surah no.2 which begins with the three letters ألم (ALM) recited as “Alef lām mīm”. No one knows what these letters mean or why they were employed. Muslim scholars have many different explanations that are based on pure speculation.

In Hadith, which classical Arabic has been imposed on, the mysterious letters are inflected for case:

مَنْ قَرَأَ حَرْفًا مِنْ كِتَابِ اللَّهِ فَلَهُ بِهِ حَسَنَةٌ وَالْحَسَنَةُ بِعَشْرِ أَمْثَالِهَا لَا أَقُولُ: آلم حَرْفٌ. أَلْفٌ حَرْفٌ وَلَامٌ حَرْفٌ وَمِيمٌ حَرْفٌ

“If anyone recites a letter of God’s Book he will be credited with a good deed, and a good deed gets a tenfold reward (Al-Qur’ān, 6:160). I do not say that A.L.M are one letter, but alif is a letter, lām is a letter and mīm is a letter.”^[36]

In the Arabic text of the Hadith, the three letters are case inflected in the last part of the Hadith:

“alifun is a letter, lāmun is a letter and mīmun is a letter.”

Also when modern Muslim scholars cite this Hadith they pronounce the letters with inflection as can be heard in this example:

https://youtu.be/bWxjAURbMYw?si=Z2ZlgxFxlPj4MxvL&t=22

Since that these letters should be inflected in Classical Arabic, why were they left without any inflection in the readings tradition? Van Putten answers:

The third caliph’s standardization of the Quran unified the Quranic consonantal text. But as this standardized Quran lacked diacritics, this allowed for the emergence of readings that differ in short vowels, dotting and linguistic characteristics.

In their recitation of the Quran, Muslims follow early Quran scholars whose readings became named after them, hence called eponymous readings. In the third Islamic century, the Quranic readings were canonized into 7 readings. And in the ninth Islamic century another 3 were added making the total number of canonical readings 10.  Today the reading of Ḥafṣ is the most popular in the world.

The use of Hamzah is among the differences in linguistic characteristics between the 10 canonical readings. A lot of the readings, including the reading of Ḥafṣ, heavily use the Hamzah while other readings use it moderately. The Hamzah isn’t an original part of the Quran (except in word-final Hamzah that’s preceded by the long vowel ā). There are reports clearly showing that the Hamzah was a later addition. One of these reports says that Nāfiʕ, the founder of one of the ten canonical readings, was asked if it’s possible to introduce the Hamzah to (the two words in the Quran) “al-dhīb” and “al-bīr”. He replied: “If there are Arabs who use the Hamzah with these words then you can use the Hamzah”^[37].

Khalaf, another founder of one of the ten canonical readings, says: “Quraish (Muhammad’s tribe) doesn't use the Hamzah. It's not in their dialect. The eponymous readers took the Hamzah from non-Quraishi dialects.”^[38]

Khalaf’s statement agrees with what early grammarians report. Mukhtār Al-Ghawth says in his book "The dialect of Quraish": “Since that the Hamzah is hard to pronounce, some early Arabic dialects leaned towards dropping the hamzah. This was most notable in the dialect of Quraish as all early sources agree that this dialect lacked the hamzah.” p.39

The consonantal text of the Quran provides evidence that the original language of the Quran lacked the Hamzah.

A- The introduction of the Hamzah breaks the rhyme in the following verses^[39]:

1- In Surah Ar-raḥmān (No.55), all verse-final words end with “ān”:

ar-raḥmān, al-qurʾān, al-ʾinsān…etc. الرحمن، القرآن، الإنسان

Verse no.29 ends with the word shaʾn شأن  (with the Hamzah). By dropping the Hamzah from the word it becomes shān شان and thus the word fits the Surah’s rhyme.

Al-Farrāʾ, an early Arab grammarian, noted this when he said^[40]: You can use the Hamzah with the word “shaʾn” in the entirety of the Quran except for the one in Surah ar- raḥmān (No.55) because the word comes in the middle of verses that lack the Hamzah.

2- In Surah no.19, the rhyme is a short vowel + yyā: zakariyyaā, khafiyyā, shaqiyyā...etc.

زكريَّا، خفيَّا، شقيَّا

Verses 9, 42, 60 and 67 end with the word: shayʾā شيئا.

By dropping the hamzah, the word becomes: shayyā شيَّا .

The reading tradition of ḥamzah reads the word shayʾā without the hamzah.

3- Verse 47 of the same Surah ends with the word riʾyā رئيا . Without the Hamzah the word becomes: riyyā. It’s read as such in the reading of ḥamzah.

4- In Surah no.96, verses from 15 to 18 end with the following words:

nāṣiyah, khāṭiʾah, nādiyah, zabāniyah.

كَلَّا لَئِنْ لَمْ يَنْتَهِ لَنَسْفَعًا بِالنَّاصِيَةِ (15) نَاصِيَةٍ كَاذِبَةٍ خَاطِئَةٍ (16) فَلْيَدْعُ نَادِيَهُ (17) سَنَدْعُ الزَّبَانِيَةَ (18)

By dropping the Hamzah from the word khāṭiʾah, the word perfectly rhymes with the final words of the surrounding verses:

nāṣiyah, khāṭiyah, nādiyah, zabāniyah.

The reading of Abū jaʕfar reads it as khāṭiyah.

5- In surah no.69, verses 8-10 end with following words:

Bāqiyah, khāṭiʾah, rābiyah.

فَهَلْ تَرَى لَهُمْ مِنْ بَاقِيَةٍ (8) وَجَاءَ فِرْعَوْنُ وَمَنْ قَبْلَهُ وَالْمُؤْتَفِكَاتُ بِالْخَاطِئَةِ (9) فَعَصَوْا رَسُولَ رَبِّهِمْ فَأَخَذَهُمْ أَخْذَةً رَابِيَةً (10)

By dropping the Hamzah from khāṭiʾah, it becomes: khāṭiyah خاطية. It’s read as such in the reading of Abū jaʕfar.

The second evidence the QCT provides for the lack of Hamzah:

B- The shapes the Hamzah takes in the QCT.

The sign for the Hamzah in Arabic is ء. But the Hamzah in Arabic orthography is rarely written with the Hamzah sign ء alone. In most cases, the Hamzah is written by adding the Hamzah symbol to one of the three vowel letters like this:

  أ ؤ ئ

The letter for a long 'a' vowel is Alef ا . As in: kitāb (book). كتاب

The letter for a long 'u' vowel or the 'w' sound is: و . As in: rʕḥ (soul) روح

The letter for a long 'i' vowel or the 'y' sound is: ي , يـ . As in: fī (in) في

All these different forms: ء , ئ , ؤ, أ are pronounced the same: a glottal stop.

The Hamzah takes all these different shapes because Arabic orthography was standardized based on the QCT which represents a dialect that lacks the hamzah.

Marijn Van Putten, Hamzah in the Quranic Consonantal Text, 2018, p.94

In many cases, the dropping of Hamzah leads to the creation of a long vowel, the w sound or the y sound. Prior to the standardization of Arabic orthography, the Alef used to be the symbol of the Hamzah or the long vowel ā. For example, the word for "believer" is مؤمن muʾmin. Before the first half of the first century of Islam, Arabs who had the Hamzah in their dialects wrote this word as مامن . The Alef is the sign for the Hamzah in this word. But for Arabs who didn't have the Hamzah like Quraish, they wrote the word like this: mūmin مومن . It’s written as such because the dropping of the Hamzah in this word creates the long vowel ū. That's why in the QCT the word is written as مومن  instead of مامن.

Nearly 25 years after the death of the prophet, the third caliph Uthman decided to create a standard copy of the Quran to put an end to disputes over the different readings of the Quran. He assigned the job to a team of scribes most of whom belonged to the Quraishi tribe. This standard copy that Uthman assembled is called the Uthmanic Quran. All Qurans in the world today follow the exact script of the Uthmanic Quran (QCT) except for signs that were later invented like the dots, the Hamzah and diacritics short vowels.

In the original Uthmanic text that lacks diacritics (QCT), the Hamzah is only written when it's located at the beginning of a word. That's because in the dialect of Quraish, the Hamzah is only pronounced when it's at the beginning of speech.

Example:اغفر "ighfir" . Note that the Hamzah is written as an Alef because the Alef was the symbol for Hamzah or the long vowel ā.

After Uthman created the standard copy of the Quran, he sent copies to all different regions of the caliphate. The inhabitants of these regions started basing their Arabic orthography on these Qurans. So an Arab who had the Hamzah in his dialect started writing the word muʾmin as مومن  instead of مامن although he kept pronouncing the Hamzah in it. One century later when the sign of Hamzah ء  was created, those Arabs who had the Hamzah in their dialects added the Hamzah sign over the long vowels, turning words like

Mūmin muʾmin

Yastahzī yastahziʾ

Rās raʾs

مومن to مؤمن.

يستهزي to يستهزئ

راس to رأس

That's why Arabic today writes the Hamzah in four different shapes: ء, أ, ؤ, ئ

The Iraqi Quran scholar and linguist Ghānim Qaddūrī says: