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| ==The Quranic Consonantal Text== | | ==The Quranic Consonantal Text== |
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| 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 Qur’anic consonantal text (QCT) is the original consonantal skeleton of the text of the Qur’an. It is derived from the vast Uthmanic corpus of copies of the Qur’an created after the third caliph Uthman standardized the Quran and ordered the destruction of all other different versions. The QCT was written without most (but not without all) of the diacritical marks and dots which now typify Arabic texts, including hamzahs, consonant dots and short vowel marks (rarely used in modern Arabic writing but used in the Quran and Hadith to ensure proper pronunciation). Other differences between QCT and modern Arabic writing include the mid-word long ā vowel which is usually unwritten in QCT. |
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| 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. | | 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. |
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| ===Final Yaa’===
| | '''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).
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| ===The Hamzah===
| | Some Arabic words such as raʾā رأى and fatā فتى are spelled with a final “y” (ى) but pronounced as a long vowel ā. The ‘y’ that is pronounced as ā is called Alif Maqṣūrah and in modern spelling it doesn’t take the bottom two dots which are reserved for a genuine ‘y’ or ‘ī’, i.e: in modern prints of the Quran, a word-final ى is pronounced as ā, while a word-final ي (with the two dots) is pronounced as ‘y’ or ‘ī’. The QCT analysis, particularly evidence based on rhyme, shows that the Alif Maqṣūrah in the Quran wasn’t pronounced as ā. Early Arabic texts written in Greek show that this letter was pronounced as ē. It’s also pronounced as ē in some canonical readings. When Arabic was Classicized, the ‘ē’ sound merged into ‘ā’. |
| 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:
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| 1. Post consonantal mid-word hamzahs are just not written: يسأل “he asks” is spelled يسل with no hamzah, أفئدة “benefits” is written افده.
| | The development of the triphthongs in Quranic and Classical Arabic, 2017 |
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| 2 The sequence u/a ‘ u with a long u is written with a single waw و:
| | '''The Hamzah''' |
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| رؤوس “heads” is written روس
| | 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 QCT 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 : When a final ‘ā’ is followed by a hamzah, such as سماء samāʾ. Unlike with the other hamzahs, where rhyme seems to indicate the glottal stop was not pronounced, the rhymes involving this position seem to indicate the hamzah may have been pronounced, though it was never written. |
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| رؤوف “compassionate” is written روف
| | '''Nunation Lost''' |
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| 3. Final long a followed by a hamzah is written without the hamzah, so أبناء “sons” is written ابنا .
| | The QCT never writes out the tanwiin, the addition of a nūn to the Iʕrāb ending of a noun, with one exception, where the expression kaʾayyin min “oh how many of” is written in all its 7 attestations in the Quran as كأين من , which is an older form where the nunation got fossilized into the expression. Otherwise the 3rd person masculine accusative ‘an’ is written just as a long ‘ā’ ا or else the tanwīn is not written at all. |
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| 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
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| ===Ta Marboutah===
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| 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.
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| ===Nunation Lost===
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| 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)
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| 3sg.m yak ىك (Q8:53; Q9:74; Q16:120, Q19:67; Q40̈:28, 85; Q75:37)
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| 3sg.f. tak تك (Q4:40; Q11:17, 109; Q16:127; Q19:9; Q31:16; Q40:50)
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| 1pl. nak نك (Q74:43, 44)
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| This also extends to the “energetic” verbal ending -an:
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| Q96:15 (later Arabic: )la-nasfa’an لنفسعا ‘We will surely drag’Q12:32
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| Q12:32 (later Arabic: ) la-yakunan لىكونا ‘he will surely be’
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| == The meaning of Hamzah (glottal stop) == | | == The meaning of Hamzah (glottal stop) == |