The Creation of the Augmented Penta-syllabic in Arabic

A Foundational Study in Light of Semantics in Taj al-ʻarūs Dictionary by Al-Zubaidi (D. 1790 AD)

Abstract

The idea for this research originated from the observation that the penta-syllabic and its augmented form do not fit in terms of length and weight with the nature of Arabic, which tends towards conciseness and brevity and primarily relies on the trisyllabic structure, with the addition of the letters of the (Sʼltmwnyhā) word,  reduplication, or annexation. Thus, the current research aims to gather and analyze examples of augmented penta-syllabics found in the “Tāj al-ʻarūs” dictionary after the investigation of the simple penta-syllabic in a previous study. It reveals the following:

Arabic does not deviate from its nature, which leans towards conciseness and does not resort to excessive building of root structures. Instead, it follows its general approach of elongating structures through augmentation that conveys different semantic connotations. Accordingly, the trisyllabic structure is usually the basis, then it is augmented by the two known methods in Arabic, which are adding letters of (Sʼltmwnyhā),  reduplication, or both. Most examples follow this pattern. The changes that affected these words led to classifying them as augmented penta-syllabics. Some types of these changes are substitution, insertion, spatial inversion, and deviation from known augmenting letters to similar ones. Their classification as penta-syllabic caused an overlap between lexicographical roots, resulting in the misplacement of material into incorrect categories.

The research proves that the Arabicized and the derived were formed in the structures of augmented penta-syllabics to shorten compound structures. Thus, the construction of the penta-syllabic was the most concise. The research also reveals two points:

Firstly, the construction " Fiʻlalūl" is not an original form, but rather a linguistic variation of  “Faʻlalūl" There are no examples uncommon with “Faʻlalūl”.

Secondly, the creation of augmented penta-syllabic from the derivation of two parts has a clear method. The two parts meet at the third letter of the first part and the first letter of the second. Thus, they are in the centre of the meeting point between the two derived parts, and one of them is often exposed to deletion, and the deletion process is regulated by considering the deleted one redundant, as being a repeated letter.