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The differences between Classical and Modern Arabic
There are few differences between classical and modern grammar - anyone who is familiar with classical should have no problems at all with modern...the vice versa is not as true, but the problems should not be that large nevertheless. Some of the main differences are in: i) Syntax - (The way that words are arranged in sentences). The syntax of English is fairly fixed according to meaning- the difference between 'The boy hit the dog' and 'The dog hit the boy' is huge. This is because the syntax in an English verbal sentence is subject-verb-object. In Arabic however, I have the liberty and license to say both:ضرب الولدُ الكلبَ daraba al-waladu al-kalba, and ضرب الكلبَ الولدُ daraba al-kalba al-waladu. BOTH of these sentences would mean 'The boy hit the dog', even though I have swapped the words around. This is because the syntax of Arabic is extremely relaxed, due to the grammatical function of a word being dependant on its case ending (notice how 'wa...
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