Linguistics, Language and Religion Abstract No Linguistics, Language and Religion Abstract No. 0519 The Phonetic Description of Khalil Bin Ahmad in his Book Kitab ul Ain and the Case of Indian Phonetic Effect: A Descriptive Review Shair Ali Khan Assistant Professor Department of Translation & Interpretation Faculty of Arabic International Islamic University Islamabad Pakistan

Shair Ali Khan shair.ali@iiui.edu.pk

Honorable Scholars and Participants السلام عليكم ورحمة الله وبركاته Peace be upon you all and the blessings and bounties of God Greetings and best wishes to all

THE PHONETIC DESCRIPTION OF KHALIL BIN AHMAD IN HIS BOOK KITAB UL AIN AND THE CASE OF INDIAN PHONETIC EFFECT: A Descriptive Review

1- Life History of Khalil Al-Farahidi & Works

Life History Khalil bin Ahmad al-Farahidi, the founder of Basran School of Arabic Grammar. Born in 718 AD in Oman: Southern Arabia in the tribe of Azd , later on he moved to Basra Iraq and died there in 786 AD. His death was due to bumping into a pillar in a mosque while he was thinking about an accounting system for his maid servant to protect her from being cheated by the green grocer.

Features & Contributions First Arab Lexicographer Philologist Founder of Arabic Prosody Arabic current standard of diacritics :)Harakat( vowel ( َ---ِ ---- ُ---) his genius invention Musicology and meter Invention of small hook of Arabic alphabet (sin س ) for signifying the shadda (ّ) emphatic mark

Linguistic Books Kitab ul Ain: the book of letter Ain-عين : the first Arabic Dictionary on the basis of articulators. Cryptography: "Book of Cryptographic Messages.

Kitab ul 'Ayn كتاب العين( the book of letter 'Ayn عين ) Kitab al-Ayn ; the ever first dictionary of Arabic language Letter – عين is the middle letter among 6 throat letters this word means “water source in the desert” and “eye”. Aim of this title is considering it the original source of Arabic the arrangement of sounds is according to articulatory point starting from throat towards lips, put Ain (ﻉ) ) a pharyngeal letter on the top, as the first and essential sound, put Mim (م) a labial letter at the end opposing the known alphabetical order of Arabic language of his time

Content of the Dictionary The dictionary contains twenty 27 parts: explained the phonetic system and structure of the Arabic language organized the weak letters in a single part the parts divided into sub-chapters on the basis of radicals in linguistic roots described every consonant on the bases of articulation points collected roots that produce further vocabulary introduced the consonants in groups gave every group a particular name according to their articulatory features.

Sound Order of Khalil Khalil’s order of Arabic Sounds is as under: ع. ح. هـ. خ. غ. ـ ق. ك ـ ج. ش. ض ـ ص. س. ز ـ ط. د. ت ـ ظ. ذ. ث ـ ر. ل. ن ـ ف. ب. م و. ا. ي ـ أ.

According to the articulation part From the throat: Ayin, he, Ḫāʾ,Kha, Ghain ع ح ه خ غ From the soft palate: Kaph, Qaph ق ك From the tip of the tongue: Shin, Sin, Zay ز س ش From the prepalate: ta, Taw, Dal د ط ت From the gums: Dad ض From tip of tongue and upper teethẒāʾ, Ṯhaʾ, Zal ذ ث ظ From the apex of the tongue: Lamedh, Nun, Resh ر ن ل From the lips: Fe, Be, Mem م ب ف From the air: Yodh, Waw, Aleph, Hamza ء ا و ي

2-The case of Indian influence over Khalil’s phonetics :

History of Sanskrit and its Phonetic System The phonetic system of Sanskrit Language is the oldest complete phonetic system in the world. Its phonetic effects on the surrounding languages are everlasting; witnessed by the researchers and scholars. The origin of Sanskrit language goes back to 2300 BC according to the opinion of Dr. Malata J. Shendgi and according to William Jones it evolved in 1500 BC. It has a highly rich phonetic tradition called “ Shiksa Vedanga” and a variety of supporting and explanatory texts called “Pratisakhaya” that explains its whole phonetic tradition

The linguists are in three groups in this case: Those who believe that Khalil got influenced by Sanskrit Phonetic System. Those who consider it a mere coincidence and they accept Kahlil’s authorship as the milestone and Kahlil as the founder of Arabic phonetic system Those who are in the middle line and consider such mutual influence and loaning of words as a law of nature.

1-The description of supporting scholars of Indian influence: There are Arab and Western scholars who support the theory of Indian Phonetic influence on Khalil bin Ahmad. The Arab Historian Jurji Zaidan, writer of the History of Arabic, is one of them. Other two legendary Arab scholar are Dr. Shouqi Daif and Dr. Mehmood Saaran, who have the same openion, whereas Dr. Fuad Sazgeen and Monan mentioned the opinion of Alfred Olman about Panini and Khalil bin Ahmad. The renowned Western Arabic Lexicographer John A. Haywood mentioned the assumption of Sanskrit influence over Khalil. Another comparative linguist Frit Stall narrated the witness of Morris Halle in which he argued that Khalil was influenced by Indian phonetics

2- The description of those who deny Sanskrit Influence: A renowned modern Arab Linguist Dr. Ahmad Umar Mukhtar wrote two books naming: “Linguistic tradition of India” , and |”Linguistic tradition of Arabs”. He mentioned the Linguistic tradition of Arabs and the issue of Indian influence in three points: Indian influence over Arabic Lexicography . He totally denied this influence but mentioned a reverse affect.( page 343) Indian phonetic influence over Khalil. He considered it a mere assumption.(343) Presence of linguistic similarities between Sanskrit and Arabic Languages. An European Arabic Linguist Vivien Law ( 1954-2002), has written an article with the title: “Indian influence on early Arab phonetics or Coincidence”. The following points are the gist of her research:

According to her description this misconception is due to misunderstanding the Sanskrit Term “ Sthana” and the Arbic term “ Makhraj” At the end she pointed out an important fact about the vowel system of both languages, mentioning that both have three basic vowel ( a-i-u). So this close resemblance could not be rule out easily Dr. Mahdi Al-Mahzoomi, Dr. Ibrahim Al-Samrai Dr. Ahamd Abdul Ghafoor totally deny Indian Influence. H.T. Cairdener W. said that Arabs are pioneers in phonetics. Joan Maling mentioned in his Ph.D. dissertation that the theory of Khalil is very strong . Kees Versteegh an European Arabic Linguist concluded that the phonetic order presented by Kahlil, is a spontaneous invention, indeed, an autonomous development

3- Middle liners The first Arab scholar who threw light on this matter is Abu Rehan Mohammad ibn Ahmad Al-Bairooni( Died in 1048 AD). He presented a comparative study of Sanskrit and Arabic prosody and phonetics mentioning the similarities between them. He confirms the authorship of Khalil in language sciences and shows the possibility of listening to Indian prosody and phonetics. A renowned Arab scholar Mohammad Hassan Bakala said that Indian scholarly influence is evident in many sciences like mathematics but in phonetics it is still a hot cake of debate among the comparative and contrastive linguists

Dr. Zakir Hussain Nasar, Iranian Researcher Parvaiz Namal Khanalzai and Dr. Safa Khalosi remained in middle line. Julie Scott Meisami Paul Starkey mentioned that the authorship of Khalil’s work is not unchallenged in the Arabic tradition but the plan of the dictionary is thought to be purely Khalilian

4-Conclusion: All the above mentioned scholarly descriptions of the case of Indian influence over Khalil’s phonetic arrangement show that the influence has not yet proved with documentary proofs. On the other hand the undeniable similarities are visible in the phonetic and grammatical system of Arabic and Sanskrit languages. In my opinion this lead us to the theory which has been elaborated by Dr. Malata G. Shendge in her book : The Language of Harappan: From Akkadian to Sanskrit, ( p. 1-2, and the whole book) that Sanskrit belongs to Semitic languages specially the Akkadian which is the oldest Arabic dialect.