Get Started

Join Our
Online Arabic Classes

How
to Learn Arabic

A
Bit of History

Reading & Writing

Alphabet for
Beginners

Arabic
Alphabet

Writing
Hamza

Cluster
Reduction

Verbs

Intro
to Arabic Morphology

Verb
Conjugation

Derived
Nouns

Verb
Paradigms

Hamza
Verbs

Assimilated
Verbs

Hollow
Verbs

Deficient
Verbs

Duplicated
Verbs

Highly
Deficient Verbs

Paradigm
Meanings

Summary

Greater
Etymology

Grammar

Intro
to Arabic Grammar

Arabic
Words

Arabic
Phrases

Arabic
Sentences

The Heart
of Arabic Grammar

Arabic
Inflection

Arabic
Reflection

Diptotes

Nominal
Sentences

Verbal
Sentences

Arabic
Adverbs

Circumstantial
Adverb

Exclusion

Disambiguation

Genitival
States

Summary

Sentence
Parsing

Grammar Subtopics

Definiteness

Gender

Plurality

Broken
Plurals

Arabic
Numbers

Patterns
Reference

Types of
Maa

Vocabulary

Translator

Numbers

Time

Directions

Fruits

Body
Parts

Structures

Travel
Vocabulary

Common
Verbs

Practice
Verbs

Classical Logic

Introduction
to Classical Logic

Indication

Simple
Indication

Indicated
Concept

Definitions

Compound
Indication

Modern
Logic

Indicated
Assent

Proofs

Logic
Reference

Proof
by Contradiction

Mathematical
Induction

Rhetoric

Inspiring
Videos

Eloquence

Predication

Classical
Poetry

Duplicated Verbs

What is this Tutorial About?

Certain words in the Arabic language are such that their
second and third radicals are the same letter. Such words are deemed to be
irregular and they have certain rules that govern their conjugation. This type
of irregularity is termed مضاعفة
(Duplication) and the rules associated to it are termed The Rules of إدغام
(Gemination).

This tutorial covers the rules of gemination, especially as
they relate to verbs. One should not be confused by the title Duplicated Verbs;
it is not the verb that is duplicated but the letters within it.

For
a more detailed picture of where this tutorial fits into Arabic morphology,
consult the introduction to this section entitled Introduction
to Arabic Morphology,
and specifically the section on morphophonemic rules and weak
verbs.

Types of Duplication

Theoretically speaking, a word in the language should be
termed مضاعف
(duplicated) when one of the following is true

1.
the first and second
radicals are the same (e.g.ٌ دَدَن)

2.
the first and third radicals
are the same

3.
the second and third
radicals are the same

4.
all three radicals are the
same

However, options (1), (2), and (4) are either never realized
in the language or are extraordinarily rare and do not undergo change. Thus we
need only concern ourselves with option (3). There is a small caveat of
interest, however. There is a small debate among morphologists regarding
4-lettered verbs in which the first and third letters are the same as well as
the second and fourth. An example of such verbs is given below.

هَلْهَلَ

There are three opinions with respect to such verbs.

1.
All four of the letters are
original and base, so there is no duplication

2.
Such verbs are actually
3-lettered and their form has been achieved by copying the first radical between
the second and third radicals (the original was هلّ)

3.
Such verbs are actually
3-lettered and their form has been derived from the تفعيل
paradigm (the original was هلّل). This
means that هلهل is a
second-level derivation since هلّل is
itself derived from هلّ

In any event, these verbs do not experience morphophonemic
change and they will not be discussed further.

The Scope of Gemination Rules

The application of the gemination rules is not as wide as
that of other rules. For example, the rules of Hamza verbs (الأفعال المهموزة) which are known collectively as تخفيف, as
well as the rules of assimilated,
hollow, and deficient
verbs (الأفعال المعتلة) which are collectively known as إعلال or
تعليل apply
to verbs, gerunds, derived nouns,
and many other types of words in the language. Gemination, however, applies to
verbs and derived nouns, but many gerunds and other types of nouns are not
included. Consider the following as an example.

سَبَب

Here the second and third radicals are the same, thus we
would expect them to geminate. But this does not happen. The reason is because
all the rules associated to irregular verbs – whether they be تخفيف, تعليل, or
إدغام – are
designed to ease pronunciation, yet the pronunciation of the above word is
already quite easy. For this reason gemination has a slightly limited scope.

As a result of this, the rules that are given in the
remainder of this tutorial should not be thought of as universally applicable
(they have many exceptions). There will be categories of words for which the
upcoming rules do not apply. There is no sense in listing these categories of
nouns at this point; one will discover them through exposure, and that is
best.

Gemination Rules

There are two major rules for gemination. The first is as
follows

Rule
1

if two
identical, vowelled radicals occur side-by-side in the same lexical word
and the letter before them is vowelled, the two will geminate and the
resulting letter will be given the vowel of the second
duplicate

One of the applications of this rule is in the perfect tense
verbs (active and passive). Three examples have been given below. The original
forms were as follows

فَرَرَ، ظَلِلَ، لَبُبَ

Notice that, in each case, the final two radicals of the verb
are identical, they are both vowelled, and the letter before them is also
vowelled. As a result of this, the two identical letters geminate and the vowel
given to the resulting letter is the vowel on the third radical (the second
duplicate). Since the vowel on the third radical is the same for each of the
three cases above, the three examples end up looking the same:

فَرَّ، ظَلَّ، لَبَّ

This gemination, however, only occurs for the first five
conjugations. This is because, beyond that, it is no longer the case that the
two identical letters are both vowelled. Below is a chart with a few tangible
examples that clarifies this.

لَبَّ

ظُلَّ

ظَلَّ

فُرَّ

فَرَّ

لَبّا

ظُلاَّ

ظَلاَّ

فُرَّا

فَرَّا

لَبُّوْا

ظُلُّوْا

ظَلُّوْا

فُرُّوْا

فَرُّوْا

لَبَّتْ

ظُلَّتْ

ظَلَّتْ

فُرَّتْ

فَرَّتْ

لَبَّتا

ظُلَّتا

ظَلَّتا

فُرَّتا

فَرَّتا

لَبُبْنَ

ظُلِلْنَ

ظَلِلْنَ

فُرِرْنَ

فَرَرْنَ

...

...

...

...

...

Exercise:

1.
Duplicated verbs are not
realized in paradigms
فتَح-يفتَح
and حسِب-يحسِب.
But consider other (more advanced) popular paradigms. In how many of those do
you expect Rule 1 to take effect?

2.
Consider the derived nouns
for simple 3-lettered verb paradigms. In how many of those do you expect Rule 1
to take effect? Remember to consider different forms of each derived noun, as
well as the plurals.

3.
Can you give examples of
gerunds where Rule 1 applies and takes effect, and examples where it applies but
does not take effect?

The second of the two major rules of gemination is the
following. Notice the similarity between the two rules.

Rule
2

if two
identical, vowelled radicals occur side-by-side in the same lexical word
and the letter before is non-vowelled, the vowel from the first of
the duplicates will transfer to the letter before, then the duplicates
will geminate

Rule 2 applies to the imperfect verb (both active and
passive) as well as the imperatives. Consider the following original forms.

يَفْرِر، يَظْلَل، يَلْبُب

Here is an instance where there are duplicate letters, both
of which are vowelled, and before them is a non-vowelled letter. In such
situations, the vowel from the first duplicate will transfer to the previous
letter. This results in the following.

يَفِرْر، يَظَلْل، يَلُبْب

Gemination is then applied, giving us the following
conjugations.

يَفِرّ، يَظَلّ، يَلُبّ

This rule applies to all conjugations of the imperfect verb
except 6 and 12 (the plural feminine verbs), where the conditions for Rule 2 are
not met.

Exercise:

1.
Consider the perfect tense
for the advanced paradigms. Which one of the two rules will apply in each
case?

2.
Consider the imperfect tense
for the advanced verb paradigms. Which of the two rules will apply in each
case?

3.
Consider the imperative
verbs for paradigms إفعال, تفعيل, مفاعلة,
تفعل, and
تفاعل. Which
of the two rules, if any, will apply in these cases?

4.
Form the active and passive
participles for the advanced verb paradigms. You can use verbs from the list of practice
verbs.

There is one more point to discuss which relates to the
jussive form of the imperfect verbs. Consider those conjugations (active and
passive) which do not end in a ن (there are
five of these).

Imperative

Imperfect

Conj.
#

ليُفَر

ليَفِر

لم يُفَر

لم يَفِر

1

...

...

...

...

...

لتُفَر

لتَفِر

لم تُفَر

لم تَفِر

4

...

...

...

...

...

لتُفَر

فِر

لم تُفَر

لم تَفِر

7

...

...

...

...

...

لأُفَر

لأَفِر

لم أُفَر

لم أفِر

13

لنُفَر

لنَفِر

لم نُفَر

لم نَفِر

14

A problem occurs when we attempt to form the jussive
conjugations, including the imperatives. The final letter of these conjugations
must be made ساكن. This,
however, poses a problem since a geminated letter cannot be stripped of its
vowel; this would result in two successive ساكن.

In order to alleviate this problem for jussive verbs (not the
imperatives), the following options are available.

1.
The final letter may be
given a فتحة because
that is the lightest vowel and the closest to ساكن

لم يَفِرَّ، لم يَظَلَّ، لم يَلُبَّ

2.
The final letter may be
given a كسرة because
this is the vowel typically used to alleviate problems related to the gathering
of two ساكن

لم يَفِرِّ، لم يَظَلِّ، لم يَلُبِّ

3.
If the first radical has a
ضمة, the
final letter may be give the same vowel in order to match

لم يَلُبُّ

4.
The gemination may be
undone

لم يَفْرِرْ، لم يَظْلَلْ، لم يَلْبُبْ

And in the case of the imperatives, if speech is begun with
the verb, Rule 2 must be undone. Notice that the eliding Hamza will then be
required.

اِفْرِرْ، اِظْلَلْ، اُلْبُبْ

Otherwise, if the verb occurs in the middle of speech, the
following options are available.

1.
The tribe of نجد give the
final letter a فتحة

فِرَّ، ظَلَّ، لُبَّ

2.
The tribe of بنو أسد give
the final letter a فتحة if the
next letter in the sentence is vowelled, and a كسرة
otherwise

فِرَّ وَ...، ظَلَّ وَ...، لُبَّ وَ...

فِرِّ الْـ...، ظَلِّ الْـ...، لُبِّ
الْـ...

3.
The tribe of بنو كعب give the final letter a كسرة

فِرِّ، ظَلِّ، لُبِّ

4.
Yet others match the vowel
on the final letter with that of the first radical

فِرِّ، ظَلَّ، لُبُّ

Exercise:

1.
Conjugate the verb دب-يدُب
using imperfect jussive once for each of the conjugation options

2.
Repeat question (1), only
this time, do not recite a separate table for each option; recite a single table
and repeat the conjugations for which different options are available

More Complicated Rules for Enquiring Minds

#

Rule

Example

3

if a
duplicated verb is in paradigm سمِع-يسمَع
or it is passive, and
we’re working with the perfect conjugations in which Rule 1 does not
apply, it is permissible to drop the first of the two duplicated radicals;
it is also possible to transfer its vowel to the first base letter before
dropping

فَظَلْتُمْ تَفَكَّهُوْنَ

ظِلْتُمْ

4

in certain
rare situations, it is permissible, instead of maintaining the duplicated
letters in the perfect verb, to convert the second to a ياء

فَأَمْلَيْتُ لِلَّذِيْنَ كَفَرُوْا

5

in
conjugations 6 and 12 of the imperfect verb, it is permissible to drop the
first of the two duplicate letters after transferring its vowel to the
previous letter

يَفْرِرْنَ becomes
يَفِرْنَ

6

if a verb is
both مضاعف and, moreover,
the duplicated letter is a weak letter, Rule 1 may be used or it may be
forgone; in practice, this only applies to two verbs: حيّ and عيّ

حَيَّ and حَيِيَ

7

it is obvious
that when two duplicate letters occur side-by-side in the same lexical
word where the first is non-vowelled and the second is vowelled, the two
will geminate unconditionally

Tweet

All tutorials on this website are authored by Shariah Program
graduate Mohtanick Jamil
© 2003-2011 Shariah Program All Rights
Reserved.

Support | Privacy Policy | Terms Of Service