Article snapshot taken from Wikipedia with creative commons attribution-sharealike license.
Give it a read and then ask your questions in the chat.
We can research this topic together.
This article is within the scope of WikiProject Arab world, a collaborative effort to improve the coverage of the Arab world on Misplaced Pages. If you would like to participate, please visit the project page, where you can join the discussion and see a list of open tasks.Arab worldWikipedia:WikiProject Arab worldTemplate:WikiProject Arab worldArab world
This article is within the scope of WikiProject Linguistics, a collaborative effort to improve the coverage of linguistics on Misplaced Pages. If you would like to participate, please visit the project page, where you can join the discussion and see a list of open tasks.LinguisticsWikipedia:WikiProject LinguisticsTemplate:WikiProject LinguisticsLinguistics
The transliterations will help you with ya vs. alif maqsura, but they won't help you with word-initial hamza (since glottal stops are not transcribed at the beginnings of words), nor with having to re-compose verb forms on the fly based solely on the consonantal root and the stem number. AnonMoos19:01, 24 October 2005 (UTC)
It's the fourth edition of 1994, but none of the other editions I've seen are different in these respects. As for verb stems, look at link Arabic grammar#Stem formation for an explanation. Then look at root sin-lam-mim on page 495 of the dicationary (at least in my edition), and note the bold numeral IV. This numeral "IV" indicates a verb form with imperfect yuslimu and perfect 'aslama. A lot of other dictionaries would at least list the form 'aslama, but Wehr doesn't list any form at all, so you have to construct yuslimu and 'aslama purely from the consonantal root and your memorized knowledge of Stem IV derivation patterns. AnonMoos02:26, 25 October 2005 (UTC)
He gives the actual form whenever there are any difficulties, and for the less common derived forms, so how exactly does this represent a difficulty? Palmiro | Talk14:38, 25 January 2006 (UTC)
It represents a difficulty if you're of that cast of mind which finds it relatively easy to learn to associate yuslimu with aslama, but rather hard to synthesize yuslimu from scratch, given just the consonants S-L-M and the number "IV". I suspect that there are a large number of people in this boat -- I have a more analytic mind than many, and academic linguistic training, yet I would have to look in my grammar books to figure out what the forms would be if faced with a V, VII, or VIII stem verb listing in Wehr. Furthermore, if you look down the columns of the dictionary, you'll find that rather few derived-stem finite verb forms are in fact given. AnonMoos15:30, 30 January 2006 (UTC)
I don't think that the {{fact}} template was very necessary or useful, considering that this article basically consists of comments by actual habitual users of the dictionary, not publisher's blurbs. Look at the Amazon reviews, if you want. AnonMoos19:13, 21 March 2006 (UTC)
I've added some inline citations, and removed some not very relevant contents. However, the second-to-last paragraph is still original research. Hope someone will clean that up. Cheers.--K.C. Tang06:04, 15 October 2007 (UTC)
What you call "original research" is practical concerns expressed by some ordinary habitual users of the dictionary... AnonMoos09:57, 15 October 2007 (UTC)
They are practical concerns, no doubt about it. But Misplaced Pages is just not the place to express these concerns. I mean I would give them a "helpful" vote if they were posted on Amazon as a review :); but I'm afraid they can't get by here, which is not meant for posting personal book reviews. Regards.--K.C. Tang01:33, 16 October 2007 (UTC)
However, they have a great deal of relevance to the dictionary's suitability for the purpose for which it was originally intended. It's absurd to say that we can't include anything which wasn't mentioned in a 1962 review of the first edition (which very few people nowadays are even using). AnonMoos02:26, 16 October 2007 (UTC)
I think it's ok if we just state the facts (e.g. that hamza is not indicated), instead of giving weasel words like "Some features which could be considered drawbacks...". We're not here to judge what the drawbacks are. We do that on Amazon, not here. It's just that different sites serve different purposes. Of course what I said may sound absurd to many. Regards.--K.C. Tang08:43, 16 October 2007 (UTC)
I bet that the great majority of students in classes on Classical or literary Arabic whose teachers require correctly-written hamzas consider it a drwaback... AnonMoos07:39, 18 October 2007 (UTC)
