RootsThe language of Grand Qur?ān is Arabic: language of the exalted universal Messenger-Spokesperson of Allah the Supreme Sovereign, and of sons of soil of Arabian peninsula.
Arabic words, nouns and verbs, stem from Roots. Root is a cluster of three, in some cases four or rare five, consonants of Alphabet placed in a peculiar sequence. Out of 29 letters of Arabic alphabet, Aleph is not a consonant since it has no sound, hence it is never the part of a Root. All 28 consonants may function as root radicals. However, there are no roots with identical consonants in the first and second position while at the second and third position radicals of a root can be the same consonant. Such roots are termed geminate roots.
Though a combination of three unique consonants can constitute six Roots, for example consonants:
ح , ب and ر make these Roots: ب ح ر - ب ر ح - ح ب ر - ح ر ب - ر ب ح - ر ح ب ; the Roots are determined and fixed. No new Root can be structured.
Roots are comparable to proper names as both are with unique semantic reference. However, there is a profound difference between proper names and roots. The former designate identifiable entities with real existence, whereas root is pure abstraction. The root is the common element shared by its derivatives.
The Root has specific, defined, distinct, conspicuous and apparent concept, phenomenon, perception and signification folded in it. It is the source, the reservoir of knowledge. Roots can be termed as "repertory of frames" of Arabic language if we follow frames approach to semantic analysis.
The amazing fact about the Roots of Arabic is that the perception infolded in them is reflective of physical?scientific realities pertaining both to matter and life. They seem as if they are the baseline for scientific study and investigation.
For semantics, Root is like the first of trinucleotide sequence of anticodon. It is well know that vocabulary is of vital importance in language study because it is the essence of a language. Linguist D. A. Wilkins (1972) has the famous line :
"Without grammar very little can be conveyed, without vocabulary nothing can be conveyed. (p.11)".
That book is conveniently understandable which uses minimum vocabulary of the language. The entire vocabulary of Grand Qur?ān, nouns and verbs, stems from just 1646 Roots. Therefore, at preliminary stage, we should feel pleased that learning the skill for real-time translation of Qur?ān is rendered facilitative by the use of a small part of otherwise large vocabulary of Arabic in its discourse. If we merely run through the basic perception infolded in these Roots, we will gain a fairly good understanding of meanings of the words of Grand Qur?ān, even before learning the meanings added by other features of the language; morphology and syntax.
Classical tradition employs the word Root, but in reality, the concept resembles exactly to a "seed" which is either monocotyledon or dicotyledonous and contains the DNA to sprout and grow into a plant in a specific environment. "Seeds" of Arabic language have distinction of monocotyledon-nominal and dicotyledonous-verbal. Unique assemblage and sequencing of consonants is like a DNA that encodes complete tree of a unique concept-field of understanding which "germinates" in specific environment.http://haqeeqat.pk/roots/intro.htm
