Friday, September 20, 2013

Arabic and Mormons: Why the Arabic Language is Amazing

Want to know something cool about Arabic? Arabic is a language where words are based off of roots, typically with just three letters. These three letters are then the base for what it is used for. For example كتب
(those are three letters( ك - ت - ب ), pronounced katiba) means books. But if you add one letter before it مكتب (maktab) it means "office." Or if you change it even a little bit more (keeping the root) مكتبة (maktaba)  it means "library." You can do this for several other words. Did you notice a pattern? They all are related to each other: books, office, library. This pattern is all over the Arabic language.

The Arabic word قلب (kalb) means "heart." The root letters are ق - ل - ب . Or in English sounds, k - l -b. The other day I was noticing a similarity between قلب (kalb) to a pretty well known LDS word, Kolob. Did you already notice the connection? K-l-b is the Arabic root of heart and the "roots" of Kolob are k-l-b, signifying that Kolob is related to the heart or center of something important, fantastic, and beautiful. For LDS members, this should be very significant.


There is your little Arabic lesson of the day :) 

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