What others said about Arabic From the author's own Arabic
Of the science of phonetics, opening his lecture on the sounds of Arabic:
“None preceded the Westerners in this science but two peoples of the East: the people of India, that is the Brahmins, and the Arabs.”
Gotthelf Bergsträsser
1886–1933
German Semitist, professor at Munich, who gave his lectures on the grammatical development of Arabic in Arabic at the Egyptian University in 1929.
Original text — sy_lang_ar
ولم يسبق الغربيين فى هذا العلم، إلا قومان من أقوام الشرق، وهما أهل الهند، يعنى البراهمة، والعرب.
The Arabic original
ولم يسبق الغربيين في هذا العلم، إلّا قومان من أقوام الشرق، وهما أهل الهند، يعني البراهمة، والعرب.
Source
al-Tatawwur al-nahwi li-l-lugha al-ʿarabiyya, Cairo: al-Khanji, 1994, p. 11
The English translation is Voice of Arabic's, made from the original.
He lectured in Arabic, so the wording is his as Ramadan Abd al-Tawwab edited it; he goes on to name al-Khalil ibn Ahmad as the first among the Arabs to lay the foundations of the science. Ahmad Mukhtar Umar quotes it with «Europeans» and with dots for the Brahmins; the original is as given here. The book is under its publisher's rights, so no link is given. The English is ours.
Tap a card to see it full size; each has a download button below it for sharing.
Spotted a mistake, or have something to add?
Your note comes to us only; it is not published here. We read it, and if it holds we correct the card.
