What others said about Arabic From the author's own Arabic
In the introduction to his Hebrew grammar, justifying the use of Arabic to explain obscure Hebrew:
“Whatever I found no attestation for in what I have mentioned, but found attested in the Arabic tongue, I did not shrink from citing what is clear in it, nor scruple to argue from what it shows … So, seeing this from them, we did not scruple to cite, for what has no attestation in Hebrew, what we found agreeing and cognate with it in the Arabic tongue, for it is, after Syriac, the language most like ours. As for its weak forms, inflection, licences and usages, in all of these it is closer to our language than any other tongue — as those Hebraists know who are well grounded and penetrating in the knowledge of the Arabs' language, and how few they are!”
Abu al-Walid Marwan ibn Janah
c. 990 – c. 1050
Andalusian Jewish grammarian of Córdoba and Saragossa, who wrote Hebrew grammar in Arabic.
The Arabic original
وَما لَمْ أَجِدْ عَلَيْهِ شاهِداً مِمّا ذَكَرْتُهُ، وَوَجَدْتُ الشّاهِدَ عَلَيْهِ مِنَ اللِّسانِ العَرَبِيِّ، لَمْ أَنْكُلْ مِنَ الاسْتِشْهادِ بِواضِحِهِ، وَلَمْ أَتَحَرَّجْ عَنِ الاسْتِدْلالِ بِلائِحِهِ… فَلَمّا رَأَيْنا هَذا مِنْهُمْ لَمْ نَتَحَرَّجْ عَنِ الاسْتِشْهادِ عَلَى ما لا شاهِدَ عَلَيْهِ مِنَ العِبْرانِيِّ بِما وَجَدْناهُ مُوافِقاً وَمُجانِساً لَهُ مِنَ اللِّسانِ العَرَبِيِّ، إِذْ هُوَ أَكْثَرُ اللُّغاتِ بَعْدَ السُّرْيانِيِّ شَبَهاً بِلِسانِنا. وَأَمّا اعْتِلالُهُ وَتَصْرِيفُهُ وَمَجازاتُهُ وَاسْتِعْمالاتُهُ فَهُوَ فِي جَمِيعِ ذَلِكَ أَقْرَبُ إِلَى لِسانِنا مِنْ غَيْرِهِ مِنَ الأَلْسُنِ، يَعْلَمُ ذَلِكَ مِنَ العِبْرانِيِّينَ الرّاسِخُونَ فِي عِلْمِ لِسانِ العَرَبِ النّافِذُونَ فِيهِ، وَما أَقَلَّهُمْ.
Source
Ibn Janah, Kitab al-Luma‘, introduction, ed. J. Derenbourg, Paris 1886, pp. 7–8 (Arabic printed in Hebrew characters)
The English translation is Voice of Arabic's, made from the original.
Ibn Janah wrote in Arabic; Derenbourg prints it in Hebrew characters, as Andalusian Jews wrote it, and we transcribe it letter for letter. «This from them» refers to the early rabbis who explained obscure Scripture from Greek, Persian, Arabic and other tongues.
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