Elementary Arabic Morphology 1
The Division of Nouns Into Declinable And Indeclinable
What is understood by a declinable noun?
How many cases does a noun have?
What is the sign of the nominative case?
What is the sign of the accusative case?
What is the sign of the genitive case?
A declinable noun is a noun whose last syllable changes when placed into different parts of a sentence.
A noun has three cases: nominative, accusative and genitive.
The main sign for the nominative case is a dummah. But, sometimes it is represented by:
• Alif in the dual forms.
• Wāw in the masculine sound plurals and the five nouns which are:
اب اخ حم فم ذو
(possessor, mouth, father-in-law, brother, father)
- The main sign for the accusative case if the fathah. But, sometimes it is represented by:
• Alif in the five nouns.
• Kasrah in the feminine sound plurals.
• Yā' in the dual forms and the masculine sound plurals.
- The main sign of the genitive case is the kasrah. But, sometimes
it is represented by:
• Yā' in the dual forms, masculine sound plurals and the five nouns.
• Fathah in the unnonated nouns.