Saliqa in Classical Arabic During the Jahiliyyah Era
Omar Adeeb Shaker JnaidiSaliqa is an Arabic term that means “inherence” and is used often among learners of the Arabic language, who will say, “He speaks Arabic by saliqa.” The prevailing belief about the concept of saliqa in the classical Arabic language involves proficient usage and natural production of the classical Arabic language where speakers do not understand the characteristics of their speeches. Arabs still spoke Arabic by saliqa during the Jahiliyyah (pre-Islamic) and early Islamic eras. Long ago, the Arabic tongue was pure and had no place for defects or linguistic mistakes; Arabs spoke their language correctly without knowing any of the rules that would be developed later to guide pronunciation. Those rules would be used once Islam spread and Arabs mixed with other nations by those who were not fluent in Arabic in order to correct their tongue, and this led to the spread of errors and distortions in the language. By examining the Arabic concept of saliqa and its use by ancient and modern Arab speakers, some questions emerge that need answers and many clarifications. What is saliqa? Is it a mysterious or magical matter confined to the Arab race, and if not, how does it occur? Can saliqa be gained by learning grammar rules and practicing? What is the evidence for the existence of saliqa? What is the reason for its corruption? Does a saliqi [someone who speaks Arabic by inherence] make mistakes? Does the ancient and modern linguistic conceptualization of saliqa apply to dialects or just to the classical language? In other words, does an Arab’s saliqa occur in regard to classical Arabic or to the local dialect used in one’s daily life with family and the society in which one lives? Was classical Arabic the only language for all Arabs in the time of classical Arabic when the Qur’an was revealed, after which grammarians set rules for it? Or if not and the Arabic language was a group of dialects, then was linguistic saliqa also a group of saliqas? These questions and inquiries arose in my mind while working on this issue. I hope to succeed in answering them in this research.
سليقة العربي في العصر الجاهلي
Omar Adeeb Shaker Jnaidiُتَ َداول مصطلح السليقة على ألسنةالدارسين للغةالعربيةكثيرا، فيقال: إنهيتكلم اللغةالعربية عن سليقة، وقد ي كان المعتقد السائد عن مفهوم السليقة في اللغة العربية الفصحى أنها إجادة استعمال اللغة العربية الفصحى وإنتاجها بشكل طبيعي ودون شعور من المتكلم بخصائص كالمه. ولم يزل العرب ينطقون العربية على سجيتهم وسليقتهم قبل اإلسالم، وفي صدره، وكان اللسان العربي نقيا ال يدخل إليه الخلل وال يتطرق إليه ُحدثت فيما بعد لضبط النطق، وكان اللحن والزلل، ينطق العربي لغته صحيحة دون معرفة بالقواعد التي است يلجأ إليها غير الفصحاء لتقويم ألسنتهم حين انتشر اإلسالم واختلط العرب بغيرهم من األمم، فسرى على األلسنة الخطأ والتحريف. ومن خالل النظر في مفهوم السليقةالعربية واستعمالها عند القدماء والمحدثين ظهرت بعضالتساؤالت التي تحتاج إلى الكثير من اإلجابات واإليضاحات: فما هي السليقة؟ وهل هي أمر غامضأو سحري موقوف على الجنس العربي؟ وإذا لم تكن كذلك: فكيف توجد؟ وهل تكتسب بتعلم قواعد النحو وبالمران وبالدربة؟ وما دليل وجود السليقة؟ وما سبب فسادها؟ وهل يخطئ السليقي؟ وهل السليقةاللغويةبمفهومها عند القدماء والمحدثين تنطبق على اللهجات أم على اللغة الفصحى؟ وبمعنى آخر: هل سليقة العربي كائنة في اللغة الفصحى أم في لهجته المحلية التي يستعملها في حياته اليومية ومع عائلته ومجتمعه الذي يعيش فيه؟ وهل كانت العربية ّد لها النحاة؟ وإذا لم تكن الفصحى هي السليقة الوحيدة لكل العرب في زمن الفصحى التي نزل بها القرآن وقع كذلك وكانت اللغةالعربية هي مجموعةمن اللهجات؛ فهل السليقةاللغويةكانت أيضامجموعةمن السالئق؟ تلك األسئلة واالستفهامات أثارها في نفسي اشتغالي بهذه المسألة. وآمل في هذا البحث أن أوفق في اإلجابة عنها أو عن بعض منها متبعا المنهج الوصفي والتحليلي الذي يقوم باستعراض النصوص وتحليلها سعيا للوصول إلى النتائج.
İslamiyet Öncesi Dönemde Araplarda Salika
Omar Adeeb Shaker Jnaidi“Salika” terimi, Arap dili araştırmacılarının dillerinde çokça dolaşır ve denilir ki: O Arapçayı salikadan konuşur. Klasik Arap dilinde salika kavramı hakkında hâkim olan inanç, klasik Arap dilini kullanma ve onu doğal olarak, konuşmacının konuşmasının özelliklerini hissetmeden üretme yeteneğidir. Araplar, hem İslamiyetten önceki hem de sonraki dönemde Arapçayı kendilerine özgü üslupları ve salikalarıyla konuşmuşlardır. O zamanlar Arap lisanı özdü, ona kusur ve galatlar bulaşmamıştı. Araplar, ileriki dönemde telaffuzu düzgünleştirmek için geliştirilen kuralları bilmeden dilini doğru konuşurdu. O kurallara, İslamiyet yayılıp Araplar diğer milletlere karıştıktan sonra dillerini doğrultmak isteyen fasih olmayanlar sığınırdı. Bu yüzden lisana hata ve galat bulaştı. Arapça salikat kavramının eski ve modern dil âlimleri tarafından kullanımına bakıldığında, birçok cevap ve açıklama gerektiren bazı sorular ortaya çıkar: Salika nedir? Arap ırkına has gizemli ve büyülü bir mesele midir? Eğer öyle değilse nasıl ortaya çıkmıştır? Dilbilgisi kurallarını öğrenerek ve pratik yaparak mı kazanılır? Varlığının kanıtı nedir? Bozulmasının sebebi nedir? Salika sahibi hata yapar mı? Luğavi salika, eski ve modern âlimlere göre lehçelere mi yoksa fasih dile mi uygulanır? Başka bir deyişle Arap’ın salikası, fasih Arapçada mıydı yoksa günlük hayatında, ailesi ve içinde yaşadığı toplumda kullandığı yerel lehçede miydi? Fasih Arapça, Kur’ân’ın indiği ve nahiv âlimlerinin baz aldığı fasih Arapça döneminde Arapların tek salikası mıydı? Öyle değilse ve Arapça o zamanlar bir lehçeler grubu ise luğavî salika da bir salikalar grubu muydu? Söz konusu bu makalede de bu tür sorulara cevap vermeye çalışılmıştır.
Al-Saliqa means the language of vocal intensity, with such a person being said to speak Arabic by saliqa [inherence] rather than by learning. In the early days of Islam, saliqi was the term used to refer to a Bedouin who spoke the language inherently as well as to refer to one who recites the Qur’an. As such, saliqa implies acquiring the language in childhood from the environment in which one grows up naturally and inherently without inculcation, teaching, or training, with the speaker progressing in one’s speech according to one’s nature, producing speech naturally. After the era ended in which the Arabic language had been acquired naturally and inherently, the ability to use a language was able to be obtained by learning and exerting hard effort. Some modern Arabic grammarians believe saliqa to be closely related to the ancient roots of the Arabic race when a non-Arab could not have learned Arabic even if they had been born and raised in an Arab environment. On the other hand, other modern Arabic grammarians absolve the classical Arabs of this claim. The truth is that the issue was not one of bigotry; rather, the issue is due to the early Muslim Arabs’ fear that religion would disappear alongside the Arabic language upon the Arabic tongue becoming corrupted due to Arabs mixing with non-Arabs, as the Qur’an had been revealed in the Arabic language. The reality of the situation at that time was no pure Arabic actually existed to be preserved from corruption except for those who could speak Arabic by saliqa, those who’d remained isolated and had not mixed with non-Arabs. Therefore, the classical Arab grammarians find no other way but to take the language from Arabs and not non-Arabs. Also similar to other languages, the Arabic language is acquired from the social environment in which one grows up by training and practicing during the stages of their development. Ibn Jinni believed that the society in which one lives protects the learner who violates the words of the language from deviation and aberration. No dispute exists anymore today as to whether language acquisition is an instinctive phenomenon or an acquisition from the social environment. All researchers agree that language is acquired; they just disagree about whether language acquisition is aided by an inherited linguistic predisposition or not or how much of an impact this innate predisposition, if it really exists in a child at birth, actually has on language acquisition. Among the characteristics of the saliqi is that they notice naturally what a non-saliqi does not notice due to the long discussions and listening they’ve been exposed to. The words of a saliqi are easy to say, yet the salaqi speaks with eloquence. And neither a saliqi nor the salaqi’s tongue would not be able to deviate from the language or its specific structures, even if they wanted to. The ancient Arab grammarians attributed the cause of the corruption of an Arab’s speaking by saliqa to the length of time spent with non-Arabs. Furthermore, they linked isolation to an Arab’s ability to speak Arabic by saliqa, making this connection based on their scientific foundations in setting the rules of the Arabic language. Ibn Faris and Ibn Jinni believed that poets could make mistakes. Abu Ali al-Farsi attributed the reason why a saliqi made mistakes to be due to the fact that they had no references to review nor laws to hold fast to; instead, their nature controlled what they uttered. As for al-Azhari, he did not deny that pure Arabs could make some small mistakes. Some modern people believe that a saliqi can make a mistake. However, Ibrahim Anis believed that no native speaker of the Arabic language who spoke it by saliqa could make a mistake in speech regarding the basics of the language without realizing that a mistake had been made. The words of Ibn Hisham who said, “Arabs used to recite each other’s poetry, and each spoke according to his innate character” clearly shows that he believed an Arab’s saliqa to only be in regard to dialect. One of the moderns saw that if an Arab lived among common Arabs in language, his saliqa would be colloquial. In addition, Abd al-Qadir al-Maghribi believed that the colloquial Arabic, like the Bedouin Arabic, were both dominated by dialect due to the influence from their environment and upbringing. I also see that the saliqi in our Arab societies nowadays to speak the colloquial Arabic language, which branches out into a group of colloquial Arabic dialects in every Arab country as the language that people can pronounce more easily without affectation. Accordingly, the standard Arabic language today does not have saliqa because modern Arabic is acquired through learning, training, and affectation. A group of contemporaries also view Classical Arabic to not be the Arabic by saliqa as spoken by the Arabs in the pre-Islamic era; however, others view the Classical Arabic in the pre-Islamic era to be identical to the commoners’ Arabic and thus to be Arabic spoken by saliqa. Some modern grammarians have followed this view, including Muhammad al-Habbas, who considered the linguistic mistakes that occurred among Arabs during the pre-Islamic era to have been simple, such as the slips of the tongue that occur to people speaking Arabic by saliqa colloquially. However, the majority of Arabs did not use to make linguistic mistakes in their speech. I see that the origin of the topic is due to what modern scholars have raised concerning all languages to have two levels of expression: the level of daily life and the level of the common literary language that is used in poetry and literature. Whoever views the existence of only one level in the pre-Islamic era (i.e., classical Arabic) went with the fact that an Arab who spoke Arabic by saliqa spoke classical Arabic, and whoever viewed the existence of two levels went with the fact that an Arab who spoke Arabic by saliqa was speaking Arabic in the dialect used in their tribe.
