Hi. Just sharing some thoughts. I'm not sure if this is the right place for this thread, sorry.
I just wanted to say that Arabic is probably the only language on earth that didn't undergo any major change for a very long time. I can't think of any language that could be similar to Arabic in terms of evolution. Languages change over time. Sometimes they have major changes in a relatively short period. Arabic doesn't seem to have undergone any major change since the Quran was invented
Well it is interesting (but it's not a miracle to me
). It is interesting because I a native speaker of Arabic can understand poems and things said even in the pre-Islamic era (with a dictionary, of course). English for example had major changes in a very short time, like the change in negation in Middle English*.
I think even Hebrew is facing major changes.
Arabic changes for sure (because all languages change) but the changes in Arabic are always not significant enough to think of them as major changes (like changes in syntax).
The funny thing is that Arabic survives with the Quran, but at the same time the language of the Quran is full of special grammatical errors lol.
You'll always hear Arabic grammarians/linguists say "but the Quran says.." when they're discussing grammar as if it is wholly acceptable. Mohammed unintentionally committed some grammatical errors in the Quran. Umar bin Al Khattab once commented on something that seemed awkward in the Quran and he actually corrected it!
There is another awkward thing in the Quran, which is how Mohammed played with tenses. He used the present tense then moved in a very disturbing way to the past tense, and so forth. This is insane, but surprisingly was effective on the hearers.
Arab linguists say that Arabic consists of prose, poetry and the Quran. The Quran to them is neither prose nor poetry. Well, lol
I can tell that Arabs are staying behind even in linguistics, unfortunately. You know that Muslim scholars tell people to follow the Quran and Sunna strictly. Arabic linguists, who are usually Arab, are just like those extremists. Say this and don't say that. Prescribing is a very old phase in linguistics, not taking into consideration the time and change, but many Arabs still believe in pure Arabic. Those purists exist all over the world, but I feel they're a bit more extreme when it comes to Arabic.
I remember a discussion with an Arab linguistics researcher. He was asked to define 'mother language.' He said it's Arabic since all human beings will speak Arabic in heaven.
Give me a break
Still, I love the fact that I speak the same language that was spoken by Tarafa bin Al Abd (one of the most famous poets who lived in the pre-Islamic era). I just think it's interesting!
*What I mean by the change in negation in English is the shift from the negator 'ne' that comes before the verb to the negator 'not' coming after the verb.
Topic: The only wonderful thing about the Quran