What a language!

Arabic translation: يَا لَهَاْ مِنْ لُغَةٍ

GLOSSARY ENTRY (DERIVED FROM QUESTION BELOW)
English term or phrase:What a language!
Arabic translation:يَا لَهَاْ مِنْ لُغَةٍ
Entered by: bochkor

14:47 Sep 16, 2017
English to Arabic translations [Non-PRO]
Art/Literary - Linguistics
English term or phrase: What a language!
I need the translation with:
- ALL diacritics on ALL words and on the ENTIRE words
- the pronunciation/transliteration

Explanations need to be in English, except for Arabic examples, where I also need all diacritics & pronunciations.

I was given this translation before:
يا لها من لغةٍ
Ya laha min lugha!

But I have the following problems with this:

1. This example sentence was given to me to demonstrate, that LUGHA in this case comes at the end of the sentence, so it has to be pronounced LUGHA with no other ending attached to it. However, as you can see, there is a kasratan for -IN on top of the ta marbutah, which makes it LUGHATIN. That's why I need all the diacritics and only the correct ones.

2. This was given to me with an exclamation mark ! at the end of the sentence, which ended up at the beginning of the sentence (probably due to copying & pasting). I understand, why this character was treated as a non-Arabic letter and ended up at the beginning: because it is actually not an Arabic character at all. But then my question arises: If this character ! is not part of the Arabic language, then why do some people even use it? And isn't there another character/letter for exclamations in Arabic at the end of a sentence? I mean, there is a period (full stop) in Arabic, too, which is square-shaped, like a simple diamond. Then there is a weird upside-down comma, too (of which I'm not sure, whether it's officially part of the Arabic script or not). So what's the deal with this exclamation mark? Is it officially part of Arabic writing or not? And if not, then what do you put officially at the end of sentences like this one or like "Oh!" or "Come here!", "Stop it!", "Don't laugh!", etc.
bochkor
Local time: 07:18
يَا لَهَاْ مِنْ لُغَةٍ
Explanation:
!يَا لَهَاْ مِنْ لُغَةٍ /ya laha min lughatin/ = What a Language

You don't have to pronounce it as /lugha/ or /lughatin/ when it comes at the end as you can pronounce it either way. Noe that the /in/ sound is denoted at the bottom of ta al marbutah, and not at the top like you mentioned.

As for exclamation marks, unlike Arabic, English is governed by a sophisticated punctuation system. In old classical Arabic, no punctuation was used, and it is no surprise to see a whole page written in Arabic with only one full stop at the end of a page. However, the punctuation you see in Arabic texts now a days is a relatively recent practice, which was developed to conform with the western scripts. An exclamation mark is not originally part of the Arabic script; however, it is used in modern Arabic scripts. It should come at the end of the sentence or phrase, not at the beginning, but due to formatting issue in the Proz Website it comes at the beginning sometimes. There is no diamond shaped full stop in the Arabic script, and the Arabic comma is an upside English comma. If you have downloaded an Arabic keyboard, you can find it by pressing Shift + K.

HTH

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Note added at 3 hrs (2017-09-16 17:58:33 GMT)
--------------------------------------------------

Sorry, I didn't catch your name?

No, even if you add the kasra (or any diacritics) , you still have the option to pronounce it /lugha/ or /lughatin/; its stylistic (optional), it's doesn't matter and both are correct whether there was a diacritic at the end or not. So the bottom line is: that you have the option to either pronounce the last TN or not, only if it comes at the end of speech (it's the exception rather than the rule). Any other diacritics in the body of the text has to be adhered to. Sorry, it's a bit confusing! Because you can still add the kasra but not pronounce it.
The same applies to the nominal subject (or any thing which comes at the end of speech) when it comes at the end of a sentence; you can either say /lugha/ or /lughatu/. And as you rightly said: there is a rule, but is not a rule. I say to you: its stylistic; you can say both and would not be grammatically and phonetically wrong. Are you doing a research in this field?

--------------------------------------------------
Note added at 3 hrs (2017-09-16 18:14:54 GMT)
--------------------------------------------------

Unlike English, there is no punctuation rules in MSA Arabic (Modern Standard Arabic), which is different than Classical Arabic. You can have your own rules as to where you put your commas, full stops and any other punctuation marks. The Arabic full stop is the same as the English, and the comma looks like this: (،). But, nowadays, we use full stops to conform to Western texts. However, 50-60 years ago, not many punctuation marks were used by Arab writers. The conjunction (و) / wa/ (and), which is the most frequent conjunction used in Arabic, was and sill is used to connect between sentences, phrases and words. (ف) / fa / is the second most frequent conjunction in Arabic, which means next. Unlike MSA, Classical Arabic (1000 or so years ago), did not have any punctuation, as far as I'm aware.
HTH
Selected response from:

Mohammed Majeed
United Kingdom
Local time: 11:18
Grading comment
Thank you very much.
4 KudoZ points were awarded for this answer



Summary of answers provided
5 +1يَا لَهَاْ مِنْ لُغَةٍ
Mohammed Majeed


  

Answers


1 hr   confidence: Answerer confidence 5/5 peer agreement (net): +1
what a language!
يَا لَهَاْ مِنْ لُغَةٍ


Explanation:
!يَا لَهَاْ مِنْ لُغَةٍ /ya laha min lughatin/ = What a Language

You don't have to pronounce it as /lugha/ or /lughatin/ when it comes at the end as you can pronounce it either way. Noe that the /in/ sound is denoted at the bottom of ta al marbutah, and not at the top like you mentioned.

As for exclamation marks, unlike Arabic, English is governed by a sophisticated punctuation system. In old classical Arabic, no punctuation was used, and it is no surprise to see a whole page written in Arabic with only one full stop at the end of a page. However, the punctuation you see in Arabic texts now a days is a relatively recent practice, which was developed to conform with the western scripts. An exclamation mark is not originally part of the Arabic script; however, it is used in modern Arabic scripts. It should come at the end of the sentence or phrase, not at the beginning, but due to formatting issue in the Proz Website it comes at the beginning sometimes. There is no diamond shaped full stop in the Arabic script, and the Arabic comma is an upside English comma. If you have downloaded an Arabic keyboard, you can find it by pressing Shift + K.

HTH

--------------------------------------------------
Note added at 3 hrs (2017-09-16 17:58:33 GMT)
--------------------------------------------------

Sorry, I didn't catch your name?

No, even if you add the kasra (or any diacritics) , you still have the option to pronounce it /lugha/ or /lughatin/; its stylistic (optional), it's doesn't matter and both are correct whether there was a diacritic at the end or not. So the bottom line is: that you have the option to either pronounce the last TN or not, only if it comes at the end of speech (it's the exception rather than the rule). Any other diacritics in the body of the text has to be adhered to. Sorry, it's a bit confusing! Because you can still add the kasra but not pronounce it.
The same applies to the nominal subject (or any thing which comes at the end of speech) when it comes at the end of a sentence; you can either say /lugha/ or /lughatu/. And as you rightly said: there is a rule, but is not a rule. I say to you: its stylistic; you can say both and would not be grammatically and phonetically wrong. Are you doing a research in this field?

--------------------------------------------------
Note added at 3 hrs (2017-09-16 18:14:54 GMT)
--------------------------------------------------

Unlike English, there is no punctuation rules in MSA Arabic (Modern Standard Arabic), which is different than Classical Arabic. You can have your own rules as to where you put your commas, full stops and any other punctuation marks. The Arabic full stop is the same as the English, and the comma looks like this: (،). But, nowadays, we use full stops to conform to Western texts. However, 50-60 years ago, not many punctuation marks were used by Arab writers. The conjunction (و) / wa/ (and), which is the most frequent conjunction used in Arabic, was and sill is used to connect between sentences, phrases and words. (ف) / fa / is the second most frequent conjunction in Arabic, which means next. Unlike MSA, Classical Arabic (1000 or so years ago), did not have any punctuation, as far as I'm aware.
HTH

Mohammed Majeed
United Kingdom
Local time: 11:18
Native speaker of: Arabic
PRO pts in category: 4
Grading comment
Thank you very much.
Notes to answerer
Asker: You're right, I wrote "on top" of ta marbutah, but the kasratan -IN was actually at the bottom. My mistake, sorry. But if you added the kasratan -IN, then you don't have the option to pronounce it just LUGHA anymore, because this invokes, that the ta marbutah cannot be pronounced -AH anymore, but only T, so T+IN = TIN. So if you intend to pronounce it just LUGHA, then you cannot add the kasratan -IN or any other form of nunation to it, because those change the pronunciation. Isn't this true? Now apart from the writing rules, but rather according to the speaking rules, which I have been explained so far, this word is said/pronounced (must be pronounced) LUGHA, when it comes as a nominative subject at the end of a sentence. But if, as you're saying now, you can pronounce it either way (LUGHA or LUGHATIN), despite that it's a nominative subject at the END of a sentence, then that rule is not valid anymore? So there's a rule, but it's not a rule? Sorry, but I don't understand this.

Asker: Regarding the Arabic period (full stop), I guess, I mixed it up with the Arabic zero, which looked kinda diamond-shaped to me. So then what does the Arabic period (full stop) look like? So in classical Arabic there wasn't even that "only one full stop at the end of a page"?


Peer comments on this answer (and responses from the answerer)
agree  Chakib Roula
50 mins
  -> مع خالص تقديري واحترامي
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