Word of the Day, Issue #029

to die = مَات

The verb to die in Arabic is مَات . The imperfect can me يَمُوت or يَمات . Hollow verbs which retain an ا in their imperfect, such as خَاف (imperfect: يَخَاف ) to fear, take a kasrah on their first radical in those perfect verb conjugates for which the third radical has a sukun, e.g. خِفْتُ مِنْه I was afraid of him. On the other hand those which take a و in their imperfect, such as قَال (imperfect: يَقُوْل ) to say, take a dammah on their first radical in those perfect verb conjugates for which the third radical has a sukun, e.g قُلْتُ لَهُ هذا I said this to him. As مَات has both possibilities, we can say both مِتْنَا and مُتْنَا for we died. The corresponding adjectives are مَيْت and مَيِّت , meaning dead. Some classical Arabic linguists claimed that there is a difference between the two adjectives, namely that the former is for those who have actually died, while the latter is for those near death, but this was rejected by most on the basis that the former is just a contraction of the latter, and in such instances the meaning is not known to change