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Question to someone who may know: We see in Arabic many words which are prefixed with an "al", Moammar Al-Qaddafi, for example. Others like Al-Akbar, and I believe it was Anwar Al-Sadat of Egypt. To what does the "al" refer? Or is it like a "the", "of", "from"? Is it like Fitz in Fitzsimmons, Da in DaVinci, D' in D'Onofrio, Mac in MacKay, De in DeMaupassant? I notice it is in names of places as well as people, hence my question.
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The word 'al is basically the definite article in Arabic, i.e., the.
Ceci n'est pas un seing.
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Pooh-Bah
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and in NZ some place names begin with the French 'rue'. It translates to 'street' (I use to think it meant the) Akaroa
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Looks like a beautiful place. Qadaffi's son was called Al-Qadaffi on the new this AM.
Last edited by LukeJavan8; 02/27/11 04:07 PM.
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The same things happen in Ancient Greek if I remeber correctly...for about a week after learning this we went around school calling everyone "The Alice" or "The Guinevere"...I presume we found it funny to begin with but it only lasted that first week...
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The same things happen in Ancient Greek if I remeber correctly...for about a week after learning this we went around school calling everyone "The Alice" or "The Guinevere"...I presume we found it funny to begin with but it only lasted that first week... Even that makes more sense to me. With it being the definite article explained that way. So the thing being definitely pointed out (like Qadaffi) does not necessarily mean anything, it is like The Alice?
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