[ArabicFilter] لكن vs لكنَّ: I still don't get the difference.

May 30, 2007 5:54 PM

َ[ArabicFilter] لكن vs لكنَّ: I still don't get the difference.

Yeah, pretty much, I just want to know when to use these suckers. It's confused me for awhile now and I still trip up when I try to use it.

posted by Lockeownzj00 to Writing & Language (7 answers total)

I take it that you're referring to the shadda over the concluding nun in that word? What do you not know exactly - do you not know when to pronounce the shadda, or do you not know when to use it?

I think it's optional in the writing, like most of the Arabic diacriticals. But it can totally change the meaning of a word if you leave it out in speech (see the wikipedia article).
posted by rkent at 6:15 PM on May 30, 2007

Crap, forgot to paste in a URL. "Shadda" should link here.
posted by rkent at 6:16 PM on May 30, 2007

Also, if the nun with no diacriticals precedes a ya with a shadda (or a lam in some cases) then the nun is left silent.

This is also the punchline to the best dirty joke ever.
posted by IvyMike at 9:13 PM on May 30, 2007 [8 favorites]

Response by poster: No...I was actually referring to "lakin" and "lakinna," two different ways of saying "but." One you conjugate to the person involved--"Lakinnanee," for example, but the other you do not.
posted by Lockeownzj00 at 3:14 AM on May 31, 2007

Gramatically, this is not a v.good example, but since right now I can't think of a proper Quranic example this should suffice in the sounds-and-pronounciation department for you (assuming that is the problem you are facing). And assuming you already know the basic Arabic character set:

a) Burhan = برحان
b) Burhanan = برحانً

As I put in disclaimer above, b) Burhanan is an invalid word, and doesn't make any sense, just that Burhanistan's presence in the thread made it convenient to use it (no offence Burhan). And as pointed out by others, read the rules of shadda. There are some intricacies there.
posted by forwebsites at 3:15 AM on May 31, 2007

sorry, I didn't preview before posting. Looking at it now, your question is something totally different which I am not equipped to handle.

btw, as far as I know lekin="but" in Urdu. I don't know if that's also true for Arabic. Are you sure you are asking about Arabic, because shadda as you wrote here comes into play only in Arabic but the word used here is an Urdu word. I don't recall "lekin" as a stand-alone Arabic word in all my readings.
posted by forwebsites at 3:24 AM on May 31, 2007

forwebsites: I would transliterate it as "laakin," but it's certainly a word meaning "but" in the Egyptian colloquial I'm vaguely familiar with. I have no answer for Lockeownzj00, unfortunately, as I wasn't even aware of a conjugated but (this obviously has something to do with the silent nun's lam).
posted by mumkin at 9:19 AM on March 20, 2008