LAST UPDATED: 1 month ago
A palindrome describes symmetry by characters. A palindrome is a word, number or phrase which reads the same backward or forward.
Do palindromes exist in Arabic?
Let's check the following sentence: زوج عجوز
The sentence means an old spouse/husband. It is a palindrome. You can read it from right to left or right to left. The arrangement of the letters is the same.
Try to read the following examples in Arabic first from right to left (as usual) and then from LEFT to RIGHT. The letter combination is the same!
| Libya (Remark: As reddit user TiconderogaShill correctly pointed out, this word looks symmetrical but is actually not a palindrome as the first and last letters are different – thanks!) | ليبيا |
| an old spouse | زوج عجوز |
| Dates hang under(neath) a citadel in Aleppo. | بلح تعلق بقلعة حلب |
Do palindromes exist in the Qur'an?
Yes, they do.
The example of the Qur'an: sura al-Anbiya (the Prophets), verse 21:33. Note: Obviously it doesn't work when the Tashkeel are written.
| each floating in its orbit [all (heavenly bodies) in an orbit] | كل في فلك |
In Arabic, palindromes are called الْقَلْب المُسْتَوي
The term is derived from the verb قَلَبَ (to turn around; to invert, …).
قَلْب grammatically speaking means transposition of letters; reversal, inversion. And مُستَوٍ means regular; straight.
Palindromes are great fun. Since in English we don't have a root system, they are easier to form.
Examples in English
- Madam
- level
- A Toyota's a Toyota.
- Do Geese See God?
- Dammit, I'm Mad!
Examples in German
- Anna; Otto.
- Probably one of the longest German palindrome (single word) is: Retsinakanister (a canister of a greek wine).
- And the longest palindrome sentence in German: Geist ziert Leben, Mut hegt Siege, Beileid trägt belegbare Reue, Neid dient nie, nun eint Neid die Neuerer, abgelebt gärt die Liebe, Geist geht, umnebelt reizt Sieg.
Palindromes have a long history and go back least to 79 AD – to a graffito at Herculaneum, a city buried by ash in that year. This palindrome, called the Sator Square, consists of a sentence written in Latin: Sator Arepo Tenet Opera Rotas (The sower Arepo holds with effort the wheels).
It is really beautiful because there is more than just the reading direction: The letters of the first word serve as the first letters of the following words: S-A-T-O-R. Therefore, the sentence can be arranged into a word square that reads in four different ways: horizontally or vertically from either top left to bottom right or bottom right to top left.
Linguists also know the term heteropalindrome. It describes a word that can be read in both directions – however, you will get different words when you read it forward and backward. For example: deliver and reviled.
Arabic Collection of Douglas Fink
Douglas Fink, a reader from the United States, collects palindromes in all languages (“Lisa Bonet ate no basil.” is his famous English one).
He wanted to share his Arabic collection with us (many thanks!):
- كُلٌّ فِي فَلَكٍ -Qur'an (36:40)
- رَبَّكَ فَكَبِّرْ – Qur'an (74:3)
- أرض خضراء
- بَكْرُ مُعَلَّقٌ بِقِلْعِ مَرْكَبٍ
- بَلَحٌ تَعَلَّقَ بِقَلْعَةِ حَلَبَ
- تزوج عجوزة
- حِصَانٌ نَاصِحٌ
- دَامَ عَلَاءُ الْعِمَادُ
- ربك فكبر
- زَوْجٌ عَجُوزٌ
- سر فَلَا كَبَا بِكَ الْفَرَسُ
- سور حماه بربها محروس
- صان ناصح
- كَبُرَتْ آيَاتُ رَبِّكَ
- كَمَالُكَ تَحْتَ كَلَامِكَ
Arabic grammar isn't boring:
- What does Dunya mean?
- Does the negation with ما or لم convey the same meaning?
- Arabic letters without dots – Does it work?
- الصَّلاةُ خَيْرٌ مِن الْنَّوْمِ: “Prayer is better than sleep” – Is it really “better”?
- What is a masdar mu'awwal in Arabic?
Picture credit: Image by ErikaWittlieb from Pixabay
thank youuuuu