voron wrote:I have doubts about the bold parts in this sentence:
فتوجه الثعلب نحوه لأجل ما سمع من عظيم صوته
لأجل ما - is it a single conjunction?
لأجل ما, as we can see, does consist of two words with two individual meanings, so it isn't really a single conjunction.
لأجل: "because of".
ما (in this context): "what".
من عظيم صوته - I can't make heads or tails of it. Why is there a personal ending on صوته, and why does the adjective precede the noun?
The personal ending is there because "3azimi" ends with a kasrah because of the "genitive" case (I'd rather call it al-jarr الجرّ). So "sawtihi" is connected to that majrur مجرور word (i.e. "3azimi"). Together it, literally, means "from the powerful of his sound/voice".
EDIT: I guess من is "man" (I was reading it as "min"), so the whole phrase means "he went towards it to hear, who is this whose sound is powerful?"
The usual tashkil would be a kasrah rather than a fathah. So it would be "min" (of).
And would "man" be possible in this context, too? Unusual at least. Even if (especially) the early Arabic linguists strongly disadvised against stating that something isn't a part of the language without being really certain.
قالوا: عدم العلم ليس علما بالعدم
They said, "the absence of the knowledge isn't [the same as] the knowledge of the absence". I.e. there is a major difference between:
- Not knowing whether something would be used or not
- Knowing that it isn't used.
These are two ways of rephrasing the above where "man" (fathah) definitely is possible:
فتوجه الثعلب نحوه لأجل أنه سمع مَن صوتُه عظيمٌ
فتوجه الثعلب نحوه لأجل أنه سمع مَن عظيمٌ صوتُهThe second example could sound a bit uncommon to some. But still, mentioning "3azimun" before "sawtuhu" is deeply rooted in Standard Arabic as well, even if it is used in MSA less often. Doing so is called التقديم, and it can be done for a certain type of emphasis.
Speaking about animals as "man" rather than "ma" isn't the most common way. However, it does happen, without no doubt, because of the personification that is going on in e.g. fables. Even inanimate objects can be referred to as "man" in some cases, so ... it is fully possible, although the most common way would still be "ma".
eskandar wrote:I'm a bit confused about that sentence too, though. I read it as "because of what he heard of its powerful sound" but it would make more sense to me if it was لأجل ما سمع من صوته العظيم .
The difference between لأجل ما سمع من صوته العظيم and لأجل ما سمع من عظيم صوته is a rather subtle one, although it does exist.
They mean (literal translation):
- because of what he heard from his sound/voice, the powerful
- because of what he heard from (the) powerful of his sound
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