Let’s suppose a patient’s foot has to be amputated in an emergency situation and a weary, overworked surgeon is instructed to cut off the man’s ﺮﺠﻞ. Mightn’t the surgeon amputate the entire leg instead of the foot?

Lol, I think he would! Probably wise to be more specific in that kind of situation and use قدم instead

Yes, ArabicLover, I agree. My question isn't as guileless as it looks. It is what is known in German as "eine Suggestivfrage" (a leading question).

The purpose of the question is fourfold:

(1) to highlight the fact that some areas of the Arabic vocabulary are dangerously imprecise,

(2) to demonstrate the inherent fuzziness of natural language,

(3) to spark off a discussion about opposing tendencies within the Arabic language (over-precision and imprecision),

(4) to invite listeners to cite further examples of potential ambiguity and imprecision (including homographs and homophones). These examples might be collected, classified and discussed in a podcast.

The key word in this lesson is quite intriguing. It has been recorded in F. Steingass’s "Arabic-English Dictionary", which was first published in London in 1884. According to Steingass, the past tense of the verb in question is spelt ﺪﻏﺪﻍ. Steingass transcribed this verb form as “dagdag”. This looks pretty odd. Presumably he used the letter “g” to represent a sound like the Northern French “r”. (The Southern French “r” is more like the Italian “r”.) I wonder how Ehab and Mohamed would pronounce the word. I suspect that “dag” sounds rather like the word for “lesson” (ﺪﺮﺱ without an “s”.

The fact that ﺪﻏﺪﻍ was recorded by Steingass gives us reason to assume that this verb is a word of honourable antiquity. In the nineteenth century, according to Steingass, it even had three meanings: (1) to tickle, (2) to taunt or gibe, and (3) to state something in an unintelligible manner. This raises further questions. What is the core or primary meaning of the word? And has it lost any of the meanings recorded by Steingass?

Ehab suggests that ﺪﻏﺪﻍ is an imitative word, and he is probably right, for imitative words are often formed by reduplication, and in the present instance the sound of the word might suggest the repeated movements of a finger or a feather.

A great many Arabic words have been formed by reduplication, and I have cited a long list of examples in a comment on the podcast entitled “Repeat the sentence”. In some cases the words are clearly imitative, but words like ﻤﺸﻤﺶ (apricot) are rather puzzling.

Interesting points as always Desmond,

Just to cover briefly the issue of using (قدم) or (رِجل). There is a special topic in Arabic called (Almajaaz المجاز) which discusses such points, inshallah we should dedicate a lesson for that.

Regarding to the pronunciation of (غ), from your description I can say that the Northern French (r) is most likely to have similar sound to (غ). You can always listen to the word (دغدغ) on its own in the exercise, also you can focus on letter (غ) using our Arabic Pronunciation Guide APG under Activities.

I'm looking forward to the new podcast, Ehab. The Arabic language is absolutely fascinating!

Incidentally, while you were writing your comment, I was writing a comment on your reply to Adam's very interesting question.

I really love the way you teach the language, Its beautiful and amazing. Mashallah Allah Ziadak be Dorusak