Meaning of majhul | Babel Free

Definitions

1. A class of vowel used in various Arabic script languages, including Persian, Kurdish, and Urdu, among others:
2. A vowel phoneme that does not have a phonemic equivalent in Classical Arabic.
3. A semivowel, or other vocalic character, with a reading that is phonemically distinct from its normal pronunciation in Classical Arabic.
   broadly
4. A conditional allophone of a vowel phoneme that appears in proximity to certain guttural consonants.
   broadly

Examples

“The New Persian [of Iran], as is well known, has confused in many words the majhūl (' unknown [to the Arabs]' =Persian sounds) vowels ē, ō with the ma'rūf ('known [to the Arabs]'=Arabic sounds) vowels ī, ū. The Judaeo-Persian and the Baluci, like the Indian pronunciation of New Persian, maintain clearly the original distinction between the majhūl and the ma'rūf vowels.”

“The majhul sounds o and e are still preserved in the Persian spoken by Afghans and Indians, but they are now unknown in Persia.”

“[Kabuli Persian] differs from [Tehrani Persian] in that it has retained the old majhul vowels e and o, which have merged with i and u in [Tehrani Persian]”

“Another process that has resulted in [u] in Iranian Persian is the change from the majhul /ō/, which is still preserved in Afghanistan.”

“Literary Kurdish in Iraq, Persia, and the Soviet Union written in this script employs a circumflex accent placed above the letters to distinguish non-Persian sounds: with w and y to denote majhul vowels (ō, ē).”

“[...] there are two kinds of Yā in Persian, namely, the Ma'rūf and the Majhūl. The Ma'rūf or known Yā is the Yā which occurs in such words as رقیب, تیر, شیر (milk), دید, پیل etc., while the Majhūl or Unknown Yā occurs in words such as خویش, تیز, شیر (lion), سپید etc.”

“If the stem ends in either ی-ma'rūf (i) or ی-majhul (e), the letter ج is inserted, for the sake of euphony, between the stem and the termination: e.g., from پینا to drink, we have پینجیئے, پیجیو, and پیجییگا, from دینا we have دیجیئے, etc.”

“Mârūf مَعروُف and majhul مَجھوُل, known and un-known. These Arabic terms are applied to the letters و wāo and ی ye. In Arabic the simple vowel sounds of these two letters are ū and ī, the sounds o and e are unknown in that language; so ū and ī are said to be mârūf, but o and e are majhūl. The majhūl sounds are sometimes called Âjamī or Persian.”

“Thirdly, to distinguish between the majhūl and ma'rūf sounds of و and ي, the following rule is observed. When و and ي follow a consonant, unmarked by a short vowel or jazm, they are understood to have the majhul sound, or that of ō and ê respectively, as in مور mōr, "an ant," and شیر shêr, "a lion." If, on the other hand, the consonant preceding و have the vowel ـُ, and that preceding ي the vowel ـِ, they have the ma'rūf sound, or that of u in rule and i in machine respectively, as in the words شُود šūd, "gain," and شِیر, shīr, "milk": and if the preceding consonant be marked with jazm, و and ي are consonants.”

CEFR level