Morphological Studies in the Diwan of Sheikh Muhammad Hassan Kubba

Abstract

The current study investigates the phonological and morphological phenomena of substitution (ibdāl), vowel alternation (iʿlāl), and assimilation (idghām) in the poetic collection of Shaykh Muḥammad Ḥasan Kabba. The research adopts a descriptive–analytical approach, drawing on selected poetic evidence from the diwan and analyzing it in light of the classical and modern Arabic linguistic tradition, particularly the views of scholars such as Sībawayh, Ibn Jinnī, Ibn Yaʿīsh, and others. The study demonstrates that substitution in the diwan predominantly follows regular morphological patterns, especially in the substitution of the infix tāʾ in the iftʿāl form and the replacement of final wāw and yāʾ with a hamza under specific phonological conditions. Vowel alternation appears in its various forms—vowel change, deletion, movement transfer, and syllabic adjustment—serving primarily to achieve phonetic ease and structural harmony within the poetic text. Assimilation is shown to occur in multiple forms, including assimilation of identical, homorganic, and closely articulated sounds, as well as the assimilation of the definite article (lām al-taʿrīf) into solar letters. The analysis reveals that assimilation in many instances goes beyond a purely phonetic process, contributing instead to the restructuring of morphological forms and the unification of adjacent lexical units. The study concludes that these phenomena are systematically employed and conform to established Arabic morphological and phonological rules, reflecting the poet’s linguistic competence and adherence to the norms of classical Arabic. The diwan thus represents a rich linguistic corpus for studying sound-based morphological processes in Arabic poetry. Keywords: substitution (ibdāl), vowel alternation (iʿlāl), assimilation (idghām), Arabic morphology, phonological phenomena, MuḥammadḤasanKabba.