ملامح نظرية الفونيم في كتاب العين للخليل بن أحمد الفراهيدي

Abstract EN

The Phoneme Theory is a modern Western theory in its codification, yet Arabic in its origin and principles.

This study aims at revealing the Phoneme Theory features in the oldest Arabic dictionary, which is Kitab-Al-'Ayn of Al-Khalil Ibn Ahmad Al-Farahidi.

The "phonemic arrangement" was the core principle of Al-Khalil lexicon theory.

Remarkably, most of Al-Khalil's principles were recently adopted by Western scholars.

The results indicate that Arand Al-Khalil particularly were aware of the Phoneme Theory; however, they were unfamiliar with codifying, synthesizing concepts and formulating them into theories.

This has made Arab scholars in dependency on Western sciences.