ال

Concepts

the

agreement

apparatus

appliance

arrive

blood relation

clan

consanguinity

el

family

👪

instrument

lead

machine

moderate

most

neglect

placate

return

soften

take an oath

treaty

desist from

Alef Lam

best

-est

Synonyms

اتفاق

أَحْسَن

أَفْضَل

قرابة الدم

Translations

le plus

-ste

am … -sten

en

le

-ster

la

els

sa

⚕️

pacte

ses

sos

es

conveni

millor

Pronounced as (IPA)

/al-/

Etymology

Uncertain; Rubin posits that this is a reduced form of the lost singular of Arabic أُولَى (ʔulā, “these”); compare rare Hebrew אֵל (el, “these”) and Akkadian 𒌌𒇻𒌑𒌝 (ullûm, “that”). In this hypothesis, original initial /u/ would be lost due to low stress; the initial /a/ found in phrase-initial position would thus be prothetic.