The Magnetized Man

First, you need to start with a specific root and a specific form. 

Let’s use the root و–ق–ي which conveys the idea of protecting or guarding oneself. 

و–ق–ي 

Let’s use Form VIII, which carries the sense of doing an action to oneself, exerting internal effort, or participating in deliberate conscious action. You can also consider it the form that conveys the middle voice. The pattern for Form VIII is اِفْتَعَلَ. 

اِفْتَعَلَ

Applying the Form VIII pattern to the root happens in two main stages: a theoretical stage and a phonological rule stage. These stages may have multiple steps within them. 

Stage 1: The Theoretical Stage

Each letter in our root is known as a “radical.” This will sound familiar to people who love math. In math, a radical is this symbol √ and it helps find the root of numbers. 

So, if we apply this pattern in theory, we would perform the following steps: 

Step 1: Write the prefix from the pattern which is اِ. So far, our word looks like this: 

اِ

Step 2: Attach the first radical to the prefix, giving us this: اِوْ

اِوْ

Step 3: Attach the infix of تَ. We now have this: اِوْتَ

اِوْتَ

Step 4: Attach the second radical, giving us this: اِوْتَقَ.

اِوْتَقَ

Step 3: Attach the third radical, giving us this: اِوْتَقَيَ.

اِوْتَقَيَ

This is a very mechanical approach. The radicals replace the ق ع ل and you get a theoretical version of Form VIII. 

As nice and easy as this would be, this is incomplete. Which brings us to Stage 2. 

Stage 2: The Phonological Rule Stage

Arabic morphology has something known as “weak radicals.” They are ا و ي. When a weak radical shows up in a root, it’s likely to change, especially if it shows up in the first or medial position. This is because there are certain letter or sound combinations that sound awkward and that Arabic tries to avoid. اِوْ is one of those “illegal” or “illicit” combinations in phonology and morphology. 

So for Step 1 of the Phonological Rule Stage, we are going to drop و completely. 

That leaves us with this: اِتَقَيَ.

اِتَقَيَ

But, as in life, everything comes at a cost. So for step 2, we have to compensate for dropping the و by doing what’s known as compensatory doubling. We double the ت also known as the infix. So now, in addition to a fatha, the ت has a shaddah, and our word now looks like this: اِتَّقَيَ. 

 اِتَّقَيَ

For step 3, we have one more weak radical to deal with: ي. We will fix this by changing it to an alif maqsurah, which turns our work into: اَتَّقَى.

اَتَّقَى