The paper discusses some peculiarities of translating the names of suras of the Qurʼān into Chine... more The paper discusses some peculiarities of translating the names of suras of the Qurʼān into Chinese based on the study of the most common Chinese translation made in the second half of the last century by the Muslim intellectual Muhammad Ma Jian. The work examines suras possessing the most significant discrepancies between the original Arabic names and the corresponding Chinese equivalents. The study is accompanied by commentary on the potential reasons for these variations while taking into account factors of an ethnocultural and linguistic nature. In a number of cases, comparisons with translations of the Qurʼān into Russian are also provided. The interdisciplinary nature of the work is manifested in the application of methods of source study, historical and philological, and comparative analysis. Having researched the main milestones in the history of translations of the Qurʼān into Chinese in the context of the spread of Islam in China, the authors come to the conclusion that th...
Arabic dialectology has a long history and achieved significant progress in collecting and analyz... more Arabic dialectology has a long history and achieved significant progress in collecting and analyzing linguistic data and its classification. The present paper analyses modern trends in the linguistic situation in the Arab world and defines the topics essential for the Arabic dialectology, which require an urgent solution. During the last century, several attempts have been undertaken to create dialectal atlases of different regions of the Arab world. Besides this, considerable work also has been done on synchronous descriptions of modern and ancient Arabic dialects. Meanwhile these researches do not always reflect fully and adequately the current state of the dialectal continuum, which underwent significant transformations as a result of social and economic changes in the region, development of new technologies. Globalization and leveling of dialectal differences, spread of languages of international communication will lead to disappearance of small dialectal groups and vernaculars,...
The article examines the language of the Qur’ān as an object of interdisciplinary study. Based on... more The article examines the language of the Qur’ān as an object of interdisciplinary study. Based on the research of the periods of the formation of the text of the Qur’ān and the available approaches to its description, the authors compare history and modernity, determining the prospects for the development of the Qur’ānic studies. As an example of particular areas of scholar research, the paper considers Qur’ān manuscript as an object of separate research. The authors cite both classical methods of codicological research and available solutions for digital processing of Arabographic manuscripts. Attention is also paid to the study of the language of the Qur’ān in a historical perspective through the development of the Arabic linguistic tradition. Another example of the application of an interdisciplinary approach was the study of the possibilities of carrying out linguistic analysis of the text of the Qur’ān using methods of automatic data processing. The effectiveness of methods of ...
Vestnik of Saint Petersburg University. Asian and African Studies
The paper considers the key trends and prospects of Arabic and Islamic Studies in the context of ... more The paper considers the key trends and prospects of Arabic and Islamic Studies in the context of information globalization of society. The dynamics of qualitative changes in the humanities in general and Arabic Studies in particular is traced with the reference to its historical context. The study analyses the compliance of the applied research methods with the challenges of the modern time on the example of a number of scholar areas such as dialectology, description of arabographic manuscripts and application of digital technologies in education. It also suggests solutions aimed at optimizing and increase the efficiency of research processes through the use of digital technologies. The development of interdisciplinary studies is discussed in the historical perspective; besides that, it provides specific examples of current researches of this kind as well as trends of the development in the humanities are identified. Special attention is paid to the changes of educational paradigm, meaning both the evolution of digital competence of students and the application of digital resources, including e-learning. The SPbU experience is presented as an example of successful interdisciplinary projects, and, namely, the results of joint projects implemented by Arabists and mathematicians. When specifying the development prospects for the Arabic studies the authors highlight the importance of the optimal balance of the traditional classical approach and innovative solutions for scholar and educational tasks. The authors also underline the significance of an interdisciplinary approaches and digital methods, which open new opportunities to conduct scholar researches and make it possible to face the challenges that are brought along by socio-political changes in society on the stage of its transition to the information-driven development.
The report addresses the basic problems of the Arabic language formalization based on analysis of... more The report addresses the basic problems of the Arabic language formalization based on analysis of linguistic errors in software products. Reviewing the principles of modern information systems operation the authors come to the conclusion that the existing methods of the Arabic formalization allow to note a shift towards the technological aspects of the linguistic processing of facts, however, the quality of applied linguistic components still remains poor. Possibilities for the application of traditional recognition algorithms for Arabic are still uncertain in spite of a significant number of theoretical and practical results in the field of computational linguistics. There are several problems which are due to be solved in relation to the processing of the Arabic text. These issues may be divided into those related to Optical Recognition of the Written Text (OCR), Word Processing (WP) and building of the content of the dictionaries, Machine Translation (MT).
This paper reviews software solutions which the authors use in the Arabic teaching, as well as pr... more This paper reviews software solutions which the authors use in the Arabic teaching, as well as problems related to the Arabic language formalization. These solutions are implemented both in full-time training and in e-learning programs. It also deals with the two types of e-learning portals used at the St. Petersburg State University, Russia as a main medium for the software tools: Sakai and IBM Workplace Collaborative Learning, as well as the principles of computer selection of the teaching material, advantages and difficulties of the software designed for the Arabic script. The authors also focus on the use of the standard software for purposes of education and analyze the experience of the e-courses for Arabic.
The mediaeval Arabic manuscripts are not only valuable artifacts but they also represent one of t... more The mediaeval Arabic manuscripts are not only valuable artifacts but they also represent one of the major sources of scholar information in the field of Oriental Studies. This paper discusses the methods of Arabic Manuscripts Digitization. Over the last fifteen years a lot of Arabic manuscript digitization projects have been carried out. Digital collections of the manuscripts based on Arabic script are represented in the collections of libraries worldwide, including on-line databases. Nevertheless, these collections are restricted by their functionality: technology of metadata integration relies on the human made characteristics. While a possibility of automatic metadata introduction would facilitate the task of manuscript processing, at the same time it allows automatic quantitative and quality analysis of the manuscripts. This paper analyses different methods for classifying and retrieving historical Arabic handwritten documents and suggests the most efficient methods of their dig...
Russian Foundation for Basic Research Journal. Humanities and social sciences
The Quran is in focus of many researchers as a crucial source of information, including its langu... more The Quran is in focus of many researchers as a crucial source of information, including its language. The aim of the study is to describe the morphology of the Quran language in comparison with the modern Arabic literature language, which requires a thorough and comprehensive analysis of its text. The available scientific literature describes the style and vocabulary of the Quran language in detail, while the morphological aspects are not fully studied. The complementary use of modern methods of automatic data processing and techniques of comparative historical linguistics allows not only getting an unbiased picture of the morphology of the classical Arabic language, but also provides the basis for further typological studies. A quantitative analysis of individual verbal word forms in the Quran text in comparison with similar models of the modern Arabic language demonstrates the predominance of archaic forms, which in this case are typical for Arabic dialects, both ancient and moder...
Modern educational paradigm demonstrates a shift from learning outcomes to practice-oriented comp... more Modern educational paradigm demonstrates a shift from learning outcomes to practice-oriented competencies. The present study examines the meaning and role of different types of CompetencyBased Education worldwide. The key idea of Competency-Based Education can be described as providing student with knowledge and skills of applying it. The definitions of Competency-based approach vary in different parts of the world. The present paper regards the meanings of the term Competency – Based Education, and describes the example of implementation of this approach in Islamic Studies program.
1 The authors acknowledge Saint-Petersburg State University for a research grant 2.37.175.2014. A... more 1 The authors acknowledge Saint-Petersburg State University for a research grant 2.37.175.2014. Abstract The mediaeval Arabic manuscripts are not only valuable artifacts but they also represent one of the major sources of scholar information in the field of Oriental Studies. This paper discusses the methods of Arabic Manuscripts Digitization. Over the last fifteen years a lot of Arabic manuscript digitization projects have been carried out. Digital collections of the manuscripts based on Arabic script are represented in the collections of libraries worldwide, including on-line databases. Nevertheless, these collections are restricted by their functionality: technology of metadata integration relies on the human made characteristics. While a possibility of automatic metadata introduction would facilitate the task of manuscript processing, at the same time it allows automatic quantitative and quality analysis of the manuscripts. This paper analyses different methods for classifying an...
The paper discusses some peculiarities of translating the names of suras of the Qurʼān into Chine... more The paper discusses some peculiarities of translating the names of suras of the Qurʼān into Chinese based on the study of the most common Chinese translation made in the second half of the last century by the Muslim intellectual Muhammad Ma Jian. The work examines suras possessing the most significant discrepancies between the original Arabic names and the corresponding Chinese equivalents. The study is accompanied by commentary on the potential reasons for these variations while taking into account factors of an ethnocultural and linguistic nature. In a number of cases, comparisons with translations of the Qurʼān into Russian are also provided. The interdisciplinary nature of the work is manifested in the application of methods of source study, historical and philological, and comparative analysis. Having researched the main milestones in the history of translations of the Qurʼān into Chinese in the context of the spread of Islam in China, the authors come to the conclusion that th...
Arabic dialectology has a long history and achieved significant progress in collecting and analyz... more Arabic dialectology has a long history and achieved significant progress in collecting and analyzing linguistic data and its classification. The present paper analyses modern trends in the linguistic situation in the Arab world and defines the topics essential for the Arabic dialectology, which require an urgent solution. During the last century, several attempts have been undertaken to create dialectal atlases of different regions of the Arab world. Besides this, considerable work also has been done on synchronous descriptions of modern and ancient Arabic dialects. Meanwhile these researches do not always reflect fully and adequately the current state of the dialectal continuum, which underwent significant transformations as a result of social and economic changes in the region, development of new technologies. Globalization and leveling of dialectal differences, spread of languages of international communication will lead to disappearance of small dialectal groups and vernaculars,...
The article examines the language of the Qur’ān as an object of interdisciplinary study. Based on... more The article examines the language of the Qur’ān as an object of interdisciplinary study. Based on the research of the periods of the formation of the text of the Qur’ān and the available approaches to its description, the authors compare history and modernity, determining the prospects for the development of the Qur’ānic studies. As an example of particular areas of scholar research, the paper considers Qur’ān manuscript as an object of separate research. The authors cite both classical methods of codicological research and available solutions for digital processing of Arabographic manuscripts. Attention is also paid to the study of the language of the Qur’ān in a historical perspective through the development of the Arabic linguistic tradition. Another example of the application of an interdisciplinary approach was the study of the possibilities of carrying out linguistic analysis of the text of the Qur’ān using methods of automatic data processing. The effectiveness of methods of ...
Vestnik of Saint Petersburg University. Asian and African Studies
The paper considers the key trends and prospects of Arabic and Islamic Studies in the context of ... more The paper considers the key trends and prospects of Arabic and Islamic Studies in the context of information globalization of society. The dynamics of qualitative changes in the humanities in general and Arabic Studies in particular is traced with the reference to its historical context. The study analyses the compliance of the applied research methods with the challenges of the modern time on the example of a number of scholar areas such as dialectology, description of arabographic manuscripts and application of digital technologies in education. It also suggests solutions aimed at optimizing and increase the efficiency of research processes through the use of digital technologies. The development of interdisciplinary studies is discussed in the historical perspective; besides that, it provides specific examples of current researches of this kind as well as trends of the development in the humanities are identified. Special attention is paid to the changes of educational paradigm, meaning both the evolution of digital competence of students and the application of digital resources, including e-learning. The SPbU experience is presented as an example of successful interdisciplinary projects, and, namely, the results of joint projects implemented by Arabists and mathematicians. When specifying the development prospects for the Arabic studies the authors highlight the importance of the optimal balance of the traditional classical approach and innovative solutions for scholar and educational tasks. The authors also underline the significance of an interdisciplinary approaches and digital methods, which open new opportunities to conduct scholar researches and make it possible to face the challenges that are brought along by socio-political changes in society on the stage of its transition to the information-driven development.
The report addresses the basic problems of the Arabic language formalization based on analysis of... more The report addresses the basic problems of the Arabic language formalization based on analysis of linguistic errors in software products. Reviewing the principles of modern information systems operation the authors come to the conclusion that the existing methods of the Arabic formalization allow to note a shift towards the technological aspects of the linguistic processing of facts, however, the quality of applied linguistic components still remains poor. Possibilities for the application of traditional recognition algorithms for Arabic are still uncertain in spite of a significant number of theoretical and practical results in the field of computational linguistics. There are several problems which are due to be solved in relation to the processing of the Arabic text. These issues may be divided into those related to Optical Recognition of the Written Text (OCR), Word Processing (WP) and building of the content of the dictionaries, Machine Translation (MT).
This paper reviews software solutions which the authors use in the Arabic teaching, as well as pr... more This paper reviews software solutions which the authors use in the Arabic teaching, as well as problems related to the Arabic language formalization. These solutions are implemented both in full-time training and in e-learning programs. It also deals with the two types of e-learning portals used at the St. Petersburg State University, Russia as a main medium for the software tools: Sakai and IBM Workplace Collaborative Learning, as well as the principles of computer selection of the teaching material, advantages and difficulties of the software designed for the Arabic script. The authors also focus on the use of the standard software for purposes of education and analyze the experience of the e-courses for Arabic.
The mediaeval Arabic manuscripts are not only valuable artifacts but they also represent one of t... more The mediaeval Arabic manuscripts are not only valuable artifacts but they also represent one of the major sources of scholar information in the field of Oriental Studies. This paper discusses the methods of Arabic Manuscripts Digitization. Over the last fifteen years a lot of Arabic manuscript digitization projects have been carried out. Digital collections of the manuscripts based on Arabic script are represented in the collections of libraries worldwide, including on-line databases. Nevertheless, these collections are restricted by their functionality: technology of metadata integration relies on the human made characteristics. While a possibility of automatic metadata introduction would facilitate the task of manuscript processing, at the same time it allows automatic quantitative and quality analysis of the manuscripts. This paper analyses different methods for classifying and retrieving historical Arabic handwritten documents and suggests the most efficient methods of their dig...
Russian Foundation for Basic Research Journal. Humanities and social sciences
The Quran is in focus of many researchers as a crucial source of information, including its langu... more The Quran is in focus of many researchers as a crucial source of information, including its language. The aim of the study is to describe the morphology of the Quran language in comparison with the modern Arabic literature language, which requires a thorough and comprehensive analysis of its text. The available scientific literature describes the style and vocabulary of the Quran language in detail, while the morphological aspects are not fully studied. The complementary use of modern methods of automatic data processing and techniques of comparative historical linguistics allows not only getting an unbiased picture of the morphology of the classical Arabic language, but also provides the basis for further typological studies. A quantitative analysis of individual verbal word forms in the Quran text in comparison with similar models of the modern Arabic language demonstrates the predominance of archaic forms, which in this case are typical for Arabic dialects, both ancient and moder...
Modern educational paradigm demonstrates a shift from learning outcomes to practice-oriented comp... more Modern educational paradigm demonstrates a shift from learning outcomes to practice-oriented competencies. The present study examines the meaning and role of different types of CompetencyBased Education worldwide. The key idea of Competency-Based Education can be described as providing student with knowledge and skills of applying it. The definitions of Competency-based approach vary in different parts of the world. The present paper regards the meanings of the term Competency – Based Education, and describes the example of implementation of this approach in Islamic Studies program.
1 The authors acknowledge Saint-Petersburg State University for a research grant 2.37.175.2014. A... more 1 The authors acknowledge Saint-Petersburg State University for a research grant 2.37.175.2014. Abstract The mediaeval Arabic manuscripts are not only valuable artifacts but they also represent one of the major sources of scholar information in the field of Oriental Studies. This paper discusses the methods of Arabic Manuscripts Digitization. Over the last fifteen years a lot of Arabic manuscript digitization projects have been carried out. Digital collections of the manuscripts based on Arabic script are represented in the collections of libraries worldwide, including on-line databases. Nevertheless, these collections are restricted by their functionality: technology of metadata integration relies on the human made characteristics. While a possibility of automatic metadata introduction would facilitate the task of manuscript processing, at the same time it allows automatic quantitative and quality analysis of the manuscripts. This paper analyses different methods for classifying an...
Большинство арабских словарей построены по корневому принципу. Поэтому для поиска нужного слова н... more Большинство арабских словарей построены по корневому принципу. Поэтому для поиска нужного слова необходимо определить его основу. Основы бывают двухкорневыми, четырехкорневыми, однако подавляющее количество корней в арабском языке -трехкорневые. Ниже представлены элементы, которые могут быть «отброшены» при определении корня.
Uploads
Papers by Olga Bernikova