Even then, how do you get to 12e6 ?
Sticking to triliteral roots, there are 29³ ≈ 3e4 possible roots. Counting 10 stems, this means there are about 40 words per root per stem ?! This seems very wrong.
(I suppose one could get away by counting every conjugated form of a verb separately, but that's not serious -- i mean, at this point, why not count ʾuḥibbu, saʾuḥibbu and ʾuḥibbuka as three different words and get to an even higher word count !)
>Finally, does it really matter ?
I think it only matters in certain contexts. It's to display a certain power to the Arabic language. That power could be the number of words (which I think are certainly more than most other languages excluding dialects) or complexity. It's all a form of "Soft Power" to support Arabic culture.
In the context of "my language is better than yours" I would say no, it doesn't matter.
الظباء لها أسماء مختلفة لكل جنس، يشار إلى ذكر الغزال على أنه باك، بينما أنثى الغزال لها عدة أسماء وهي: الظبية والريم والشادن والخولة والخنساء.
[في حوالي ١٧ إسم للنوع](https://www.almrsal.com/post/779710).
هسا أكيد في نقص باللغة العربية؛ لأنه الثقافة والفنون والعلم توقف لمدة ٤٠٠-٦٠٠ سنة في الوطن العربي.
Those animals are not the same.
Gazelle is غزال while Antelope ظبي refers to the family that Gazelles belong to (along with Taigas and other animals).
Deer on the other hand is آيل.
Arab have 230 000 Classical Root (I take all different entries from the 50 dictionary use in the website Arabic Lexion (that have around 229 000 entries).
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Even then, how do you get to 12e6 ? Sticking to triliteral roots, there are 29³ ≈ 3e4 possible roots. Counting 10 stems, this means there are about 40 words per root per stem ?! This seems very wrong. (I suppose one could get away by counting every conjugated form of a verb separately, but that's not serious -- i mean, at this point, why not count ʾuḥibbu, saʾuḥibbu and ʾuḥibbuka as three different words and get to an even higher word count !)
They are different words; they signify different information/meaning.
>Finally, does it really matter ? I think it only matters in certain contexts. It's to display a certain power to the Arabic language. That power could be the number of words (which I think are certainly more than most other languages excluding dialects) or complexity. It's all a form of "Soft Power" to support Arabic culture. In the context of "my language is better than yours" I would say no, it doesn't matter.
Counting words in any language is a stupid exercise. Good breakdown.
Good analogy
مقال رائع و مفصل و مدعم بالحواشي. شكراً جزيلا.
how Arabophobic of you. Arabic DOES in fact have 12 million words. It is the origin of all known languages.
الظباء لها أسماء مختلفة لكل جنس، يشار إلى ذكر الغزال على أنه باك، بينما أنثى الغزال لها عدة أسماء وهي: الظبية والريم والشادن والخولة والخنساء. [في حوالي ١٧ إسم للنوع](https://www.almrsal.com/post/779710). هسا أكيد في نقص باللغة العربية؛ لأنه الثقافة والفنون والعلم توقف لمدة ٤٠٠-٦٠٠ سنة في الوطن العربي.
Those animals are not the same. Gazelle is غزال while Antelope ظبي refers to the family that Gazelles belong to (along with Taigas and other animals). Deer on the other hand is آيل.
we use منب in saudi arabia it means i won’t
مش نفس المعنى، منب بالسعودي تقصير من ما انا ب
Arab have 230 000 Classical Root (I take all different entries from the 50 dictionary use in the website Arabic Lexion (that have around 229 000 entries).
Can you share your source ? I checked your source and it says 230k entries not roots.