EVLETTR: Evasive Letterplay
| EVLETTR: Evasive Letterplay | |
|---|---|
| Category | Linguistic Embellishments (‘ilm al-badī‘) |
| Subcategory | Indirectness & Ambiguity |
| Built upon | 4 sources |
| Annotation Unit | |
| ARDT Code | EVLETTR |
| Level | 1 |
| Included in Taxonomy | |
| ARDT | v0.1.1 v0.1.0 |
| External Identifiers | |
| BALAGHAScore | CA-8 |
| BalaghaBase | Q78 |
| OpenAlex | W4415372146 |
| Cite this page | |
| 🔗 Live DOI | 10.64393/balagha.Q78 |
| Use this page | |
| Download | PDF JSON  |
Definition
Evasive Letterplay (al-muwāraba) is an Arabic rhetorical device where the communicator frames their speech such that, if it attracts censure or blame, its wording can be reinterpreted through a consonantal distortion (taḥrīf), a change in pointing (taṣḥīf), addition or deletion, a grammatical alteration, or a similar modification, in order to escape censure or accountability.[1][2][3][4]
Linguistic Operations
- The communicator produces an utterance containing an element susceptible to reinterpretation through a small formal or grammatical change - such as a change in pointing (taṣḥīf), a consonantal distortion (taḥrīf), addition or deletion, a change in grammatical inflection, or a similar modification - that yields a different meaning.[1][4][3]
- The initial reading is such that it may attract objection, censure, or blame, while the available modification supplies an alternative reading through which the speaker can escape that objection.[1][4]
- If challenged, the speaker can invoke the alternative reading as what was intended, thus avoiding accountability for the original reading.[1][4]
Recognition
Evasive Letterplay may be present when:
- An utterance contains a word (or words) susceptible to a small formal or grammatical change - such as altered pointing, a consonantal shift, addition or deletion, or a change in grammatical inflection - that produces a substantially different meaning.[1][2][4][3]
- The initial reading is open to objection, censure, or blame, while the altered reading provides the speaker with a means of escaping that objection.[1][4]
- The speaker may resort to the alternative reading if challenged, as illustrated in the cited source example.[1][4]
Diagnostic Communicative Enhancements
Evasive Letterplay:
- Allows the speaker to escape censure or accountability (li-yaslama min al-muʾākhadha) by invoking an alternative reading of the objectionable utterance.[1][4][3]
Applying the Recognition Framework
The information on this page can be used to evaluate whether this device is present in a candidate lexical item using the Specific Device Recognition part of the Universal Framework for Identifying Arabic Rhetorical Devices:
Examples
لقد ضاعَ شِعْرِي على بابِكُم
كَمَا ضَاعَ عِقْدٌ على خَالِصَهMy poetry was lost at your doorstep,
Just as a necklace was lost on Khāliṣa.- Explanation
- Abū Nuwās composed these lines, using ḍāʿa (was lost). When Caliph al-Rashīd objected, Abū Nuwās claimed he had said ḍāʾa (shone), a reading achievable through a minimal change in pointing. Both ḍāʿa shiʿrī (my poetry was lost) and ḍāʿa ʿiqd (a necklace was lost) could thus be reread as ḍāʾa shiʿrī (my poetry shone) and ḍāʾa ʿiqd (a necklace shone), yielding an entirely different and innocuous meaning.[1][4]
كَتَبَ الصَّحَفِيُّ: «إنَّ هذا المسؤولَ أَكَلَ أَمْوَالَ الشَّعْبِ»
The journalist wrote: "This official devoured the people's funds."
- Explanation
- The journalist used akala (devoured/embezzled). When called to account, he claimed he had written akkala (fed/provided for), meaning the official had spent the funds on the people's welfare. Since the two forms share an identical unpointed skeleton (أكل), the distinction rests entirely on a tashdid — a diacritical mark — making the escape reading formally available through a minimal change in pointing.
قالَ الخَطِيبُ: «إنَّ هذا الوَزِيرَ يَخُونُ وَطَنَهُ وَأَهْلَهُ»
The orator said: "This minister betrays his homeland and his people."
- Explanation
- The orator used yakhūnu (betrays). When challenged, he claimed he had said yakūnu (is/will be), completing the sentence as "this minister will be a sword for his homeland and his people." The two forms differ by a single dot on the first root letter (خ → ك), a minimal consonantal shift that constitutes taḥrīf, and which — in rapid speech or unvocalised writing — renders the escape reading formally plausible.
The columnist wrote, “This minister is incompetent.”
- Explanation
- When challenged for insulting the minister, the columnist claimed that he had written “This minister is competent,” and that the prefix in- had been added in transmission. The objectionable reading incompetent can thus be converted into the innocuous competent by a minimal formal change — deletion of two letters — providing the speaker with an escape from accountability. The example therefore illustrates Evasive Letterplay through addition or deletion rather than through the Arabic-specific manipulation of consonantal pointing.
Different From
- PARONOM: Graphic Paronomasia - depends upon graphic similarity between words differing in their written form or pointing. Evasive Letterplay may employ such graphic alteration, but specifically involves exploiting an alternative reading to escape censure or accountability.[4][3]
See Also
References
- ↑ a b c d e f g h i Ḥafnī Nāṣif, Muḥammad Diyāb, Sultan Muḥammad and Muṣṭafā Ṭammām, Durūs al-Balāgha (Beirut: Dār Ibn Ḥazm, 2012), 121, ISBN 9786144162798.
- ↑ a b Basil Hatim, Arabic Rhetoric: The Pragmatics of Deviation from Linguistic Norms, LINCOM Studies in Communication 04 (Munich: Lincom Europa, 2010), 183, ISBN 9783929075731.
- ↑ a b c d e Pierre Cachia, The Arch Rhetorician: Or The Schemer’s Skimmer: A Handbook of Late Arabic Badīʻ Drawn from ʻAbd al-Ghanī an-Nābulsī’s Nafaḥāt al-Azhār ʻala Nasamāt al-Asḥār, Studies in Arabic Language and Literature 3 (Wiesbaden: Harrassowitz, 1998), pp. 40-41; §61, ISBN 9783447040327.
- ↑ a b c d e f g h i j Inʿām Fawwāl ʿAkkāwī, Al-Muʿjam al-Mufaṣṣal fī ʿUlūm al-Balāgha: Al-Badīʿ wa-al-Bayān wa-al-Maʿānī (Beirut: Dār al-Kutub al-ʿIlmiyya, 1996), 660-661.
Page History
- 2026-02-10 - Migration to Semantic Device Identifiers: Renamed from CD-3: Evasive Letterplay to EVLETTR: Evasive Letterplay.
- 2025-11-20 - Page incorporated into the Arabic Rhetorical Device Taxonomy (v0.1.1).
- 2025-04-15 - Page created: Evasive Letterplay.
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