Just go to Google and type in: the development of arabic la and one of the first few links gives the entire book ONLINE by David Testen | It is used in MSA as well |
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It's a word used by children for a small wound or some pain | this whole siwak thing is NOT in the Qur'an |
First to basics: It appears that the use of either SIWAAK or MISWAAK is interchangeable in both MSA and dialect.
For anyone interested in the "emphatic" particle L , here's a hugely profound, exhaustive and exhausting academic treatment of the subject: I can't give the URL because when I did, it went all over this page | You have to translate the word into your language in a way that makes sense and conveys the right meaning |
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The English word for it is "miswak" which I hadn't heard of until now | That has been my experience |
However, as "makkay" pointed out, this is not the negative NO LA but what is called the "emphatic" or "assertive" PARTICLE L.
8I've been blogging here at The Arabic Student for about 4 years now and I've had a great response from Arabs and those learning Arabic alike | I mostly focus on the dialects, but there are MSA posts as well |
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You can't always give the word the definition that you find in the dictionary or in a word list | This is something that a lot of people never understand when learning a language |
It includes references to hadeeth on the miswaak, its proper usage and on and on.
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