Language Geography
Arabic is one of the world’s oldest and most widely spoken languages, a “treasure” of world civilization. Arabic is the language of the Holy Quran, Eastern Latin, and the language that gave birth to its linguistic tradition along with Chinese, Sanskrit, and Greek. Arabic is spoken mainly in the Middle East (North Africa and West Asia) and other territories (Doochin, 2019). The Middle East is a geographical region at the junction of Asia, Africa, and Europe, including the waters of the Mediterranean Sea, the Red Sea, and the Persian Gulf. About 25 countries have Arabic as an official or second significant language, including Algeria, Egypt, Libya, Saudi Arabia, Syria, Iraq, and others.
Grammatical Features and Examples
The question is: What are the grammatical gender features in Arabic concerning feminine and masculine gender? The essential component of the Arabic language is the division of genders into masculine and feminine. This recognition is based on the fact that men and women have unique characteristics (Alkrarha, 2022). The masculine or feminine gender of a noun could be connected with its subject meaning or form (Alzahrani, 2019). Arabic nouns having the same sense may belong to different genders. The exception is words denoting persons and some animals, where the gender difference is due to sex distinctions.
In contrast, many words in English do not make such clear distinctions as the term “learner,” which has no gender or sex. All nouns in Arabic have gender, whether a person is talking about an animate object or an inanimate one (Alzahrani, 2019). The masculine form of “window” should be pronounced as شباك, and the feminine form is a different form of the word – نافذة. Nouns in Arabic are already masculine, which does not need to be reflected in a unique way (نَادِرٌ بَارِدٌ بَيْتٌ بَابٌ and more), but femininity should be indicated through one of the four signs.
- مذكر and طالب→ masculine;
- مؤنث and طالبة→ feminine.
As a rule, feminine names end in the special letter ة(Taa), but unlike the letter ت, the letter ةis used in the endings of feminine words. Words that do not have this ending (as a basic rule) are considered to be in the masculine gender. The source of the feminine gender is the masculine gender, and any “thing” is a priori masculine (Alkrarha, 2022). If it is written ة, it is called تاء مدوَّنة, and if it is written ـة, it is called تاء مربوطة (“Masculine and feminine in Arabic,” n.d.). In Arabic, plural words that do not denote persons are treated as feminine singular words. From adjectives and nouns denoting profession, the feminine gender is formed by adding the ending (ةَ) to the corresponding masculine name (طَالِبٌ ،قَوِيَّةٌ – قَوِيٌّ – طَالِبَةٌ). Below are several examples of Arabic terms for the feminine gender.
- Rose → وَرْدَةٌ;
- Costume → بَدْلَةٌ;
- Ministry → وِزَارَةٌ;
- State → دَوْلَةٌ;
- Oil → زُبْدَةٌ.
Sometimes, it can happen that a feminine noun may not have any features that indicate its feminine gender, for example: (شمس, أذن, يد) (sun, ear, hand); there may be endings like اءُ , -َ ى. These words are feminine nouns, but one will not see any features in them that indicate their feminine gender. Several instances of Arabic terminology for the feminine gender in relation to this rule are provided below.
- Desert → صَحْرَاءُ;
- Pride → كِبْرِيَاءُ;
- Recollection/memory → ذِكْرَى;
- Lawsuit → دَعْوَى;
- School → مَدْرَسَةٌ;
- Library → مَكْتَبَةٌ.
However, these endings are not always indicators of the feminine gender, as some words may indicate a male person, therefore being a masculine name. For example:
- Eminent scientist → عَلاَّمَةٌ;
- Young man → الفَتَى;
- Caliph → خَلِيفَةٌ.
If a word indicates a female person, it is a feminine name, even if it does not have a feminine ending. For example:
- Mother → أُمٌّ;
- Girl → بِنْتٌ;
- Pregnant → حَامِلٌ.
Several words in Arabic are feminine only in usage since they lack feminine endings and do not refer to female persons. Such words include names of tribes, peoples, cities and countries (سُورِيَا, قُرَيْشٌ), names of paired body organs (يَدٌ, رِجْلٌ, عَيْنٌ), and some nouns (نَارٌ, حَرْبٌ, نَفْسٌ).
Word-For-Word Glossing, Interlinear Glossings, and Abbreviations
Word-for-Word Glossing
Word-for-word glossing involves a literal translation of each word in a text, helping the reader understand its individual components. For example, consider the Arabic sentence: “أنا ذاهب إلى المدرسة.” (Translation: “I am going to school.”)
Word-for-word glossing of this sentence is as follows:
- أنا(Ana) → I;
- ذاهب(thaahib) → am going;
- إلى(ila) → to;
- المدرسة(al-madrasa) → the school.
Interlinear Glossing
Interlinear glossing is similar to word-for-word glossing but includes additional information about the grammatical features of each word, such as tense, case, gender, and number.
Using the same Arabic sentence: “أنا ذاهب إلى المدرسة.”
Interlinear glossing could be:
- أنا(Ana) → I (Pronoun.1SG);
- ذاهب(thaahib) → am going (Verb.Pres.Part.Masc.SG);
- إلى(ila) → to (Preposition);
- المدرسة(al-madrasa) → the school (Def.Art.SG.Nom).
List of Common Abbreviations Used in Glossing
- 1SG – First-person singular (referring to “I” in English);
- Verb – Verb;
- Pres – Present tense;
- Part – Participle;
- Masc – Masculine;
- SG – Singular;
- Preposition – Preposition;
- Def. Art – Definite article (the);
- Nom – Nominative case (subject case);
- Acc – Accusative case (object case);
- Gen – Genitive case (possessive case);
- Pl – Plural;
- Conj – Conjunction;
- Adv – Adverb.
Translatability of Examples
Arabic has the peculiarity of separating nouns into masculine and feminine genders, while such a distinction may be less prominent or absent in other languages. The first example denotes feminine gender words and a characteristic grammatical marker as a letter word ending ةَ (rose → وَرْدَةٌ; costume → بَدْلَةٌ; ministry → وِزَارَةٌ; state → دَوْلَةٌ; oil → زُبْدَةٌ). This element is one of the basic rules for constructing feminine words in Arabic.
Moreover, there are exceptions (شمس, أذن, يد → sun, ear, hand; desert → صَحْرَاءُ; pride → كِبْرِيَاءُ; recollection/memory → ذِكْرَى; lawsuit → دَعْوَى). Sometimes the fundamental sign can indicate men (eminent scientist → عَلاَّمَةٌ; young man → الفَتَى; caliph → خَلِيفَةٌ). Nevertheless, if the meaning and context of the text designate a woman, there may not be a specific ending (mother → أُمٌّ; girl → بِنْتٌ; pregnant → حَامِلٌ). “Feminine” words can be emphasized when indicating tribes, peoples, cities, countries, names of paired body organs, and some nouns.
References
Alkrarha, A.M. (2022). The masculine and the feminine in Arabic and the illusion of the unnecessary proliferation of words. English Linguistics Research, 11(1), 1-7. Web.
Alzahrani, S. (2019). Grammatical gender assignment on Arabic nouns: Saudi dialects. US-China Foreign Language, 17(6), 251-270. Web.
Doochin, D. (2019). How many people speak Arabic around the world, and where? Babbel. Web.
Masculine and feminine in Arabic. (n.d.). Learn Arabic Online. Web.
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