Same Rule, Another Noun: عِزون

مَعْرَج

root: ع-ر-ج / noun of place / plural: مَعارِج / definition: place or route of ascent

Over a year ago, in Non-Human Nouns, Human Plurals, we explored some non-human nouns that—unexpectedly—take on sound, masculine plural forms (which are usually reserved for nouns referring to humans).

Think: سِنون and عالَمون and أولون. Or, with a different case: سِنين and عالَمين and أولين.

Another noun displaying this phenomenon is عِزون.

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Four Shared Words for Camels in Arabic and Akkadian

إبِل

root: ء-ب-ل / collective noun / definition: camels

I learnt a new phrase this weekend, from an Arabic-speaking guy who drove three hours to an underwhelming event and told us: أَكَلْنا خازوق.

Basically, as my husband put it, it means he took an L. In other words, “we’ve been done”. Or, in ever-so-slightly-less colloquial terms (?), “we got screwed over”. (There’s no translating this one formally… we’d lose the emotional context.)

That guy might have “eaten” a خازوق, but we ate kibbeh, biryani, and msemmen that day and were all the better for it.

(For more on Arabic phrases with “أكل”, see Arabic Observations: The Cross-Linguistic-ness of “Eating” a Beating!)

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Root Exploration: Venus, Mars, and Saturn

كَوْكَب

root: ك-و-ك-ب / noun / plural: كَواكِب / definition: planet (compare with the Akkadian)

Isn’t it ironic (or maybe just careless of me) that I placed all of my winter boots in storage just before the heavens opened over London last night and left us deluged in a mizzle-to-downpour pendulum.

My friend questioned my sanity—who told you to do that in British weather?

Valid. But a disappointing change-of-skies nonetheless.

Speaking of skies and the heavens: we’re heading to the planets today (well, to their dictionary entries) to explore the derivations of their names.

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The Levantine بِدّي and a Weekly Request

وِدّ

root: و-د-د / noun / definition: love, wish, desire

Every weekend, my other half hears the same two words from me: بِدّي برغر (I want a burger).

I can’t help my weekly craving for a juicy burger, and I think it started when I began travelling abroad regularly a few years back. Sure, I’d sample the local cuisine most of the trip. But—on at least one occasion—I’d want to try what that country had to offer in terms of burgers.

Sometimes, failing to find halal options, I’d seek out a vegetarian burger instead—and felt satisfied all the same. (And I still dream about the surprisingly exquisite burger I ate in Doha’s MIA Café. So so good…)

Oh, but yes: I wanted to talk about the first part of my oft-repeated phrase: بِدّي.

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Dictionary Finds: Zaʿtar, Saʿtar, and Ṣaʿtar

مِسْكين

root: م-س-ك-ن / noun / plural: مَساكين / definition: poor thing

If you know me in-person, you’ve probably been fortunate enough to be an unwilling spectator and/or listener to my gleeful blabbering about some dictionary find or linguistic observation.

This weekend, my husband—yet again, مسكين…—was in the line of fire as I gushed about three little Arabic nouns I’d found in the dictionary.

Apparently my face lights up, eyes growing wide and spilling over with joy, when I talk about language. So keep that image in mind and prepare to be dazzled by (or, at least, to react with a mildly-interested hm to) my latest lexical discovery.

Continue reading “Dictionary Finds: Zaʿtar, Saʿtar, and Ṣaʿtar”

Fifteen Form XII Verbs in the Arabic Dictionary

اِصْطِناعي

root: ص-ن-ع / nisba adjective / definition: artificial

Since the rise of the AI search, the number of views my blog gets has tripped and faltered.

It makes sense. Sometimes I myself type a grammar question into Google and—lo and behold—the AI overview summarises an answer (from none other than The Arabic Pages, the product of my own hands) that makes scrolling down and clicking on the actual website link one click too many.

I say this, not out of bitterness, but out of a mix of wonder and slight anxiety. How amazing is it that my content immediately presents itself as an answer to someone’s search. But, then: how much is lost without the anecdotes, thoughtfully-selected wording, and obviously brilliant humour I weave into my posts?!

Will convenience prevail over the human touch? Will “artificial” become synonymous—and not just collocated—with “intelligence”?

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Five Arabic Terms for the Bedouins

وَبَر

root: و-ب-ر / noun / plural: أَوْبار / definition: the fur of camels and goats

Throughout my twenties, I’ve carried a sort of sign-up-and-see-what-happens attitude.

I’ll sign up to lead a workshop or run a marathon or join a summer school abroad, etcetera, and then just follow the path of fate.

Sometimes, though, I run into little problems. Like how I offered to speak at an academic roundtable a while back and—now that my name is actually on the program—I’ve completely forgotten what the topic of the conversation is meant to be.

I can’t find the sign up link or poster. I didn’t save my response to the online form calling for speakers. And the program provides no details. So, how do I go about asking the organiser without sounding coo-coo?

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Arabic-Akkadian Roots: ء-ك-ل ,ع-ل-و, and ب-ك-ي

دَجاج

root: د-ج-ج / collective noun / definition: chicken

Have you ever roasted a chicken upside down? Well I have. Twice. Well, it was one time—but two chickens.

No questions, please. This was a cathartic confession, blurted out in a fluster of shame, and no more than that.

Thank God for the antidote of blushing: distraction. And that’s why I’m launching into another post about Arabic-Akkadian roots. This time, we’re looking at these three Semitic roots which are present in both languages: ʿ-l-w, ʾ-k-l, and b-k-y.

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Around the Knot in Ten Blinks

غَمْضة

root: غ-م-ض / noun / definition: a blink

Can you believe it’s been ten years since I enrolled in my Arabic and Linguistics bachelor’s degree?

No way! scream the imaginary crowd in my head. But yes, yes indeed.

I’d stepped into university, fresh off of A-Level stress, printed timetable in hand—and then, in just ten blinks: a graduation, launching my blog, a pandemic, enrolling in an MA, another graduation, travelling, lecturing, my PhD, marriage, a work placement…

Ten whooshes around the Sun seems about right for all of that, but I’m sure that orbit has been speeding up.

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Exploring Time in the Arabic Dictionary: “the Present”

ذِكْرى

root: ذ-ك-ر / noun / plural: ذِكرَيات / definition: a memory

Sometimes, we spend so long immersed in thoughts of the future and memories of the past that we forget that we’re floating in the present.

I remember writing about floating, and then I think about how every all-consuming present of mine—well, all of ours—has become a past, and how every future feels like a horizon when—in fact—it’s just another present.

And with those thoughts stirred up, we tumble back into our Exploring Time series. This time, we’re meditating on the present, الحاضر.

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