Dialects and Derivations: The Origin of بعدين

أَيّام

root: ي-و-م / plural noun / singular: يَوْم / definition: days

I remember the first time I heard the word بَعدَين—during my undergrad days, in the classroom.

Hmm, I thought, I know the word بعد (“after”) and that sounds like the dual suffix ـَين at the end… but how does that make sense? Can you now add a dual suffix to a preposition? And what does بعدين actually mean?

Later, I learnt that بَعدَين simply means “later” in some Arabic dialects, like Levantine and Egyptian. And now I know that بعدين isn’t the dual form of بعد. Here’s what it is:

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Arabic-Turkish Observations: İhtiyar and خِتيار

اِخْتِيار

root: خ-ي-ر / form VIII verbal noun / definition: choosing

I spent hours of the day yesterday—following a strong PhD-productive push in the morning—building a shelving unit that represents our latest bid to increase storage space in the home we already feel like we’re growing out of.

I, just to clarify, am a lover of smaller spaces. As long as those spaces breathe an air of minimalism, though. And in recent years, I’ve been slowly collecting things (art, artefacts, and so on) that have turned all available surfaces into what looks to be bazaar stalls.

Thus, we’re left with little choice but to try to squeeze more space out of what we have, or find a new place.

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Uzbekistan and the Nine-Month Pause

واجِهة

root: و-ج-ه / noun / plural: واجِهات / definition: façade

On Sunday, the four of us (me, husband, parents) returned from our wondrous 18-day exploration of Uzbekistan: Tashkent, Samarkand, Bukhara, Khiva, and Tashkent again.

My packed itinerary didn’t allow us much (or any) rest during the trip. But isn’t there such sweetness in a journey that tires the feet and invigorates the soul?

Somewhere between the three sleeper train rides and the endless gazing-up at mosaiced blue façades, I got too overwhelmed to process any of the experience in writing.

And now, I have to put that processing on hold. Because there’s work to do.

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Academic Arabic: Birth Years and Birthplaces

إهْمال

root: ه-م-ل / form IV verbal noun / definition: neglect

It’s another Academic Arabic post this week because, frankly, too many weeks had passed without one and I feel guilty for my neglect.

Plus, it’s back-to-uni season and I’m sure you want something to spice up your academic writing and/or show off your elite linguistic knowledge in class.

We’ve all probably used and heard of the standard passive phrase “وُلِدَ في” (“to be born in”) in biographies. But did you know there are two more-elevated phrases to introduce when and where someone was born?

Let’s take a look:

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Academic Arabic: The Early, and the Late

قاسِم

root: ق-س-م / form I active participle / definition: divider, partition

August and September passed like a swift breeze and now winter no longer feels far to reach—especially if (like I was taught) you count November as the start of the season.

I remember asking my husband if he liked Kasım—meaning “November”, in Turkish—as a name. I mentioned how it’s derived from the Arabic word قاسِم (“divider”), and how November is considered the divide between autumn and winter. And how, of course, it’s my birth month and Mum always used to call me a winter baby.

He said no.

But anyway, seeing as we’re on the topic of time, I have one or two little additions to our Academic Arabic series.

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Adverbs of Return: The Origins of أيضًا and عادةً

آضَ

root: ء-ي-ض / form I, past tense verb / definition: to return

Did you know that the Arabic adverbs أَيْضًا (“also, too”) and عادةً (“usually”) are derived from roots with the same core meaning?

What is the core meaning linking them? And why?

Let’s take a look.

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Arabic-Akkadian Roots: ء-خ-ذ and و-ل-د

حَجْز

root: ح-ج-ز / form I verbal noun / definition: booking, reserving

Independently organising a three-week trip for four people across multiple cities—with international and internal flights, cross-country trains, five hotels, and jam-packed itineraries (plus sudden cancellations and panicked rebookings)—made me want to curl up in a suitcase and cry.

Dry sobs on a warm shoulder sufficed, and I wrapped things up with a final booking and a prayer.

To sweep away residual stress, I open two dictionaries: an Arabic one, and an Akkadian one.

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Dictionary Finds: غُطَيطة

غُطَيْطة

root: غ-ط-ط / diminutive noun / definition: fog

I overslept this morning.

Upon rising: a foggy, rainy sky, and a suspiciously clear mind.

Is there a term for the inverse of pathetic fallacy? What do we call it when my brain fog has ventured into the sky and its cloudlessness has migrated into my head?

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Uncommon Arabic Words for Wife

زَوْجة

root: ز-و-ج / noun / definition: wife

One way to understand how a particular culturo-linguistic group view a concept is by looking into their dictionary.

So, what does the Arabic dictionary tell us about how a wife is perceived?

Setting aside the common term زَوجة (literally meaning “one of a pair”), let’s explore some uncommon words that also mean “wife”:

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Root Exploration: ن-و-ر

نور

root: ن-و-ر / noun / plural: أَنْوار / definition: light

Perhaps I was too busy playing in the tides of the summer heatwaves to realise that the season was ebbing into the horizon—and then, at six this morning, I woke up to a Sun-less sky and realised the days do feel shorter again.

I got up and made lentil soup and stared at the colour of autumn in the bowl. Somehow, it’s September.

And as the window of light begins to close, I can only think about نور.

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