A Word from the Saudi Dialect: بزران

مَزْرَعَة

root: ز-ر-ع / noun / plural: مَزارِع / definition: farm, plantation

In Medina, the week before last, we’d wandered off-path and through-open-gate into someone’s land. Unknowing trespassers, our eyes took in the palm trees, running water, greenery.

And then—oops—the someone whose land it was walked over and asked how we got in.

It was fine; he kindly let us stay, wander, and video, but asked us to close the gate behind us when we left so that the بزران don’t enter.

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What’s the Difference between Form II and Form IV Verbs?

سَبَبِيّة

root: س-ب-ب / abstract noun / definition: causality

You probably already know that different Arabic verb forms point to different general meanings. For example, form X verbs refer to seeking something, and form VII indicates that the verb meaning is passive.

But have you noticed that form II (فَعَّلَ / يُفَعِّلُ) and form IV (أَفْعَلَ / يُفْعِلُ) verb patterns both indicate a causative meaning? So, what’s the difference (if any) between them?

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An Eastern Dialect, a Return to the Peninsula

شَرقِيّ

root: ش-ر-ق / nisba adjective / definition: eastern

It’s funny. In the summer, I was preparing to spend my winter studying in Jeddah, but ended up cancelling my plans for one reason and the other. And now we’re nearing the end of December, I’m here in Jeddah—on completely different terms.

I’m on a four-city trip in the country and the stays so far—in Riyadh and Makkah—have unsurprisingly drained the social battery of this easily-overwhelmed introvert. I’ve been sat in many a room being fed, watered, and chatted to in an eastern Arabic dialect that my ears are still getting used to.

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Three Arabic Words for “Sleeplessness”

سَهْران

root: س-ه-ر / adjective / definition: sleepless

Here I sit, nearby suitcase half-packed with un-ironed clothes, and I remember that it’s been a while since our last post in the synonyms series.

In fact, it was over two months ago—so, before my move—that I wrote Seventeen Arabic Words for Peace and my thesaurus-inclined mind craves another.

Seeing as I’ve been starting my days from 5:30am for the past two months, my brain drifted to sleep’s antonym as the topic for this post, so here we are with three Arabic nouns meaning “sleeplessness” or “insomnia“:

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Winter, Visas, Bowl

صَحْن

root: ص-ح-ن / noun / plural: صُحون / definition: bowl, dish

In case any one of you hadn’t noticed that daylight hours have dwindled to their almost-minimum: it’s winter. (And if you actually hadn’t noticed, I apologise for being the bearer of this heavy news.)

That is, of course, unless you’re over on the other hemisphere—in which case: enjoy your summer. (Mustering any more enthusiasm would make me an empath.)

And now that my weatherwoman bit is out of the way, what I meant to say with the seasonal announcement at the start is that it’s time to buckle down.

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Arabic Observations: The Root of Falling, and Love

مَهْوًى

root: ه-و-ي / noun of place and time / plural: مَهاوٍ / definition: abyss

I love little linguistic crossovers between languages. The ones where we find that two or more languages, far-removed in terms of place and origin, express a particular concept through the same semantic lens.

Maybe I love them because they reveal a common, cross-cultural conceptualisation—a shared human way of thinking that ties us together across borders and tongues. Maybe it’s because this idea of shared conceptualisation relates strongly to my PhD’s theoretical underpinnings—but I won’t bore you with my Theoretical Framework chapter. Yet.

Back to linguistic crossovers: let’s look at one example, using the hollow and defective root ه-و-ي.

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Dictionary Finds: A Form XIV Verb

نادِر

root: ن-د-ر / adjective, form I active participle / definition: uncommon, rare

As they say, one discovery in the dictionary leads to another. So that’s why—for the second week in a row—I couldn’t resist adding to the Dictionary Finds series.

And this time, our dictionary find brings us back to an uncommon triliteral verb form we explored in Arabic Verb Forms XI-XV almost five years ago…

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Dictionary Finds: The Thursday Before الخميس

خَميس

root: خ-م-س / noun / definition: Thursday

Last Thursday marked my move into my twenty-ninth year of life, which makes me twenty-eight in some cultures and twenty-nine in others—and makes me closer to twenty-one in my head.

But it’s not like numbers really matter. Except in the case of the days of the week in Arabic of course, where Sunday is one day (الأَحَد) and so on until we reach the fifth, Thursday (الخَميس).

(I’m reminded of Joey from Friends whose Monday was one day but somehow Thursday was third…)

But let’s get back to الخميس, because before Thursday was titled the fifth day of the week, the dictionary tells us this day had another name.

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Reading Arabic Literature: Settling in and Heading Back

اِسْتِقْرار

root: ق-ر-ر / form X verbal noun / definition: settling down, stability

For the past month, studying productively (and at all) has been a struggle. I’ve been settling into a new life and trying to settle back into a study routine—at a time that my annual, late-autumn sleepiness lulls me into cognitive numbness.

I’m fighting that numbness by forcing myself to engage with reading through not-worth-mentioning ways, and rebuke myself for drinking that sleep-inducing hot chocolate before my study session today.

I’m currently working on the second main chapter of my PhD, which means returning to a novel I’ve mentioned several times before in my posts.

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Arabic Observations: Reflections on حصحص and the Truth

اِستِطْراد

root: ط-ر-د / form X verbal noun / definition: digression

I was browsing my notes on Notion, seeking inspiration for today’s post, when one little word pulled at my eyelashes and demanded attention.

So the title thus began to take form, and I headed to the dictionary where my semantics addiction took hold and dragged me into an unstoppable, thunderous orchestra of cerebration and digression.

But before we digress, let’s… gress. (Words both inspire and fail me.) Let’s start from where my thoughts sprung: حَصحَصَ.

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