Arabic Feminine Markers Gender of Nouns

 

In the last example, the -aa'< is not a plural suffix but part of the stem ‘af“aal.

 

 

II. Fa”laa‘< , Loanwords & Nouns of Four/Five-Letter Roots

 

Nouns (usually adjectives) of the following structure are feminine:

 

 

This is the only standard structure in which the -aa'< ending is a feminine marker.

The fa“laa'< structure is mostly used to indicate a color or bodily characteristic of the feminine referent (e.g. blond, brunette, blind, mute, deaf, lame, etc.).

 

Examples, click on the Arabic word to hear it:

 

 

The last word is literally an adjective but is used customarily as a noun, which is possible for any adjective in Arabic.

 

The -aa'< feminine marker appears also in the diminutive form of fa“laa'<:

 

 

 

Fa“laa'< structure belongs to a category called in Arabic the “active-participle-like adjectives” which are basically the active participle structures whose primary function is as nomina agentis (agent nouns). There is no clear-cut distinction between participles and agent nouns in Arabic as both can function in place of the other.

 

The masculine form of fa“laa'< is:

 

 

The masculine form serves as a comparative structure when it is not denoting a color or a bodily characteristic, and in that case, it will have another feminine form (fu“laa) that is probably cognate of fa“laa'<.

 

Both fa“laa'< and ‘af”albelong to a category of nouns called the nomina diptota (Arabic: “the forbidden to declension nouns.”) Nouns in this category undergo special declension characterized by inflection for only two states instead of three (the absolute state lacks nunation thus becoming identical to the construct state) and by two cases instead of three in the absolute state (the jarr marking becomes identical to nasb marking in the absolute state).

 

Aside from fa“laa'<, the -aa'< feminine marker appears in few nouns that are mostly Arabized loanwords or word salads that became single wordsof four-letter or five-letter roots. The -aa'< was added to such words arbitrarily.

 

Examples:

 

 

 

3. Shortened ‘alif

 

 

 

The last feminine marker is the least specific to feminine nouns. It is simply a terminal long A –aa. This ending is called the “shortened ‘alif“ الأَلِفُ المَقْصُوْرَةُ because it is shortened in pronunciation and sounds closer to a short A. Nouns that end with a shortened ‘alif are called “shortened nouns.”

 

The finalhamza(t) of the extended ‘alif ـاء is often dropped in the modern spoken dialects, so the extended ‘alifbecomes a shortened ‘alif ـا in these.

 

I can think of only one origin of this marker, which is the same as last one’s:

 

 

Just like the ـاء , the ـا / ـى can be a feminine marker only when the ـا / ـى is fourth letter or beyond in a word (i.e. the word has four letters or more). If theـا / ـى is third letter, then it is an original letter of the word and can not be a marker.

 

Similarly to the previous marker, a terminal -aa can be altered from a terminal weak root-letter (w or y). A terminal weak letter is turned to -aa only if it is preceded by a short A vowel:

–aW→  -aa

 –aY→  –aa

Thus, a terminalshortened ‘alif will be found in words that have the following ending:

 

Where l is a variable final root-letter, and ais fixed and additional (an a is always additional because it is not a letter to begin with).

 

This ending is common in verbal nouns, passive participles, time and place nouns, tool nouns, and irregular plurals; and in none of these it is a suffix.

 

 

 

1) Shortened Nouns with Less than Four Letters

 

Mostly verbal nouns, nouns structured as verbal nouns, or irregular plural nouns. The ending -aa is part of the stem.

 

Verbal nouns are masculine unless a tied taa'< is attached to them, which is uncommon in this case. Irregular plurals are feminine unless referring to male humans.

 

Thus, unless irregular plurals, shortened nouns with less than four letters are masculine with rare exceptions (I found two exceptions.)

 

Examples, click on the Arabic word to hear it: