Arabic Feminine Markers Gender of Nouns

 

 

As usual, verbal nouns are commonly used as female names although they are masculine themselves.

 

Examples:

 

 

2) Shortened Nouns with Four Letters or More

 

In nouns with four letters or more, there are two possibilities:

 

I. Derived Nouns & Irregular Plurals

 

Derived Nouns with four letters or more are, like those with less than four letters, masculine. Derived nouns that can end with a non-suffix -aa are verbal noun structures that begin with an additional m- (“meemic” verbal nouns), passive participles, time and place nouns, tool nouns, and the ‘af”al agent noun stem.

 

Examples, click on the Arabic word to hear it:

 

 

Passive participles are commonly used as male names.

 

Adjectives of the structure ‘af”alhave two situations:

• When ‘af”al is functioning as a comparative structure, it will modify both masculine and feminine nouns, and the feminine version of it (fu“laa) will work as a feminine superlative adjective.

• When ‘af”al is not functioning as a comparative structure, it will be exclusively masculine. It will have the feminine version fa“laa'< when it denotes a color or bodily characteristic, and the version ‘af”ala(t) in other rare cases.

 

‘af”al adjectives can end with –aa that is original and not a feminine marker when the final root-letter isw or y.

 

Examples, click on the Arabic word to hear it:

 

 

The last word is an exception.

 

Irregular plurals are always feminine unless they refer to male humans where they can be masculine as well. It is possible for the -aa suffix to appear attached in irregular plural structures (fa“laa & fa“aalaa), but in this case it will NOT be a feminine marker. It will be just a remnant of an older function of the -aa(t) ending where it served as a collective-pluralistic marker without gender distinction.

 

Irregular plurals that end with -aa usually refer to humans.

 

Examples:

 

 

II. Fa”laa, Fu”laa, Verbal Nouns, and Loanwords

 

Nouns and adjectives of the following structures are feminine:

 

 

These are standard agent noun structures; the -aa ending in these structures is a feminine marker.

 

Fa“laa looks similar to fa“laa'<, and I would say that both come from an ancient fa“laa(t). The masculine form of fa“laa is fa“laan and they are both nomina diptota. These structures usually denote qualities that are related to “emptiness” or “fullness,” and they are common in female and male names, respectively.

 

Examples, click on the Arabic word to hear it:

 

 

The structure fu“laa differs from fa“laa in only one vowel. However, this structure has a distinguished and an important function which is that it functions as a feminine superlative adjective.

 

Examples:

 

 

The masculine form of fu“laa is ‘af”al which is a “bisexual” comparative structure. When the definite article is added to ‘af”al, it becomes the masculine superlative form.

Both fu“laa and ‘af”al are nomina diptota (any noun ending with an additional -aa'< or -aa is a nomen diptotum).

 

The -aa ending of a verbal noun will be a feminine marker if the verbal noun achieves the following:

• Has four letters or more.

• Does not begin with an additional m- (not a “meemic” verbal nouns).

 

Such verbal nouns with a suffixed feminine -aa are infrequent–verbal nouns more commonly take the tied taa'< as a feminine marker. They are usually of the forms fi“laa and fu“laa and are commonly used as female names.

 

Examples:

 

These are also diptota because they end with a feminine -aa.

 

The diminutive forms of structures carrying a feminine -aa also carry one. All the structures carrying a feminine -aa that have been mentioned so far share one diminutive form which is fu“aylaa.