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Nouns

Gender of Nouns

Feminine Markers (continued)

2. Extended ʔalif

The second feminine marker in Arabic singular nouns is a terminal weak ʔalif (a long A vowel ‑ȃ ـَاْ ) followed by a consonant ʔalif or hamza·t (a glottal stop ʔ ء ).

This ending is called an “extended ʔalif” الأَلِفُ الْمَمْدُوْدَةُ because the presence of the final hamza·t allows for the long A to be fully pronounced rather than shortened. Nouns that end with an extended ʔalif are called “extended nouns.”

Being a “marker” means that the ـاء is suffixed to stems, so it is composed of “additional letters” and not any “original letters” (i.e. not any letters that belong to the root of the word).

Because true nouns in Arabic must have a minimum of three original letters, the ـا must be fourth letter or beyond in a noun (i.e. the noun must have more than three letters) in order for the two letters of the ـاء to be additional and thus a feminine marker. If the ـا is a third letter, then one of the two letters of the ـاء must be an original letter. (That is the ء .)

However, this does not mean that if the ـاء is fourth letter or beyond the ـا will always be an additional feminine marker. This is because derived nouns, including ones with five letters or more, commonly end with ـاء that is not a feminine marker.

Derived nouns, or verbids, are nouns that are derived from verbs (particularly perfective verbs). Most nouns in Arabic are derived nouns. Derived nouns are several classes (verbal nouns, participles, agent nouns, time and place nouns, and tool nouns) and each class has its standard patterns or structures in which roots can be plugged.

Some of the derived noun structures, particularly those of verbal nouns, emphatic active participles, and tool nouns commonly have the following ending:

Where l is a variable final root-letter, and the ȃ is fixed and additional.

The problem arises when the final root letter is hamza·t ‑ȃʔ, because the ending will look just like the feminine marker although it is not one.

A similar problem arises when the final root letter is a weak letter (w or y). In such case, the final weak letter is always turned to hamza·t in Arabic:

‑ȃW→ ‑ȃʔ

‑ȃY→ ‑ȃʔ

These endings look like the feminine marker ‑ȃʔ, but they are not feminine markers.

Derived nouns that have these endings are masculine nouns unless a feminine marker (i.e. the tied tȃʔ ‑a·t) is attached to them following the ‑ȃʔ. (There are specific cases in which some participle adjectives can be feminine without adding a tied tȃʔ , those are covered in the adjective section.)

Here is the algorithm for nouns ending with ‑ȃʔ:

1) Less than five letters

Usually those are verbal nouns or nouns structured as verbal nouns. The ‑ȃʔ is not a suffix. Such nouns are almost always masculine unless a feminine tȃʔ is attached following the ‑ȃʔ. Very few of such words will be feminine on their own (I could only find one so far).

Examples, click on the Arabic word to hear it:

Irregular plurals are always feminine, unless they refer to male humans where they can be masculine.

Although verbal nouns ending with ـاء are masculine, it is common to see them used as female personal names. Rarely they are used as male personal names.

Examples:

2) Five letters or more

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

I. Derived nouns & irregular plurals

Derived nouns with five letters or more are nothing different from the ones with less than five letters— they are all masculine.

Examples:

Irregular plurals are always feminine unless they refer to male humans where they can be masculine as well. It is possible for the ‑ȃʔ suffix to appear attached in irregular plural structures (ʔafʕilȃʔ & fuʕalȃʔ), but in that case it will NOT be a feminine marker. Irregular plurals that end with ‑ȃʔ usually refer to humans, and they are usually masculine.

Examples:

In the last example, the ‑ȃʔ is not a plural suffix but part of the stem ʔafʕȃl.

II. Faʕlȃʔ, 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 ‑ȃʔ ending is a feminine marker.

The faʕlȃʔ 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 ‑ȃʔ feminine marker appears also in the diminutive form of faʕlȃʔ:

The faʕlȃʔ 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 faʕlȃʔ 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 fuʕlȃ.

Both faʕlȃʔ and ʔafʕal belong 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 ǵarr marking becomes identical to naṣb marking in the absolute state).

Aside from faʕlȃʔ, the ‑ȃʔ feminine marker appears in few nouns that are mostly Arabized loanwords or word salads that became single words of four-letter or five-letter roots. The ‑ȃʔ was added to such words arbitrarily.

Examples:

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