The Feminine Signs In Arabic Nouns (علامات التأنيث فى الأسماء)

 Feminine Signs In Arabic Nouns

 (علامات التأنيث فى الأسماء)

By: Yusuf Basirat Bolanle

In our previous lesson, we have discussed the feminine signs in Arabic verbs with their different examples. Today, we are going to discuss the feminine signs in Arabic Nouns as well as their different examples in sentences.

The question is: as we have discussed the feminine signs in Arabic verbs in our previous lesson, do we have any sign for feminine nouns in Arabic sentences as well? Here we go.

In Arabic language, the feminine nouns or feminine names could come in form of a subject or doer of an action in a sentence or might come as object as well as prepositional object and others, which as a result of that needs to be denoted or identified by some feminine signs. Female, unlike male Nouns in Arabic language has its own signs which differentiate it from that of masculine Nouns.

The feminine signs on Arabic Nouns can be identified in the following ways at the end of the Nouns.

1- (التاء المتحركة/ المربوطة) (The feminine Taa) (ة)

2- (ألف التأنيث المقصورة) (The feminine short alif) (ى)

3- (ألف التأنيث الممدودة) (The feminine long alif) (ا)

            1-    (The Feminine Taa)

التاء المتحركة 

The Feminine Taa is one of the feminine signs in Arabic Nouns. This can be a closed Taa (التاء مربوطة)  (ة)  or an open Taa (التاء مفتوحة) (ت). They are usually placed at the end of a Noun in Arabic words indicating that the word is feminine. The closed Taa (ة) indicates that the feminine noun is a singular noun, while the open taa (ت), indicates that the noun is a plural feminine noun. Examples are:

جلست راضية على الكرسي

Rodiyah sat on the chair

كتبت فاطمة على السبورة

Fatimah wrote on the board

تأكل القطة طعامها

The cat is eating its food

الطائرة تطير فوق السماء

The plane is flying in the sky

انكسرت السبورة فى الفصل

The board was broken in the class

ذهبت المسلمات الى المسجد

The female Muslims went to the mosque

فرحت الطبيبات بأعمالهن

The female doctors were happy with their jobs

Looking at the above sentence, the word (راضية), (فاطمة), (قطة), (طائرة), (سبورة) (مسلمات) and (طبيبات) are all female nouns. They are the subjects in the sentences and are all females. This is because each of them ends with either the close taa, (ة) the feminine closed Taa as an indication that the subjects are singular feminine Nouns or end with the open taa (ت) (التاء المفتوحة) indicating that they are feminine plurals.

          2-(The Short Feminine Alif)

(ألف التأنيث المقصورة) 

This is a small alif at the end of a female noun. It is a Short alif written in form of an elongated yaa (ى), usually placed at the end of  nouns to indicate that it is a female.  It is called a short alif because it always prevents the clear sign or parsing marks of different types from showing at the end of the noun. Instead of that the nouns end with a compulsory alif which is called (الف لازمة), written like Yaa (ى). They can also appear in different positions in a sentence. Examples are:

فرحت ليلى لنيل على الدرجات الأولى

Lailah was happy because she got a first grade

تشترى سلمى أشياء كثيرة فى السوق

Salmah bought a lot of things in the market

سلمت هدى على المعلم

Hudah greeted the teacher

In the above sentences, the words (ليلى), (الأولى), (سلمى) and (هدى) are all feminine nouns. They all end with the short feminine alif. This short feminine alif on their ends prevent any parsing marks to show on their end. The end usually remains the same either they are in Nominative. Accusative or genitive positions, with the Ad-damah, al-fatha or al-kasrah parsing marks. Examples are:

جلست سلمى على الكرسي

Salmah sat on the chair

رأيت سلمى فى المدرسة

I saw Salmah in the school

سلمت على سلمى فى السوق

I greeted Salmah in the market

The feminine noun (سلمى) remains the same in the three positions: the subjective, the objective and the prepositional object cases.

          3-(The feminine long alif)

 (ألف التأنيث الممدودة) 

This is an elongated alif at the end of feminine nouns. This in most cases always succeeds by Hamzah. Examples of this are:

ذهبت أسماء مع أختها

Asmau went with her sister

ضلت العمياء فى الطريق

The blinds lost on the road

ينزل المطر من السماء

The rain falls from the sky

The word (أسماء), (العمياء) and (السماء) in the above sentences are all female nouns. This is because they are all attached with the long alif (ا) (الف ممدودة) at their end. This long alif or elongated alif is one of the major signs of feminine nouns in Arabic language. 

Note carefully

Some feminine nouns may be totally free from any of the above signs and yet they are feminine nouns. Some of them are feminine nouns by the virtue of the name itself and some of them are feminine names by the culture of a particular place while some of them are feminine nouns by the meaning they portrait not by the way the are written. Examples of these are:

ركبت زينب سيارة

Zainab boarded a car

قرأت سعاد كتابها

Suaad read her book

فهمت إحسان درسها

Ehsaan understood her Lesson

In the above sentences, the word (زينب), (سعاد), and (إحسان) are all feminine nouns. But mere looking at them, they are all free from any of the aforementioned signs of a feminine nouns.

It is also important to note that, the feminine nouns in Arabic language are not limited to living things, like other nouns, it may be non living things as well as ordinary items or equipment we use on a daily basis. Examples are: المكنسة (the broom),  الطائرة (the aeroplane), الشجرة (the tree) and so on, are all feminine nouns as far as they all end with one of the signs of feminine nouns in Arabic language.

Do  we have any of the masculine nouns having any if these signs? The answer is YES. There are some little exceptional masculine names having for instance, close taa (ة) at the end. Examples are: Usaamat (أسامة) and Hamzat (حمزة). They have physical feminine nouns signs but they are exceptionally used for males