Morphology- Part 1

Introduction
• Morphology: Aspect of language concerned with the rules
governing change in meaning at the intraword level

• All Arabic lexemes with the exception of pronouns,

particles basically consist of two component elements:

– A root and a pattern

• Most lexemes usually consist of a sequence of

triconsonantal roots, and some of a sequence of
quadriconsonantal roots,

– e.g. drs (to study), drj (to roll)

• A root usually expresses a basic concept which
is normally qualified/particularized by
pattern,e.g.
– daras (he studied)
→has the pattern C1VC2VC3/faal (3 m.s. perf. v.)

– yadris (he studies)

→has the pattern yaC1C2VC3 /yafil (3 m.s. imperf. v.)

-madruus (studied)
→has the pattern maC1C2uuC3/mafuul (pass. par)
 – daaris (studying)
→has the pattern C1aaC2iC3/faail (act. par)

– Madrasah (school)
→has the pattern maC1C2aC3(ah)/mafalah (n. of place)

• There are numerous patterns besides those

mentioned above which are formed by adding
prefixes, infixes, suffixes, and by gemination of
root consonants (usually the second root
consonant)
Verbs
• The verbal system of the Gulf dialects has:

– Retained some basic features of Classical Arabic

(CA).

– Developed some of its own patterns.

• The great majority of Arabic verbs are

triconsonantal
• There are also quadriconsonantal verbs
• The forms of the verbs are usually formed by
gemination of the root consonant, vowel
lengthening, prefixation, infixation, and
various combination of these.

• Unlike other languages, the Arabic verb is

marked for number, gender, person, tense.
• An example of a triconsonantal verb in the
pattern C1aC2aC3/faal → katab

• Note: although there are certain patterns for

verbs, one should be aware that there is
considerable vowel variation, and vowel deletion
or insertion, in these verb forms depending on
the speaker, rapidity of speech, sufixes and
prefixes, and adjacent words e.g. katab → ktab →
kitab (to write)
• The following is the conjugations (‫ )تصريف‬of the
perfect (‫ )الفعل الماضي‬triconsonantal verb of ‘katab’
(pattern: C1aC2aC3/faal )

• 3 m.s. katab (he wrote)

• 3 f.s. katabat
• 3 c. pl. katabu(-aw)
• 3 f. pl. kataban (Riyadh Arabic-RA)
• 2 m.s. katabt
• 2 f.s. katabti(-ay)
• 2 c. pl. katabtu(-aw)
• 1 c.s. katabt
• 1 c.pl. Katabna

• (c. → common Gender)

• The imperfect tense of the verb ‘katab’ is formed by adding
personal pronominal prefixes and suffixes marking number, gender,
person, tense.

• The following is conjugations of yiktib (pattern yiC1C2aC3/yifal):

• 3 m.s. yiktib (he writes)

• 3 f.s. tiktib
• 3 c. pl. yiktibu(-uun)
• 3 f. pl. yiktiban (Riyadh Arabic-RA)
• 2 m.s. tiktib
• 2 f.s. tiktibi(iin)
• 2 c. pl. tiktibu(-uun)
• 2 f.pl. tiktiban
• 1 c.s. aktib
• 1 c.pl. niktib
• The following is conjugations of ‘yiktib’ as
imparitives:

• 2 m.s. iktib
• 2 f.s. iktibi
• 2 c. pl. iktibu
• 2 f.pl. iktiban
Verb derivation
• There are 10 verbal forms (of 15 forms of CA)
that are used in Gulf dialects.

• These forms show modifications of the basic

verb meaning.

• They are usually derived from triconsonantal

Form I verbs by adding some consonants or by
lengthening existing vowels, or both.
• The following are the basic derived verbal
forms used in Gulf dialects:
Form Perfect Imperfect
I faal daras (to study) ya(i)dris
II faal darras (to teach) ydarris
III faaal gaabal (to meet) ygaabil
IV afal akram (to honor) yikrim
V t(i)faal tallam (to learn) yitallam
VI t(i)faaal tigaabal (to meet-with) yitgaabal
VII ()nfaal ()nkasar (to be broken) yinkasir
VIII ()ftaal ()taal (to work) yitail
IX ()fall (i)marr (to become red) yimarr
X ()stafal (i)stagbal (to receive – a guest) yistagbil
The passive voice ‫صيغة المجهول‬
• Gulf dialects do not use Classical Arabic (CA)
passive verb forms which are formed by
internal vowel change,

such as: katab (he wrote) → Kutiba (was written)

The passive voice (Cont’d) ‫صيغة المجهول‬
• Usually, most dialects use the forms (below in the
table) to indicate the passive voice ‫صيغة‬
‫المجهول‬
• However, occurences of CA passive do exist in the
speech of educated speakers
Form Perfect (Dialect) Imperfect (Dialect) Perfect (CA) Imperfect (CA)

V t(i)faal tkassar (it was yitkassar kusira yuksaru

broken)
VII ()nfaal ()nkasar (it was yinkasir
broken)
VIII ()ftaal ()tarag (it was yitarig uriqa yuraqu
burned)
Noun derivation
• There are several morphological patterns for the
derivation of verbal nouns.
• Here are some examples:

Verb Verbal Noun Pattern

arab arb (hitting) C1VC2C3
tiib taab (tiredness) C1aC2aC3
allam taliim (teaching) taC1C2iiC3
waafag mwaafagah m(u)C1aaC2aC3ah
(agreement/approval)
Active and passive participles
• Active and passive participles
respectively ‫اسم الفاعل و اسم المفعول‬. Below are some examples
Verb Active participle Passive participle ‫اسم المفعول‬
‫اسم الفاعل‬
katab m.s. kaatib (writer) maktuub (written)

f.s. kaatbah maktuubah

m.p. kaatbiin maktuubiin

f.p. kaatbaat maktuubaat

raa m.s raayi (going) NA

f.s. raayah NA

m.p. rayiin NA

f.s. raayaat NA
Noun, Gender, and Number
Gender in Nouns
• Nouns in MSA and in all Arabic dialects as well are
inherently either masculine ‫ مذكر‬or feminine ‫مؤنث‬

• Masculine nouns are unmarked

• Feminine nouns are marked. Feminine gender is

apparent in the morphological form of feminine
nouns…they end with ‫( تاء مربوطة – ة‬and which sounds
as a/ah/t (if it is followed by a word)

e.g. /maktab/ (office) is masculine, /maktabah/ (library) is

feminine
Noun, Gender, and Number
Gender in Nouns (Cont’d)
• There are exceptions:
– Nouns that are feminine but which are masculine
by form (i.e. unmarked).
e.g. paired body parts (‫ إذن‬- ‫)رجل – عين‬, ‫ عروس‬, ‫ شمس‬,
, ‫ أرض‬, ‫ بنت‬, ‫ عجوز‬, ‫ صحراء‬,
Noun, Gender, and Number
Gender in Nouns (Cont’d)

• The gender of a noun governs the gender

inflection of the verbs and adjectives and the
gender selection of the pronouns ,
examples:
– ‫هذا البيت كبير‬
– ‫هذه الحديقة كبيرة‬
– ‫الحرمة راحت لبيتها‬
Noun, Gender, and Number
Dual
• The number marking system distinguishes between singular, dual, and
plural.

• All Arabic dialects form the dual by adding the suffix (‫ (ين‬to nouns e.g.
‫ رجالين‬- ‫ولدين‬

• In Arabic dialects, the dual is only shown in the noun.

– An adjective does not have to agree in number with the dual noun it modifies

– A dual noun usually takes a plural adjective and a plural verb e.g. ‫عندها طالبتين‬
‫شاطرات‬

(note that the adjective ‫ شاطرات‬is in the plural form and in the dual)
• Nouns which are morphologically marked as feminine by the feminine
ending ( ‫ ) تاء مربوطة ة‬-usually pronounced as a/ah - the ending is
always added as a /t/ ‫ ت‬before the dual suffix ‫ين‬

e.g. ‫ حرمتين‬- ‫ حرمة‬، ‫جامعة – جامعتين‬

Noun, Gender, and Number
Plural
• Forming the plural nouns can be achieved either by:
suffixation for the sound plural, by internal vowel change
for the broken plural ‫جمع تكسير‬, or very rarely by both.

• The masculine sound plural ‫ جمع مذكر سالم‬, sometimes

referred to as ‘the regular plural’, → is formed by adding
the suffix /‫ين‬/ to participle forms (active participle ‫اسم‬
‫ الفاعل‬or passive participle ‫ ) اسم المفعول‬referring to:

– male persons ‫ موظفين‬- ‫ موظف‬،‫ عادلين‬-‫ عادل‬،‫صادق – صادقين‬

– occupations ‫ مهندس – مهندسين‬،‫معلم – معلمين‬
– relative adjectives ‫ بغداديين‬- ‫ بغداد‬،‫سعودي – سعوديين‬
Noun, Gender, and Number
Plural (Cont’d)
• The “relative” adjective is the nisba adjective in Arabic. It is often
used with place names.
e.g. ‫ يمن – يمني‬،‫ مصر – مصري‬،‫ سعودي‬- ‫السعودية‬

• The nisba can be applied to a wide variety of nouns in addition to

place names.
– For example:
– ‫مركز‬ْ means ‘center’ and ّ‫مركزي‬is ‘central’.
– ‫وطن‬means ‘nation’ . Something which is national or a person who is a
nationalist is called ّ‫وطني‬

• Many nouns to which the nisba is applied are feminine.

– To apply the nisba to a feminine word, the ‫ة‬must first be
dropped and then the nisba is added to it. For example, ,‫جامعة‬
“university” is feminine. If you want to say a “university student”
(masc.) you would drop the ‫ ة‬and add the ‫ ي‬to ‫ – جامعة‬to
ّ‫“جامعي‬University student” would be ّ‫طالبّجامعي‬
Noun, Gender, and Number
Plural (Cont’d)
• Note that the relative adjective forms usually used as
nouns of nationality are also pluralized by adding the
suffix (‫ )ية‬e.g. ‫ يمني – يمنية‬، ‫لبناني – لبنانية‬

• The feminine sound plural ‫ جمع مؤنث سالم‬can be

formed by suffixing (‫ )ات‬to many forms ending in (‫)ة‬
(which usually marks feminine nouns and adjectives),
e.g.:
‫ سعوديات‬- ‫ سعودية‬،‫ ساعة – ساعات‬،‫ سيارة – سيارات‬،‫معلمة – معلمات‬
Noun, Gender, and Number
Broken plural
• Arabic dialects usually find broken plurals
‫ جمع تكسير‬the hardest to form or determine.

• Many nouns may have more than one alternative broken

plural e.g. ‫ أرفف‬-‫ رفوف‬-‫ رف‬، ‫ورق‬/‫ورقات‬/‫ أوراق‬-‫ورقة‬

• Broken plurals are formed by some internal modification of

vowels depending on the pattern of the singular
– (note that a variety of singular patterns may have the same plural
pattern e.g.

/jabal/ (mountain) –CVCVC (CaCaC) and /kalb/ (dog)- CVCC (CaCC)

have the same plural pattern – CiCaaC - /jibaal, kilaab/

Noun, Gender, and Number
Broken plural (Cont’d)
• The following are some examples of the broken plural patterns:
• C1uC2uuC3: mr (thing)→uuur,
dars (lesson)→ duruus

• C1C2aaC3: wagt (time) →awgaat,

uul (work) →a  aal

• C1uC2uC3: Kitaab (book)→kutub,

madiinah(city)→mudun

• CiCaaC: jabal (mountain)→jibaal,

kalb (dog)→kilaab
Numerals
Cardinals- one to ten
• Examples

Cardinal Numerals (Masculine) Cardinal Numerals (Feminine)

waaid waaidah
ineen enteen
alaa alaaah
air aarah
Numerals
Cardinals- one to ten (Cont’d)
• The feminine forms of cardinals from 3 to 10 quantify
masculine plural nouns
(masculine forms quantify feminine plural nouns)
e.g. ‫ثالث ورقات – ثالثة رجاجيل‬

• Cardinal numbers from 11 do not show gender and

they require the following noun to be in the singular
e.g. ‫ بنت‬/ ‫عندي اثنعشرولد‬

• Cardinal numbers from 3 onward occur immediately

before the noun they quantify
e.g. ‫ثالث ورقات‬
Numerals
Cardinals- one to ten (Cont’d)
• Cardinal numbers agree in definiteness with the
noun they quantify
e.g. ‫الورقات الثالث‬

– When they are placed post-nominally (i.e. after the

nouns), they act as adjectives and they take the
definite article; e.g. ‫الورقات الثالث‬

– However, if they precede the noun, they take the

definite article, but not the noun (i.e. the noun does
not take the definite article); e.g. ‫الثالث ورقات‬
Numerals
Cardinals- one to ten (Cont’d)
The cardinal numbers 1 and 2:

• The cardinal number one (1) is different from the other numbers

• The singular form of the quantified noun expresses the number one; e.g.
‫ كتاب‬- a book

• The number 1 ‫ واحد‬may follow the noun it quantifies and it agrees with it
in gender; e.g. ‫ كتاب واحد‬- one book
– When ‫ واحد‬precedes the noun, it can give the meaning of ‘a certain’, ‫واحد‬
‫ موظف قال لي عنك‬- a certain employee told me about you

• The cardinal number two (2) is usually expressed by:

1) adding the suffix (‫ )ين‬to the quantified noun; e.g. ‫بيتين‬
2) placing the number two before the plural form of the quantified noun; e.g.
‫ ثنتين بنات‬،‫اثنين أوالد‬
Numerals
Ordinals- one to ten
• Ordinals are derived from numerals two to ten.
• They are formed on the pattern CaaCiC- faail for
masculine and CaaCCah- faailah for feminine

• The ordinal corresponding to one ‫ واحد‬has an

irregular form; e.g.
‫أول‬ ‫ثاني‬ ‫ثالث‬ ‫عاشر‬ for masculine,
‫أولى‬ ‫ثانية‬ ‫ثالثة‬ ‫عاشرة‬ for feminine