ة
From Wiktionary, the free dictionary
See also: ۃ [U+06C3 ARABIC LETTER TEH MARBUTA GOAL], ۀ [U+06C0 ARABIC LETTER HEH WITH YEH ABOVE], ۂ [U+06C2 ARABIC LETTER HEH GOAL WITH HAMZA ABOVE], ہ [U+06C1 ARABIC LETTER HEH GOAL], ه [U+0647 ARABIC LETTER HEH], and ھ [U+06BE ARABIC LETTER HEH DOACHASHMEE]
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Arabic
Etymology 1
Pronunciation
Letter
ة (تَاء مَرْبُوطَة (tāʔ marbūṭa))
- ة (tāʔ marbūṭa) is a variant of the letter ت (tāʔ) used at the end of words. It is formed from the letter ه (hāʔ) with the addition of the two overdots of ت (tāʔ).
Usage notes
- It mostly exists in grammatically feminine words. It always follows a fatḥa ـَ ("a"), and it is replaced with a normal ت (tāʔ) when a suffix is added, e.g. غُرْفَة (ḡurfa, “a room”) -> غُرْفَتِي (ḡurfatī, “my room”) (غُرْفَة (ḡurfa) (ة -> ت) + ـِي (-ī)). It may only be in the middle or end of a word.
- When desinential inflection is used in Classical Arabic or in formal Modern Standard Arabic, non-pausal ة is pronounced as /t/ (preceded by usually unwritten fatḥa "a") and has -u/un, -i/-in, -a/an case endings, e.g. لُغَةٌ - "luḡah" (pausal), "luḡatun" formal, non-pausal pronunciation (nominative case, indefinite).
- Adverbials from tāʾ marbūṭa do not add alif (ا) with fatḥatān. Instead, fatḥatān is attached directly to tāʾ marbūṭa and the "hidden t" is pronounced with the ending "-an" e .g. عَادَةً (ʕādatan, “usually”).
- In a more relaxed orthography ة is replaced with ه (hāʔ) with the same pronunciation, especially in Egypt and Sudan.
- Loanwords in other languages (e.g. Persian or Turkish) from words with tāʾ marbūṭa use the endings at, et, ah, a or e.
Etymology 2
From Proto-Semitic *-at-, from Proto-Afroasiatic *-t, *-Vt (feminine suffix). See also Egyptian -t.
Pronunciation
Suffix
ـَة • (-a)
- Used to form feminine adjectives from masculine adjectives.
- Used to form feminine nouns from masculine nouns referring to people.
- Used to form singulative nouns (referring to one item) from collective nouns (referring to a collection of items).
- Suffix used to form instance nouns (nomina vicis, referring to a single instance of an action) from verbal nouns.
- اِبْتِسَام (ibtisām, “smiling”) + ـَة (-a) → اِبْتِسَامَة (ibtisāma, “a smile”)
- اِنْتِفَاض (intifāḍ, “rising up, shaking off”) + ـَة (-a) → اِنْتِفَاضَة (intifāḍa, “an uprising, an intifada”)
- Used to form abstract nouns from nisba adjectives in ـِيّ (-iyy). Alternatively, the combination of the two suffixes can be viewed as a single suffix ـِيَّة (-iyya).
- اِشْتِرَاكِيّ (ištirākiyy, “socialist”) + ـَة (-a) → اِشْتِرَاكِيَّة (ištirākiyya, “socialism”)
- Used to form nouns referring to devices from occupational/characteristic nouns and adjectives (e.g. دَبَّابَة (dabbāba, “tank”) from دَبَّاب (dabbāb, “crawling, crawler”)) and from active participles (e.g. طَابِعَة (ṭābiʕa, “printer (computing device)”) from طَابِع (ṭābiʕ, “printer (person)”)).
- Used to form nouns of various sorts from adjectives: for instance, قَرِينَة (qarīna, “connection”) from قَرِين (qarīn, “connected”) or مُعَلَّقَة (muʕallaqa, “poster, placard”) from مُعَلَّق (muʕallaq, “suspended”).
Derived terms
Descendants
Egyptian Arabic
Etymology
Pronunciation
Suffix
ـة • (-a or -it) (sound plural ـات (-āt))
- Feminine suffix attached to most feminine nouns
- Forms feminine adjectives from masculine lemmas
- Forms feminine nouns from masculine lemmas
- Forms some singular nouns from plural stems
Usage notes
Before suffixes it becomes ـتـ (-t-), except when the suffix results in a consonant cluster, then an extra /i/ is added before the /t/:
Alternative forms
- ـه (alternative spelling)
Hijazi Arabic
Etymology
Pronunciation
Letter
ة • (tāʔ marbūṭa)
Suffix
ـة • (-a/-at) f
- Ending of most feminine nouns in the singular
- Feminine suffix for nouns referring to people
- Feminine suffix for adjectives
- Singulative suffix from collective nouns (they become grammatically feminine)
South Levantine Arabic
Etymology
Pronunciation
Suffix
ـة • (-e/-a/-t) f
- Ending of most feminine nouns in the singular
- Feminine suffix for nouns referring to people
- Feminine suffix for adjectives
- Singulative suffix from collective nouns (they become grammatically feminine)
Usage notes
- Nouns ending in ـة are not always feminine, it can also occur in broken plurals and rarely in masculine singular nouns.
- According to the dialect, the underlying phoneme may be either /e/ or /a/. Among those with /e/, the realization varies according to the previous consonant as follows:
- “-a” (IPA(key): /e/, [ɑ]) after “emphatic” consonants (ḍ, q, r, ṣ, ṭ, ẓ), e.g. قصّة (ʔuṣṣa), فراطة (frāṭa), فكرة (fikra)
- “-a” (IPA(key): /e/, [a]) after “throat” consonants (ʔ, ʕ, ḡ, h, ḥ, ḵ), e.g. لغة (luḡa), جهة (jiha), شقّة (šaʔʔa)
- “-e” (IPA(key): /e/, [e]) after the remaining consonants and “r” in the ending “-īr”, e.g. غرفة (ġurfe), كاسة (kāse), كبيرة (kbīre)
- silent after a vowel “a”, which is then pronounced long and stressed, e.g. حياة (ḥayā), صلاة (ṣalā)
- In the construct form (i.e. when followed by an enclitic determiner or as the first noun of an idafa), the pronunciation is /t/.
- In the case of idafa, the spelling remains unchanged:
- When a suffix is added, the spelling changes to ت (t):
See also
- Feminine plural suffix for nouns: ـات (-āt)
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