# فتوى fatwa



## Hibernia2

In Norwegian, _fatwa_ is a masculine word. On Wiktionary, I saw that it is a feminine word in French, Polish, Portuguese and Spanish. I thought this was interesting, so I wonder which gender _fatwa_ has in Arabic?


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## Crimson-Sky

It's feminine.


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## Eternal student

I know  فتوى is treated as feminine today, but was this always the case? I don't understand why if so. Because isn't it a مصدر على وزن فعلى? Shouldn't that mean that it's masculine like دعوى? I would have thought that treating فتوى as feminine is one of those common mistakes like treating مستشفى as feminine, but maybe I'm missing something here?


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## fdb

فتوى and دعوى are feminine in Classical Arabic. It is true that in Qur’an 7:5 دعوى is preceded by the masculine 3rd person singular verb كان, but that is because in classical Arabic a noun that is feminine by convention (rather than by meaning) can govern a masculine verb in a verbal sentence. Your link got this one wrong.


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## barkoosh

دعوى and فتوى are both feminine because they end with ألف التأنيث المقصورة. This ى is not part of the root. As for the ى in مستشفى which is اسم مكان على وزن مستفعَل, it's actually part of the root, making مستشفى masculine.


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## Eternal student

Thanks both. What you say makes sense fdb, and resolves the apparent contradiction with examples like this. I guess تقوى is also feminine and the same explanation applies here? Barkoosh: I know the ى in مستشفى is part of the root and that's why it's masculine, but would you agree that it is often wrongly treated as feminine (by Arabs) nevertheless? When I lived in Egypt, every day I passed a banner that treated مستشفى as feminine, but maybe that was a one-off? Cf. also _ma3nitha_.


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## barkoosh

While the word should be masculine (that's why we say in Lebanon المستشفى الحكومي but people also say كانت المستشفى مليانة), some justify the feminine use of مستشفى by saying that when they say مستشفى they have دار الشفاء/الاستشفاء in mind (and دار is fem.) I don't know if this justification is valid_._


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## Ghabi

^Do you pronounce مستشفى with a final -t when it's the first member of an iDaafa construction? In this old thread (from post#13 onwards) we discuss some words which can end with either ى or ة.


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## paraklete

"fatwa" is feminine word in common use.


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## barkoosh

Ghabi said:


> ^Do you pronounce مستشفى with a final -t when it's the first member of an iDaafa construction? In this old thread (from post#13 onwards) we discuss some words which can end with either ى or ة.


Not at all. You say for example "mustashfa-l-malik Faisal" مستشفى الملك فيصل


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## analeeh

Although معنى (which is another case of a historically masculine word ending in an -ā derived from the root) is sometimes treated as feminine and has the form معناتا _ma3naat-a _in Syrian where the -ā is treated as if it were a ـاة. I think this is just a case of reanalysis; after all, in pronunciation there is no distinction between the two kinds of ـى.


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## cherine

I'm sorry the discussion in that thread didn't follow a bit further, because I should have clarified that معناة الكلام in that song was the only instance I know of where a word with ـى becomes ـة . Because other than that, we keep the "a". For example: معنى الكلام، مستشفى الأطفال are ma3na'l-kalaam, mostashfa'l-aTfaal. So, fatwa remains fatwa when it's part of an iDaafa: fatwa'sh-sheekh folaan فتوى الشيخ فلان and not fatwe, although I believe I've heard fatwet a few times. Maybe because not many would know or think about the correct construction فتواه/فتواهم.


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## Eternal student

A follow-up question on فتوى and دعوى etc. In correct Classical Arabic, when these are indefinite can they take tanwiin, in a position where normal nouns would (and like مستشفى and معنى do)?


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## analeeh

Eternal student said:


> A follow-up question on فتوى and دعوى etc. In correct Classical Arabic, when these are indefinite can they take tanwiin, in a position where normal nouns would (and like مستشفى and معنى do)?



I don't think so. The derivational suffix -aa is usually invariable.


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## Ghabi

In terms of morphology, fatwaa and ma3nan are not really comparable:



*Indefinite**definite* *ma3nayun (-->ma3nan)*al-ma3nayu (-->al-ma3naa)fatwaaal-fatwaa


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## analeeh

Yeah - to clarify, I meant that the suffix _-aa_ (separate from the root and producing a feminine word) is usually invariable - unlike _-aa_ which represents an underlying yaa2.


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