# All dialects: camel



## sooorad

As has been discussed before, there are numerous words for ‘camel’ in Arabic (e.g. جمل، ناقة، بعير، إبل‎). I was wondering what the most common word is in your specific dialect, including the plural?


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## elroy

Palestinian: جمل


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## djara

Tunisian: جمل is the most common word.
We also use ناقة (pronounced naaga even in cities where naaqa could be expected) for female camels.
The collective noun is بِل, bil
The word قعود (pronounced g3uud) is used for a camel calf.


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## Hemza

In Morocco, it depends on the area (and I'm sure this goes for all other countries). In cities and some rural places where camels aren't that much used, may be one or two words are used. In general it is similar to Algeria/Tunisia with جمل for the male being the most common one and ناقة for the female (naaga pronounced this way even in cities).
The collective noun is بل (bil) or ابل (iibel) for a _herd of camels_ and ابالي for _herds of camels _(also called كحيلة). People who own camels are called أهل ابل (this may be peculiar to Hassaniya though I don't know).

As for bedouin dialects (Hassaniya and probably others), there is a whole variteties of words used  Here a few I know:

جمل
بعير (male)
زايلة (female)
رباعية (a female of 4 years old I think but I'm not sure)

There are maaaany others but these are the few ones I know.

I think the word كحيلة is also used in Tunisia and Algeria because I remember hearding this word in some Libyan/Western Egyptian videos I watched so I guess all the things I quoted are also valid for all Maghrebi countries at least (although use may be different today with camels having less important roles in the societies).


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## sooorad

elroy said:


> Palestinian: جمل


In PA is the plural إبل, or is جمال used?


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## elroy

sooorad said:


> In PA is the plural إبل, or is جمال used?


 I've only ever heard جمال.


Hemza said:


> In Morocco, it depends on the area (and I'm sure this goes for all other countries).


 I don't know -- in Palestine I've only ever heard جمل/جمال.  Maybe that's because we don't really have much desert or many camels, so one word is sufficient.


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## Hemza

elroy said:


> I don't know -- in Palestine I've only ever heard جمل/جمال.  Maybe that's because we don't really have much desert or many camels, so one word is sufficient.


It seems you forgot about the Southern part of Palestine .


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## elroy

I didn't: I said "we don't really have *much* desert."


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## Mahaodeh

Even if you do have a lot of desert, large numbers of beduines all around the Arab world have become sedentary during the 20th century. In Iraq for example the numbers of beduines have dwindled so much that they became negligible compared to the year 1900.

In Iraq it's mostly بعير, with جمل coming as a close second.


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## sooorad

@ayed and @cherine do you guys know the common Saudi and Egyptian word for ‘camel’?


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## cherine

As far as I know, rural Egyptians only use the word gamal جمل, but I'm sure Bedouins and camel elevators/traders have other words. For example, a young camel/calve is called قعود something I only learned from a series taking place in the South/Upper Egypt (pronounced ga3ud).


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## Schem

It's بعير (sing.) and بعارين or بل (pl.) here.


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## WadiH

Also أباعر for plural.  And you often use جمل and ناقة if you want to refer to a male or female camel, respectively.

There are many other words of course like هجن, used in a racing or military context, and of course different words to describe color (مغاتير and مجاهيم) and age and other features.

With regards to Palestine, of course much of it is desert or pastureland and has always had camels. There was a big camel racing event سباق الهجن in Gaza recently (you can find details on Google).


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## elroy

Wadi Hanifa said:


> much of it is desert or pastureland and has always had camels.


 I guess “much” is a matter of perspective.  Also, I specifically said “desert” not “pastureland.”  In any case, I am sufficiently familiar with my own country’s topography.


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## WadiH

The point is however you classify it (desert, pastureland or both at the same time), it is the type of area where you will find camels.  No one said anything about your familiarity with the topography, Elroy.


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## I.K.S.

Hemza said:


> رباعية (a female of 4 years old I think but I'm not sure)



 It is actually a female with the ability to travel from a stage (مرحلة) to another that usually takes four days in one. There is also سباعية , ثلاثية and so on.


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## momai

Jamal and jmaal for plural in Syria. B3iir exists but rarely used among city dwellers in my experience.
As a side note, i found out recently that naaqah might have an Aramaic etymology since nwq in Aramaic means to breastfeed which explains why the word only is used for female camel.


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## Ghabi

Wadi Hanifa said:


> different words to describe color (مغاتير and مجاهيم) and age and other features.


What do they mean, please? The only camel-related word I can remember is خلوج. (I read Ingham's article about Najdi camel vocabulary before, but I can't remember anything .)


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## Hemza

Mahaodeh said:


> Even if you do have a lot of desert, large numbers of beduines all around the Arab world have become sedentary during the 20th century. In Iraq for example the numbers of beduines have dwindled so much that they became negligible compared to the year 1900.


Indeed but lexically speaking, even if a lot of people gave up bedouin/rural lifestyle where camels used to occupy an important role, they still however use a much wider vocabulary than urban dwellers when it comes to camel related topics.


elroy said:


> I don't know -


When I said "It depends on the area and this goes for any Arab country", I meant what I said just above as a reply to @Mahaodeh .


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## WadiH

Ghabi said:


> What do they mean, please? The only camel-related word I can remember is خلوج. (I read Ingham's article about Najdi camel vocabulary before, but I can't remember anything .)



مجاهيم are black camels and  مغاتير are white ones.


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