# marriage, wedding



## greg from vancouver

Could someone please comment on these synonyms for marriage, specifically in answer to these questions:
--which is most common in MSA, such as newspapers, etc?
--which are most common in dialects, if any?
--any other info re: usage

*زواج - عرس - زفاف - قران - نكاح*And by marriage, I'm thinking of matrimonial marriage, not figurative marriage, as in "a marriage of ideas and money".

Many thanks,
Greg


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## cherine

greg from vancouver said:


> *زواج - عرس - زفاف - قران - نكاح*


zawaaj زواج is marriage, the marital relationship.
3urs عرس is the wedding ceremony/party
zifaaf زفاف is the wedding party. There's a verb zaffa زفَّ which is used in sentences like: زُفَّت إلى زوجها الأسبوع الماضي but also: زفَّ إلينا الخبر السعيد which means: he gave us the happy/good news.
qiraan قران is the ceremony of writing the marriage contract. The expression is 3aqd al-qiraan عقد القران 
nikaa7 نكاح means both marriage and -less used maybe- sexual relation.


> Could someone please comment on these synonyms for marriage, specifically in answer to these questions:
> --which is most common in MSA, such as newspapers, etc?
> --which are most common in dialects, if any?


Most used are:
زواج to mean marriage, زفاف and عرس to mean wedding

In the Egyptian dialect:
- marriage: gawaaz جواز (where few letters exchanged place and ج is pronounced as "g" and not "j")
- wedding: fara7 فرح for muslims and ikliil إكليل for Christians

By the way, in MSA I don't think qiraan, nikaa7 are used at all *in Christian contexts/usage*, and I'm not sure about 3urs and zifaaf.


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## linguist786

cherine said:


> nikaa7 نكاح means both marriage and -less used maybe- sexual relation.


We use "nikaa7" to mean the actual ceremony where the vows are exchanged.


			
				cherine said:
			
		

> By the way, in MSA I don't think qiraan, *nikaa7* are used at all, and I'm not sure about 3urs and zifaaf.


Really?
قال الرسول (صلى الله عليه وسلم): *النكاح* من سنتي فمن رغب عن سنتي فليس مني


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## cherine

Mohammed, I was speaking about the *Modern* Standard Arabic.
Of course the word is used in Classical Arabic, and is even mentioned in the Qur'an. 


Edit:
Ooops, you're right, I was speaking about Christian usage in MSA.  

I'll edit my post.


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## Alijsh

Dear Cherine, we say ezdevâj (ازدواج) for marriage. Don't you have it?


linguist786 said:


> قال الرسول (صلى الله عليه وسلم): *النكاح* من سنتي فمن رغب عن سنتي فليس مني


I think *min* is redundant: *النكاح* سنتي فمن . We say so in Iran.​


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## cherine

Alijsh said:


> Dear Cherine, we say ezdevâj (ازدواج) for marriage. Don't you have it?


The word izdiwaaj ازدواج means double. A famous psychological term is  ازدواج الشخصية which means that someone has a double personality, or two personalities in one person.

It's true that two people coming together in a marital relation forum a double or a dual entity, but this word is not used like this in Arabic.


Alijsh said:


> I think *min* is redundant: *النكاح* سنتي فمن . We say so in Iran.​


It's not redundant because the usage of "min" means that it's *part of* the sunna, while removing it means that it is the sunna.
Both meaning are correct, but their a nuance that nullify what may appear as a redundancy.


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## Alijsh

cherine said:


> The word izdiwaaj ازدواج means double. A famous psychological term is ازدواج الشخصية which means that someone has a double personality, or two personalities in one person.....


Thanks for explanation. We say došaxsiyati دوشخصیتی (do: two). I think its English is schizophrenia.


cherine said:


> It's not redundant because the usage of "min" means that it's *part of* the sunna, while removing it means that it is the sunna.
> Both meaning are correct, but their a nuance that nullify what may appear as a redundancy.


Sorry but I still think it is without من because it fits the second sunnati: النكاح *سنتي* فمن رغب عن *سنتي* فليس مني . We say so in Iran. with من I think we should have sunna in plural: min sunani (i.e. marriage is of my traditions). Anyway, since it's off-toipc it's better not to pay to it more.


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## elroy

As a Palestinian Christian, I'll explain which MSA words are used by Christians and how, as well as the colloquial Palestinian words:

In MSA, Christians use زواج ("marriage") and عرس ("wedding").  عرس is the translation used in the Bible for the wedding in Cana (John 2:1 - وفي اليوم الثالث كان عرس في قانا الجليل وكانت أم يسوع هناك).  We do not use زفاف or قران; these are used only by Moslems.  As for نكاح, I'm pretty sure we would only use it with a sexual meaning.  As Cherine said, we also use إكليل; this refers to the official ceremony in the church.  Wedding invitations frequently start with the saying بالمجد والكرامة كللهما; the verb كلل (_kallala_) being used here to mean "to marry" (transitively). 

In Palestinian Arabic, we say جيزة (_jiize_) for "marriage" and عرس (_3uros_) for "wedding."  For Christian weddings, we use إكليل (_ikliil_), just as in MSA, to refer to the church ceremony.  For Moslem weddigns, عقد القران is colloquially referred to as كتب الكتاب (_kateb liktaab_).  Christian weddings are traditionally followed by a سهرة (_sahra_), a reception that lasts well into the night; in the Galilee it is also called أولام (_ulaam_), a borrowing from Hebrew which means "hall" in Hebrew (because you usually rent a hall to have these receptions in).


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## cherine

Thanks for the reminder  


elroy said:


> In Palestinian Arabic, we say جيزة (_jiize_) for "marriage"


I think this is another inversion (like gawaaz in Egypt instead of zawaaj) : jiize, if I'm not mistaken, is زيجة ziija which is another form of زواج 
Good wishes may say: زواج ميمون or زيجة مباركة 


> For Moslem weddigns, عقد القران is colloquially referred to as كتب الكتاب (_kateb liktaab_). Christian weddings are traditionally followed by a سهرة (_sahra_), a reception that lasts well into the night


Same in Egypt: we say كتب الكتاب slightly different pronounciation: katbel-ketaab

The reception following the Christian ceremony is called 7afla, and sometimes reception ريسبشن


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## WadiH

"Nika7" is used in the religious and legal context among Muslims.  For example, the marriage contract is called "3aqd nika7 عقد نكاح" and the person authorized to take the vows is sometimes called "ma2thun anki7a مأذون أنكحة".  The word only acquired a sexual connotation relatively recently through a misunderstanding of the meaning of the term.


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## clevermizo

Actually the term is used to refer to sexual relation in الف ليلة وليلة, so its use in this regard must be quite old (حكاية الملك شهريار وأخيه الملك شاه زمان):

بالله عليك أن تسامحينا من هذا الأمر فقال لهما بالله عليكما أن تنزلا وإلا نبهت عليكما العفريت فيقتلكما شر قتلة فخافا ونزلا إليها فقامت لهما وقالت ارصعا رصعاً عنيفاً وإلا أنبه عليكما العفريت فمن خوفهما قال الملك شهريار لأخيه الملك شاه زمان: يا أخي افعل ما أمرتك به فقال: لا أفعل حتى تفعل أنت قبلي وأخذا يتغامزان على نكاحها فقالت لهما ما أراكما تتغامزان فإن لم
تتقدما وتفعلا وإلا نبهت عليكما العفريت فمن خوفهما من الجني فعلا ما أمرتهما به​At least this is sexual if I'm not misunderstanding it. The whole passage is sexual in nature.


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## WadiH

Yes but Alf Layla w Layla was compiled about 500 years ago, and it's not exactly "high literature."


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## clevermizo

If it's a question of _usage_, then it shouldn't matter whether something is of "high" literature or not - it is simply documentation that there was this use 500 years ago. If we find something as evidence of a linguistic usage a long time ago, then it is still evidence and should not be invalidated by its sociolinguistic standing.

However, if the last 500 years is what you consider _recent_ as far as usage, then it is true that it is a recent development. I usually don't  think of that kind of time period as short enough to be considered a recent development, though. Words like "recent" are extremely relative to point of reference.


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## WadiH

I meant that it was a colloquial usage, and most of the colloquial dialects seem to have been fully formed 500 years ago.


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## greg from vancouver

Thanks guys and gals for your comprehensive responses.  It's always really interesting to hear the different usages in different regions.

Greg


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## ihsaan

Hi, I was wondering if zifaaf also could be used for the "bridal procession" (in lack of a better word) - i.e. when the bride is being taken from her home to her husbands?


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## Josh_

The verb زف can mean that and the maSdar زفة , but I think زفاف only means the wedding party, and not the actual procession.  Of course, you will want to wait for a native to confirm.

On a side note, it's probably just a coincidence but the resurgence of this thread comes a year to the day of its creation.


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## Mahaodeh

Well, the عرس usually starts with a زفّة. Indeed, زفاف is the procession but the two words are mostly used interchangabley in collequal since they come together. However, you may hear things like: لن يكون هناك زفاف لأن العروس جارة العريس، سيكون هناك عرس فقط - or (as my freind mentioned when she was getting married): ما رح نسوي عرس بسبب الضروف، رح نسوي زفة بس.


elroy said:


> in the Galilee it is also called أولام (_ulaam_), a borrowing from Hebrew which means "hall" in Hebrew (because you usually rent a hall to have these receptions in).


This word is very interesting (never heard it before). Do you think it has anything to do with the Arabic وليمة from أوْلَمَ يُولِمُ for a wedding feast, a shared root perhaps?


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## ihsaan

Ah, great. Well, in the text I'm translation, I think the word "procession" (I'm not sure if "wedding procession" or "bridal procession" is best to use?") makes more sense than "wedding party". It talks about long lines of cars in the street, and a girl refers to it as zifaaf.

I actually didn't notice the coincidense of the thread's date. I just searched and voilá: I found the topic I was looking for.


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## Mahaodeh

Well, what you are reffering to is definitly زفاف and not عرس. The original tradition is that the zifaaf happens first thent he 3urs is in the groom's house; nowadays they sometimes have two zaffas, the first from the bride's house to the place where they are having the party and then another one when they are leaving the party hall to the groom's house.

Personally, I'd use bridal procession as the point of it is to take the bride to her new residence.


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## ihsaan

Ah, okay. Then I will stick with bridal procession. Thank you for clarifying this for me.


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## Josh_

Mahaodeh said:


> This word is very interesting (never heard it before). Do you think it has anything to do with the Arabic وليمة from أوْلَمَ يُولِمُ for a wedding feast, a shared root perhaps?


I'm curious, does this verb specifically refer to a wedding feast or can it be used more generally to refer to any kind of (large) party?  Looking in the Hans Wehr it says _to give a banquet_.


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## elroy

Josh_ said:


> I'm curious, does this verb specifically refer to a wedding feast or can it be used more generally to refer to any kind of (large) party?


 Yes, it can - as long as there's food involved.  The Hans Wehr definition is correct.

As you know since you participated in it, I started a thread in the Hebrew forum asking about the etymology of אולם.  I doubt it's related to وليمة, but I asked to make sure.


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