# Alternative spellings of the same word



## Ali.h

In English we have 'enquiring' and 'inquiring' which are alternative spellings of the same word. Can somone give me an example of such a phenomenon in Arabic? And please specify if it's only dialect-bound or if its accepted in classical Arabic.


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## Ali.h

I think I found the answer to my own question:  

مجداف and مجذاف

As you can see one is spelled with daal and the other with dhaal. Now does anyone know if this is dialect bound or not?


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## Abu Rashid

I'd say it probably doesn't exist, since Arabic is pretty much completely phonetic. There's only really one way to spell something. English on the other hand is only partially phonetic, so there's many different ways to spell each word.

The example you gave is most likely dialect-specific. In most dialects ذ usually degrades to د or ز


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## uas60

Sometimes an "alif" is omitted from a word - perhaps there are such examples? I mean, some words are spelled without alif always, but some I have seen as both. Unfortunately an example escapes me at the moment!


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## clevermizo

Abu Rashid said:


> I'd say it probably doesn't exist, since Arabic is pretty much completely phonetic. There's only really one way to spell something. English on the other hand is only partially phonetic, so there's many different ways to spell each word.



I agree it's rare in Arabic, but not just because of phonetics. Also because Arabic (fus7a) is more standardized than English is. The sort of difference like we see between AE spelling and British or other spellings doesn't really happen. Nevertheless, there are some regional differences. For example مسؤول is spelled مسئول in Egypt. Also there aren't many different ways to spell words in English. In fact there's only one way to spell every single word in your post.

The main spelling convention differences in Arabic seem to be things such as leaving out the dots on yaa2 at the end of words in Egypt: في as فى, etc. And some slight differences like مسئول and مسؤول.



Ali.h said:


> And please specify if it's only dialect-bound or if its accepted in classical Arabic.



Dialects are kind of a moot point and not worth considering here because they have no standard spelling to begin with. People typically spell things either closely to fus7a when writing in dialect, or else however they please.


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## Abu Rashid

clevermizo,



> In fact there's only one way to spell every single word in your post.



Well what I meant was that you could spell them other ways (not legally) which would still fit the norms of English spelling. Whilst with Arabic it's pretty much one sound one letter (yes there's a few exceptions). So we could spell "say" as "seigh" for instance, and it'd still fit the English spelling norms, though not be a legal spelling.


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## Ali.h

uas60 said:


> sometimes an "alif" is omitted from a word - perhaps there are such examples? I mean, some words are spelled without alif always, but some i have seen as both. Unfortunately an example escapes me at the moment!


 
إسْفَنْج
سِفَنْج


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## clevermizo

Abu Rashid said:


> Well what I meant was that you could spell them other ways (not legally) which would still fit the norms of English spelling. Whilst with Arabic it's pretty much one sound one letter (yes there's a few exceptions). So we could spell "say" as "seigh" for instance, and it'd still fit the English spelling norms, though not be a legal spelling.



I see what you mean. Well let's say then that Arabic is more conducive to regularity in spelling due to phonemic considerations of the writing system as well as a higher degree of standardization.


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## Serafín33

I've read that صلاة is sometimes spelled صلوة too due to influence from Qur'anic Arabic.


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## lukebeadgcf

It is certainly a rare occurrence and only a couple true instances come to mind:

مئة مائة
إذًا إذن

There are also some obviously related words which are spelled differently (and potentially also pronounced differently) such as:

ساروخ صاروخ
كابوس قابوس

More often however, there are variations in the حركات, which constitute different pronunciations of the same word.

عَقْب عَقِب heel

شَعَر شَعْر hair

مَيْدان مِيْدان square

كَتِف كَتْف كِتْف shoulder

سَهْل سَهِل easy

And many, many more.


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## Mahaodeh

lukebeadgcf said:


> ساروخ صاروخ



I'm sorry but only صاروخ exists, the other one does not exist.



lukebeadgcf said:


> كابوس قابوس



These are two different words actually, coming from two different roots and having two different meanings. This is not an example of alternative spellings.


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## lukebeadgcf

Okay, I admit that these were horrible examples. They popped into my head when I read this post, but I didn't know how credible the entries were in Wehr, so I did some digging. First of all, it appears Wehr is flat-out mistaken regarding قابوس, since the other lexicographers consistently give an entirely unrelated meaning, so I retract that example. Regarding ساروخ, I think it exists and I think I was correct to cite it as an example in this thread, but it may be exceedingly rare or archaic. Nonetheless, both Wehr and Hava attest to the word define it as "rocket." Here are the lexicons I looked through.

Hans Wehr:

قابوس nightmare

كابوس nightmare, incubus; terrible vision, phantom, bugbear

ساروخ rocket

صاروخ rocket; missile; siren (_magr_.)

:المنجد في اللغة العربية المعاصرة

قابوس is رجل جميل الوجه حسن اللون

كابوس is ما يحصل الإنسان في نومه من ضغط وضيق يزعجه كأنه يخنقه

ساروخ is (ليس موجودا)

صاروخ is قذيفة نارية أسطوانية الشكل مخروطية تستعمل في الألعاب النارية أو تقذف إلى مسافات بعيدة بتأثير انفجار الغازات التي تندفع من أسفل الأسطوانة

Hava:

قابوس handsome-faced

كابوس nightmare * arm of a plow

ساروخ rocket, squib, cracker

صاروخ skyrocket, cracker * ghost

Lane

(Only كابوس was found)

لسان العرب

والقابُوس الجميل الوجه الحَسَن اللَّوْن، وكان النُّعْمان بن المنذِر يُكنَى أَبا قابُوس.

والكابُوس  ما يقع على النائم بالليل، ويقال: هو مقدَمة الصَّرَع؛ قال بعض اللغويين:  ولا أَحسبه عربيّاً إِنما هو النِّيدِلان، وهو الباروك والجاثُوم.

ساروخ وصاروخ غير موجودين

Hope this helps


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## Josh_

As far as ساروخ, it is a dialectal variation of صاروخ. The word in FusHa is صاروخ, which comes from the verb صرخ (_Sarakha_) -- to scream, yell, let out a shrill cry/sound. صاروخ was so termed as rockets let off shrill sounds when fired.

In Egyptian Arabic this phenomenon exists with other words. For example the verb صدّق, _Saddaqa,_ (in which the_ fatHaat_ are_ mufakhkhama,_ i.e. 'a' as in father) is pronounced with an س -- _sadda2a_ (in which the _fatHaat_ are_ muraqqaqa_; 'a' as in man). The verb ضايق (_Daayaqa_) (_fatHaat mufakhkhama_) is pronounced with a د -- _daayi2_ (_fatHa muraqqaqa_).

As such, when Egyptian is written out some may choose to spell these words سدّق and دايق (or even the odd-looking سدّأ and دايأ) instead of صدّق and ضايق. On some level they may be considered alternative spellings of the same words, however according to FusHa they wouldn't -- only صدّق and ضايق would be acceptable.

As an aside, I've wondered why this occurs. Perhaps it might have something to do with the idea that pronouncing س and د is easier than ص and ض.


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## rayloom

Other than what was listed, a common variation that comes to mind, is the difference in the spelling of an originally final hamza (depends on different standardizations by different schools of Arabic spelling).
For example:
يقرأون
يقرؤون
يقرءون
are all considered correct.


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## Serafín33

Oh yes, the differing rules on how to spell final hamzaat... They're quite annoying to students.

By the way, what's the Schools' opinion on spelling a word ending in ــَأ when مجرور? I think all of them suggest to use ــإ but couldn't that be spelled ـــأ too? For example, do they all suggest to use نبإٍ, or do some at least suggest to use نبأٍ too?

I find this rule particularly strange because when the hamza is at the end, the إعراب doesn't affect spelling in all other cases e.g. تنبّؤ in مجرور would be تنبؤٍ even if the kasra sound is stronger than the Damma. (Of course, when morphemes are added, then the vowel strength rules may apply according to this or this other School: تنبئِك or تنبؤِك.)

Also, we've been only discussing correct/standard spellings in this thread. Let's not even get on several spelling phenomena that can be commonly found e.g. the تنوين فتحة shouldn't be written before a 2alif after ــاء, but I see it done all the time e.g. مشاءًا. Or the lack of a distinction between a final ه/‎ــه and taa2 marbuuTa ة/‎ــة, and between همزة القطع and همزة الوصل, e.g. you can find spellings like "إستطاع" or "انباء".


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## rayloom

As for the spelling of a word ending in ـأ when majruur, I think that the commoner form is to write the hamza above the alif. In the Quran, you'd see the hamza placed beneath the alif; I think it's some form of early standardization which has become obsolete.


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## Ustaath

Neqitan said:


> I've read that صلاة is sometimes spelled صلوة too due to influence from Qur'anic Arabic.


and حياة , حيوة


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