# All dialects: pizza, pasta, shawarma



## raful

Hi there
How would you refer to the mentioned food - masculine or feminine?
اكلت بيتسا - اكلته / اكلتها؟
ما بدّيش البستا - ما بدّيش إيّاها؟
اكلت الشوارما معه - اكلته/اكلتها معه؟

Is there a difference between the various dialects?


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## tounsi51

In Tunisia, we use مقرونة (pronounced maqrouna) for pasta. All food you mentioned are feminine

The correct spelling of pizza in MSA is بيتزا


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## Mahaodeh

tounsi51 said:


> The correct spelling of pizza in MSA is بيتزا



It's also pronounced that way in many dialects.

In several dialects, Pasta (I would transliterate it as باستا), is معكرونة. I'm not sure, but I think that the ع is added because of the stress in the original word. However, I've heard Egyptians pronounce it as مكّرونة without a ع.

Shawarma is written and pronounced as شَاوِرْمَا (with a kasra on the waaw, not a fatHa as the English transliteration implies). In Iraq, they refer to it as gaSS = قصّ with the qaaf pronounced as a g as in gas, but they do know the word شاروما used in the Levant.


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## cherine

All feminine in Egyptian Arabic.


Mahaodeh said:


> I've heard Egyptians pronounce it as مكّرونة without a ع.


Yes, without ع but without a shadda either makaroona مكَرونة.
And pizza is betza/bitza, or pitza for those who can pronounce the "p".


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## Hemza

tounsi51 said:


> In Tunisia, we use مقرونة (pronounced maqrouna) for pasta. All food you mentioned are feminine



Same in Morocco although many people call the kinds of pasta by their respective names too. But I think pasta are more eaten in Tunisia than in Morocco.


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## raful

Thank you all, but still you haven't answered my question - Shawarma, Pizza and Pasta are they all feminine?


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## elroy

Palestinian:

We don't use the word پاستا*.  پيتسا and شاورما are both feminine.

*We use معكرونة, which is feminine.


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## raful

Thank you all again
In regards to pasta - I saw the terms بستا / باستا in more than one restaurant in East Jerusalem.


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## elroy

raful said:


> I saw the terms بستا / باستا in more than one restaurant in East Jerusalem.


 Restaurant menus sometimes use terms not used in everyday speech.  Think of these as names of dishes.


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## raful

Well, all mentioned cuisines are feminine.
Does it have to do with the fact they are foreign cuisines and they all end with "ah"/"a"?
Is there any foreign dish that ends with the same consonant/syllable and it is referred to as masculine?


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## elroy

What consonant?  What syllable?


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## Hemza

I think @raful is asking if we knows a borrowed dish name which ends with "a" (in Arabic) which would be a masculine word. I don't have a single word in mind and I think that when borrowed by Arabic, they automatically become feminine since they end with "a". Someone correct me if I'm wrong


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## analeeh

Possibly كوسا, whose gender varies.


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## Mahaodeh

analeeh said:


> Possibly كوسا, whose gender varies.



Huh, I always though it was كوسة, but then I never thought about its origin so I don't know. However, does its gender really varies? I've only ever heard it referred to in the feminine, the singular is usually كوساية.


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## raful

كوسا feminine?
In that case, why do we eat كوسا محشي  and not كوسا محشية?


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## elroy

كوسا is masculine in Palestinian Arabic.  كوساي (one individual vegetable) is feminine.


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## Mahaodeh

elroy said:


> كوسا is masculine in Palestinian Arabic.


Maybe it's regional, because in my family we would say: استوت الكوسا not استوى الكوسا (for when it's done), or خلصت الكوسا for when it's finished (it's all eaten). I'm sure it's not Iraqi Arabic nor an influence from it (it happens, usually through my mum) because in Iraq they call it شِجَر and that one is definitely masculine in IA.



raful said:


> In that case, why do we eat كوسا محشي and not كوسا محشية?


Again, maybe it's regional, because we say كوسا محشية. However, we do say محشي كوسا, because the dish is called محشي and is masculine, the كوسا is only to indicate that it's only كوسا and there are no other vegetables included.


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## elroy

Interesting!  What region is your Palestinian from?  I've never come across the feminine version in the Jerusalem area or in the Galilee (or anywhere else).


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## Mahaodeh

elroy said:


> What region is your Palestinian from?


Originally, from the Jerusalem area but not the city (Silwan to be precise), I still have some family there and in other places in the West Bank. However, I was born after 67 in Baghdad, so I was never allowed in (only my dad can go in). I see those from the West Bank in Amman usually. Hence, my dialect _may_ be affected by the Palestinian dialect of Jordan.


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## raful

Again in East Jerusalem, I saw a sign pointing to the new gallery - الى الجاليري الجديدة
Is gallery feminine? And what about music موسيقى ? Why is music feminine?


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## fenakhay

Hemza said:


> Same in Morocco although many people call the kinds of pasta by their respective names too. But I think pasta are more eaten in Tunisia than in Morocco.


In Morocco, it is مقرونية (maqarūniyya).


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