# All dialects: ماء (water) - gender



## Virgin Boy

I suppose that in MSA ماء is a masculine word, and it appears in my Lebanese textbook that ماء comes as "may sukhne", so I think that in Lebanese ماء is feminine, isn't it?
And what about other dialects?


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## analeeh

It's feminine in all Levantine dialects (_mayy or mAyy _etc).  I think, based on the ending, that it's also feminine in Egyptian (_mayya_).


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## Hemza

Hello,

It's masculine in Moroccan dialect, and we say 'ماء' (ma2).
Your example would be said 'ma2 skhun'. I think the same goes for Algerian and Tunisian.


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## tounsi51

Yes in Tunisia we say ماء too (with imala) and it is a masculine word.


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## Xence

In Algeria also ماء (generally pronounced _ma _or _elma_) is masculine. However, when the diminutive form مويهة (pronounced _m(w)ayha_) is used, it's of course feminine.


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## elroy

analeeh said:


> It's feminine in all Levantine dialects (_mayy or mAyy _etc).  I think, based on the ending, that it's also feminine in Egyptian (_mayya_).


 How is _mAyy_ pronounced?  What sound does your capital A represent?

In Palestinian Arabic it's either _mayy _or _mayye_, depending on the region.  It's feminine in either case.


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## analeeh

I'm never quite sure how to transcribe it, but I think it's a back a or A in x sampa. The pronunciation is distinct from the Jordanian pronunciation which i remember as normal mayy.


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## fdb

I suspect that Eastern Arabic forms like mayya, mōya, māy etc. betray the influence of an Aramaic substratum. The Aramaic word for “water” is mayyā which is a plurale tantum (masculine plural in form, but singular in meaning), but in an Arabic context it could have been reinterpreted as a feminine singular. Just a guess.


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## Hemza

Well, this form is used in Hijazi Arabic, but I don't think that Hijazi is influenced by Aramaic, neither Egyptian nor Libyan by the way. I think those last also say "mayya". I would rather say as an hypothesis that both form exist according to the dialect and the word used nowadays might be a leftover of the word used by Arab tribes who settled in each places.

I mean that "mayya" may also be a word used in Arabic in ancient times but in modern Arabic, has been replaced by "ma2"


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## analeeh

It's a reasonably common strategy in dialects which have consistently lost final hamza to replace it, in many forms, with a _-ya_ - _mraaye_ < _miraa2_ for example. That's not to say that the _mayya_ forms weren't in some way influenced by Aramaic, and this may be particularly the case in Palestine. There are Aramaic loanwords in Egyptian, too (مرمطة for example) which suggest that Aramaic words either found their way from Levantine dialects, or, as seems to me just as likely, that Aramaic influences have been felt on Arabic in general since the pre-Islamic period (which makes sense, since there are Aramaic loanwords in the Qur'an, too, including - according to some people - _Qur2aan_ itself).


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## apricots

There are also some villages in Egypt called كفرـ which is an Aramaic word.


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## MonsieurGonzalito

I wanted to point out that the song "Mayya Mayya" (from the Hindi movie "Guru") became very popular in Bollywood some years ago. 

The author, A.R.Rahman, claims to have heard the word during his travel to Mecca, but the movie scene where the song is played happens in Turkey.


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## djara

The diminutive mayya/emmayya is also used in Tunisian. It's generally used in appreciation of good water. In this case, it is obviously feminine.


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## WadiH

The Aramaic theory doesn't explain how the word occurs in Egypt.

The traditional Najdi/bedouin word is ما _maa_, which is masculine, but nowadays موية _mooyah_ is more common and it is feminine.  It may be an influence from the Urban Hijazi dialects, but I'm not sure.  You'll also find an alternative form ماية in old poetry for example.  In the Gulf region it it is ماي, which is masculine.


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## Hemza

Wadi Hanifa said:


> The traditional Najdi/bedouin word is ما _maa_, which is masculine


Same for the Maghreb. ماء (_maa _or _méé _according to the area) is the only term I've ever heard. As Djara said, if ماية is used, it's only as a diminutive personally, and I've never heard it in Morocco.


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## fenakhay

In Morocco, the diminutive is مويهة (mwayha/mwīha).


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## WadiH

We have the same diminutive too (also أمّيهة _(u)mmeehah_).


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