ة

ة U+0629, ة ARABIC LETTER TEH MARBUTA ← ب Arabic ت →

Arabic

Etymology 1

Pronunciation

• (informal) IPA^(key): /taː mar.buː.tˤa/

Letter

ة‎ (تَاء مَرْبُوطَة (tāʔ marbūṭa))

1. ة (tāʔ marbūṭa) is a variant of the letter ت (tāʔ) used at the end of words. It is formed from the letter ه (hāʔ) with the addition of the two overdots of ت (tāʔ).

Usage notes

• It mostly exists in grammatically feminine words. It always follows a fatḥa ـَ ("a"), and it is replaced with a normal ت (tāʔ) when a suffix is added, e.g. غُرْفَة (ḡurfa, “a room”) -> غُرْفَتِي (ḡurfatī, “my room”) (غُرْفَة (ḡurfa)‎ (ة‎ -> ت‎) + ـِي (-ī)‎).
• When desinential inflection is used in Classical Arabic or in formal Modern Standard Arabic, non-pausal ة is pronounced as /t/ (preceded by usually unwritten fatḥa "a") and has -u/un, -i/-in, -a/an case endings, e.g. لُغَةٌ - "luḡah" (pausal), "luḡatun" formal, non-pausal pronunciation (nominative case, indefinite).
• Adverbials from tāʾ marbūṭa do not add alif (ا) with fatḥatān. Instead, fatḥatān is attached directly to tāʾ marbūṭa and the "hidden t" is pronounced with the ending "-an" e .g. عَادَةً (ʕādatan, “usually”).
• In a more relaxed orthography ة is replaced with ه (hāʔ) with the same pronunciation, especially in Egypt and Sudan.
• Loanwords in other languages (e.g. Persian or Turkish) from words with tāʾ marbūṭa use the endings at, et, ah, a or e.

Etymology 2

From Proto-Semitic *-at-, from Proto-Afroasiatic *-t, *-Vt (feminine suffix). See also Egyptian -t.

Pronunciation

• (informal, pausal) IPA^(key): /-a/, /-ah/
• (Levantine Arabic) IPA^(key): /-e/ (following a buccal, non-emphatic consonant other than /r/; following /iːr/)
• (Gulf Arabic) IPA^(key): /-ə/ (except when preceded by ـا (ā))

Suffix

ـَة • (-a)

1. Suffix used to form feminine adjectives from masculine adjectives.
2. Suffix used to form feminine nouns from masculine nouns referring to people.
3. Suffix used to form singulative nouns (referring to one item) from collective nouns (referring to a collection of items): for instance, بَقَرَة (baqara, “cow”) from بَقَر (baqar, “cattle”) or شَجَرَة (šajara, “tree”) from شَجَر (šajar, “trees”).
5. Suffix used to form instance nouns (nomina vicis, referring to a single instance of an action) from verbal nouns: for instance, اِبْتِسَامَة (ibtisāma, “a smile”) from اِبْتِسَام (ibtisām, “smiling”) or اِنْتِفَاضَة (intifāḍa, “an uprising, an intifada”) from اِنْتِفَاض (intifāḍ, “rising up, shaking off”).
6. Suffix used to form abstract nouns from nisba adjectives in ـِيّ (-iyy): for instance, اِشْتِرَاكِيَّة (ištirākiyya, “socialism”) from اِشْتِرَاكِيّ (ištirākiyy, “socialist”). Alternatively, the combination of the two suffixes can be viewed as a single suffix ـِيَّة (-iyya).
7. Suffix used to form nouns referring to devices from occupational/characteristic nouns and adjectives (e.g. دَبَّابَة (dabbāba, “tank”) from دَبَّاب (dabbāb, “crawling, crawler”)) and from active participles (e.g. طَابِعَة (ṭābiʕa, “printer (computing device)”) from طَابِع (ṭābiʕ, “printer (person)”)).
8. Suffix used to form nouns of various sorts from adjectives: for instance, قَرِينَة (qarīna, “connection”) from قَرِين (qarīn, “connected”) or مُعَلَّقَة (muʕallaqa, “poster, placard”) from مُعَلَّق (muʕallaq, “suspended”).

Derived terms

Descendants

• Gulf Arabic: ـة (-a)
• Maltese: -a

South Levantine Arabic

Etymology

From Arabic ـَة (-a).

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): (Lemma Form) /e/, , ,
• IPA^(key): (Lemma Form) /a/, ,
• IPA^(key): (Construct Form) /t/,

Suffix

ـة • (-e/-a/-t) f

1. Ending of most feminine nouns in the singular
2. Feminine suffix for nouns referring to people
3. Feminine suffix for adjectives
4. Singulative suffix from collective nouns (they become grammatically feminine)

Usage notes

• Nouns ending in ـة are not always feminine, it can also occur in broken plurals and rarely in masculine singular nouns.
• According to the dialect, the underlying phoneme may be either /e/ or /a/. Among those with /e/, the realization varies according to the previous consonant as follows:
  • “-a” (IPA^(key): /e/, ) after “emphatic” consonants (ḍ, q, r, ṣ, ṭ, ẓ), e.g. قصّة (ʔuṣṣa), فراطة (frāṭa), فكرة (fikra)
  • “-a” (IPA^(key): /e/, ) after “throat” consonants (ʔ, ʕ, ḡ, h, ḥ, ḵ), e.g. لغة (luḡa), جهة (jiha), شقّة (šaʔʔa)
  • “-e” (IPA^(key): /e/, ) after the remaining consonants and “r” in the ending “-īr”, e.g. غرفة (ġurfe), كاسة (kāse), كبيرة (kbīre)
  • silent after a vowel “a”, which is then pronounced long and stressed, e.g. حياة (ḥayā), صلاة (ṣalā)
• In the construct form (i.e. when followed by an enclitic determiner or as the first noun of an idafa), the pronunciation is /t/.
  • In the case of idafa, the spelling remains unchanged:

  لهجة البلد ― lahjit il-balad ― the language of the country

  • When a suffix is added, the spelling changes to ت (t):

  لهجتها ― lahjit-ha ― her language

See also

• Feminine plural suffix for nouns: ـات (-āt)