Darja notes 2026

Back from holiday; this year's miscellaneous observations on Darja follow. Gemination of intervocalic p in loans seems intuitive enough, but how to explain the gemination in سيرّو sirru "syrup"? Internal-a plurals normally preserve consonant quantity, but plurals of excess may be an exception: خبابز xbabəz "too much bread", عجاجن ʕjajən "too much carbs" (cf. sg. خُبْز xʊbz "bread", عجينة ʕjina "dough".) A nice illustration of the productivity of final -a in professional plurals: شيوفة šyufa "chefs" (cf. شاف šaf "chef".) An example of a three-way numeral division with a broken plural: معروكة məʕruka "one maarek [sort of layered fried flatbread]"; count plural معروكات məʕrukat, e.g. شوية معروكات šwiyya məʕrukat "a few maarek"; mass plural معارك mʕarək. The plural in -an is noticeably more widely generalised than in Classical Arabic: جيجان jijan "chickens" (cp. جاج jaj "chicken (mass noun)", جاجة jaja "chicken (count noun)"); حيطان ħiṭan "walls" (sg. حيط ħiṭ); ترقان tərqan "roads"…