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Arabic: jaari(m)/jaarati(f) Somali: ninka dariskeenaa (m)/naagta dariskeenaa(f). Literally, "the man who is our neighbor", "the woman who is our neighbor". Th
by mahmud 16y ago
Arabic: jaari(m)/jaarati(f)
Somali: ninka dariskeenaa (m)/naagta dariskeenaa(f). Literally, "the man who is our neighbor", "the woman who is our neighbor".
The somali is complicated because "neighbor" is never a singular person, always plural. The concept of a person living alone is unheard of, and people are usually suspicious of bachelors.
- maw 16y agoBut in Arabic and Somali is it possible to talk about people who live nearby while obscuring whether they're male or female?
- mahmud 16y agoYes, Arabic (juwaar/jiraan) and Somali (daris/jaar/jiraan) None of those words carry gender because they're plural. In the singular, Arabic uses the male "jaar" word for both genders. While the same word is plural in northern Somali, since, as mentioned, it has no singular word. Arabic also has the dual (jaaraan/jaarataan) our two neighbors (m/f)