How to say "Nazareth" in Arabic
LoanwordMeaningNazareth
Arabic · Modern Standard Arabic
an-nāṣiraא-נאצרה
الناصرة
Hebrew · Modern Hebrew
natsratنَاتْسْرَات
How the two words are related
Borrowed between the languages (or by both from a third).
Arabic root
ن-ص-رHebrew root
נ-צ-רArabic borrowed this place name from Hebrew נָצְרַת (Natzrat), root נ-צ-ר 'to watch, guard, sprout' (the 'branch' of Isaiah 11:1). Arabic reshaped the borrowed name onto its own root ن-ص-ر 'to help, be victorious' — the same root behind نَصْرَانِيّ naṣrānī, an older word for 'Christian'. A textbook case of a loanword reanalyzed to fit the borrowing language's own roots.
Learn it
On the street
How people actually say it in the spoken dialects, where it differs from the standard word.
Levantine · Palestine, Jordan, Lebanon, Syria
The unstressed middle vowel drops (nāṣira → naṣra) and the article vowel shifts al- → en- in casual speech: en-Naṣra.
In a phrase
Nazareth is a city in the Galilee