How to say "tower" in Arabic
LoanwordMeaningtower
Arabic · Modern Standard Arabic
بُرْج
burjברג'
برج
Hebrew · Modern Hebrew
מגדל
migdalمِگْدَال
How the two words are related
Loanword
Borrowed between the languages (or by both from a third).
بُرْج has traveled a long road to get here — from Greek pyrgos 'tower' through Aramaic burgā — and it looped back into Hebrew as slang: בורג' is what Israelis call a tower-block apartment building, lifted straight from Arabic. The everyday Hebrew word for tower, מגדל, is unrelated, from a native root ג-ד-ל 'to grow, be great'.
Related Hebrew word:בורג' (סלנג)burj (sleng)بُورْج (سْلِنْگ)
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On the street
How people actually say it in the spoken dialects, where it differs from the standard word.
Egyptian · Cairo and the Nile Delta
بُرْج
burgברגHard g in Cairo: burg.
In a phrase
بُرْج طَوِيل
burj ṭawīlברג' טוילa tall tower
Plural
أَبْرَاج
abrājאבראג'broken plural aCCāC — like وَلَد→أَوْلَاد