How to say "army" in Arabic
LoanwordMeaningarmy
Arabic · Modern Standard Arabic
jayshג'יש
جيش
Hebrew · Modern Hebrew
tsavaتْسَاڤَا
How the two words are related
Borrowed between the languages (or by both from a third).
Arabic root
ج-ي-شModern Hebrew גיס — an army corps — goes back to Talmudic Aramaic גייסא 'troop, raiding band', a close relative of Arabic jaysh. Whether Aramaic borrowed it early from Arabic or both inherited it is debated; either way, it reached Hebrew through the Talmud.
Related Hebrew word:גיסgayisگَايِس
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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 ay diphthong flattens to ē — jēsh, the same flattening as Hebrew בית → beit.
Egyptian · Cairo and the Nile Delta
Cairo: hard g and the ay flattened to ē — il-gēsh.
Moroccan · Morocco — Casablanca, Rabat, Fes
Darija turns ay into ī: l-jīsh.
In a phrase
The army is strong.
Plural
Broken plural CuCūC — like قلب→قلوب.