How to say "cheese" in Arabic

Cognate

Meaningcheese

Arabic · Modern Standard Arabic

جُبْنَة

jubnaג'בנה

جبنة

Hebrew · Modern Hebrew

גבינה

gvinaگْڤِينَا

How the two words are related

Cognate

Same Semitic root, same meaning — you already know this word.

Arabic root

ج-ب-ن

Hebrew root

ג-ב-נ

Hebrew גבינה — already in Job 10:10 — and Arabic jubna share the root g-b-n. Hebrew ג answers Arabic ج, which long ago shifted from g to j.

How people actually say it in the spoken dialects, where it differs from the standard word.

Levantine · Palestine, Jordan, Lebanon, Syria

جِبْنِة

jibneג'בנה

Levantine says jibne.

Egyptian · Cairo and the Nile Delta

جِبْنَة

gibnaגבנה

Cairo: gibna, with the hard g.

Moroccan · Morocco — Casablanca, Rabat, Fes

فْرْمَاج

frmājפרמאג'

Morocco says frmāj, from French fromage.

خُبْز وَجُبْنَة

khubz wa-jubnaח'בז וג'בנה

bread and cheese

أَجْبَان

ajbānאג'באן

broken plural ʾaCCāC — kinds of cheese, as on the shop sign أجبان وألبان, 'cheeses and dairy'