How to say "who" in Arabic
LoanwordMeaningwho
Arabic · Modern Standard Arabic
manמן
من
Hebrew · Modern Hebrew
miمِي
How the two words are related
Borrowed between the languages (or by both from a third).
Everyday Hebrew מִי, 'who', is at most a distant relative: both belong to the Semitic family of m- question words, but mī and man are different forms, and scholars disagree on how they connect. Aramaic's exact match, מַאן, did make it into Hebrew inside one fossilized idiom: מַאן דְּהוּא, 'someone or other' (literally 'who[ever] he is'). That מַאן is the Aramaic twin of this very word, borrowed whole.
Related Hebrew word:מַאן דְּהוּאman dehuمَان دِهُو
Learn it
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
Cairo's who is mīn.
Moroccan · Morocco — Casablanca, Rabat, Fes
Darija's who is shkūn.
In a phrase
Who are you?