How to say "canal, irrigation channel" in Arabic
CognateMeaningcanal, irrigation channel
Arabic · Modern Standard Arabic
qanātקנאה
قناة
Hebrew · Modern Hebrew
te'alaتِئَالَا
How the two words are related
Same Semitic root, same meaning — you already know this word.
Arabic root
ق-ن-وHebrew root
ק-נ-הQanāt, 'canal', and Hebrew קנה, 'reed, cane' (also 'a criterion' — literally a measuring reed), are the same root: ancient irrigation channels were reed pipes, and the plant's name became the channel's name. This very root, via Akkadian and Greek kanna, is also where English 'canal', 'channel', and 'cane' come from.
Related Hebrew word:קנהkaneكَانِي
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
The irrigation canals of the Nile valley are tirʿa, plural tiraʿ.
Moroccan · Morocco — Casablanca, Rabat, Fes
Morocco's irrigation channel is a sāqya.
In a phrase
an irrigation canal
Plural
sound feminine plural -āt