How to say "small, young" in Arabic
Shifted meaningMeaningsmall, young
Arabic · Modern Standard Arabic
ṣaghīrצע'יר
صغير
Hebrew · Modern Hebrew
katanكَاتَان
How the two words are related
Same root as a Hebrew word, but the meaning drifted over the centuries.
Arabic root
ص-غ-رHebrew root
צ-ע-רSame root as Hebrew tsa'ir (צעיר), 'young': ṣād matches tsadi and ghayn matches ayin, letter for letter. Arabic ṣaghīr covers both small and young — Hebrew kept only the 'young' half.
Related Hebrew word:צעירtsa'irتْسَائِير
Learn it
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 ṣād softens to z in everyday speech: zghīr.
Egyptian · Cairo and the Nile Delta
Cairo uses the diminutive shape: ṣughayyar.
Moroccan · Morocco — Casablanca, Rabat, Fes
In a phrase
a small boy
Plural
broken plural CiCāC — like كبير→كبار; ṣighār also means 'the little ones'