How to say "quail" in Arabic

New word

Meaningquail

Arabic · Modern Standard Arabic

سَلْوَى

salwāסלוא

سلوى

Hebrew · Modern Hebrew

שְׂלָו

slavسْلَاڤ

How the two words are related

New word

No Hebrew relative — learn it fresh.

Arabic root

س-ل-و

No confidently regular sound correspondence to claim as a true cognate (Hebrew's שׂ would regularly match Arabic ش, not the س seen here) — but the cultural echo is irresistible: this is the very quail of the wilderness, paired with manna in both Exodus 16 and the Quran's Surat al-Baqara (2:57), same story, same bird, suspiciously similar name.

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In a phrase

سَلْوَى فِي الصَّحْرَاء
salwā fī ṣ-ṣaḥrāʾסלוא פי א-צחראא

quail in the desert

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