How to say "lip" in Arabic

Cognate

Meaninglip

Arabic · Modern Standard Arabic

شَفَة

shafaשפה

شفة

Hebrew · Modern Hebrew

שפה

safaسَافَا

How the two words are related

Cognate

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

Arabic root

ش-ف-ه

Hebrew root

ש-פ-ה

Shafa is שפה down to the final ה/ة, the shared feminine ending. Hebrew wandered further than Arabic ever did with it: שפה also means 'language' — Arabic keeps that sense in a separate word, لغة lugha — probably because the lips are where speech visibly happens.

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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

شِفَّة
shiffaשפה

Cairo says shiffa.

In a phrase

شَفَتَاهَا حَمْرَاوَان
shafatāhā ḥamrāwānשפתאהא חמראואן

Her lips are red.

Plural

شِفَاه
shifāhשפאה

broken plural CiCāC — like جبل→جبال

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