nunation

English

Alternative forms

Etymology

From nun +‎ -ation, after Arabic تَنْوِين (tanwīn), verbal noun of نَوَّنَ (nawwana, literally “to nunate, nunify”), derived from the letter name نُون (nūn). See nun (“Semitic letter”).

Pronunciation
  • (UK, US)[1][2] IPA(key): /nʌˈneɪʃn̩/
  • IPA(key): /nʌˈneɪʃən/

Noun

nunation (countable and uncountable, plural nunations)

  1. The use of a suffix ("-n") signifying a lack of syntactical definiteness of the noun or adjective in standard Arabic. It is written as a diacritic over the final letter.[3]
    نَهْرٌ (nahr-un, “a river”)
    مَلِكٌ (malik-un, “a king”)
  2. The use of a suffix ("-n") in dual forms in Akkadian.

Synonyms

Translations

References
  1. “nunation”, in Lexico, Dictionary.com; Oxford University Press, 2019–2022.
  2. “nunation”, in Lexico, Dictionary.com; Oxford University Press, 2019–2022. (US pronunciation)
  3. Abboud, Peter F., Ernest N. McCarus, et al. (1983): Elementary Modern Standard Arabic 1: Pronunciation and Writing; Lessons 1-30, Cambridge University Press, p. 110-1. →ISBN
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