# ة

| ة | U+0629, &#1577; ARABIC LETTER TEH MARBUTA |
| ← ب [U+0628] | Arabic | ت → [U+062A] |
| ﺓ | U+FE93, &#65171; ARABIC LETTER TEH MARBUTA ISOLATED FORM |
| ← ﺒ [U+FE92] | Arabic Presentation Forms-B | ﺔ → [U+FE94] |
| ﺔ | U+FE94, &#65172; ARABIC LETTER TEH MARBUTA FINAL FORM |
| ← ﺓ [U+FE93] | Arabic Presentation Forms-B | ﺕ → [U+FE95] |

## Arabic
### Etymology 1
#### Pronunciation

* IPA: /taːʔ mar.buː.tˤa/

#### Letter

ة‎ (تَاء مَرْبُوطَة (tāʔ marbūṭa))
* ة (tāʔ marbūṭa) is a variant of the letter ت (tāʔ) used at the end of words. It is formed from the letter ه (hāʔ) with the addition of the two overdots of ت (tāʔ).

##### Usage notes

* It mostly exists in grammatically feminine words. It always follows a fatḥa ـَ ("a"), and it is replaced with a normal ت (tāʔ) when a suffix is added, e.g. غُرْفَة (ḡurfa, “a room”) -> غُرْفَتِي (ḡurfatī, “my room”) (غُرْفَة (ḡurfa)‎ (ة‎ -> ت‎) + ـِي (-ī)‎). It may only be in the middle or end of a word.
* When desinential inflection is used in Classical Arabic or in formal Modern Standard Arabic, non-pausal ة is pronounced as /t/ (preceded by usually unwritten fatḥa "a") and has -u/un, -i/-in, -a/an case endings, e.g. لُغَةٌ - "luḡah" (pausal), "luḡatun" formal, non-pausal pronunciation (nominative case, indefinite).
* Adverbials from tāʾ marbūṭa do not add alif (ا) with fatḥatān. Instead, fatḥatān is attached directly to tāʾ marbūṭa and the "hidden t" is pronounced with the ending "-an" e .g. عَادَةً (ʕādatan, “usually”).
* In a more relaxed orthography ة is replaced with ه (hāʔ) with the same pronunciation, especially in Egypt and Sudan.
* Loanwords in other languages (e.g. Persian or Turkish) from words with tāʾ marbūṭa use the endings at, et, ah, a or e.

### Etymology 2

From Proto-Semitic *-at-, from Proto-Afroasiatic *-t, *-Vt (feminine suffix). See also Egyptian -t.

#### Pronunciation

* (informal, pausal) IPA: /-a/, /-ah/
* (Levantine Arabic) IPA: /-e/ (following a buccal, non-emphatic consonant other than /r/; following /iːr/)
* (Gulf) IPA: /-ə/ (except when preceded by ـا (ā))

#### Suffix

ـَة • (-a)
* Used to form feminine adjectives from masculine adjectives.
* Used to form feminine nouns from masculine nouns referring to people.
* Used to form singulative nouns (referring to one item) from collective nouns (referring to a collection of items).
    ‎بَقَر (baqar, “cattle”) + ‎ـَة (-a) → ‎بَقَرَة (baqara, “a cow”)
    ‎شَجَر (šajar, “trees”) + ‎ـَة (-a) → ‎شَجَرَة (šajara, “tree”)
* Suffix used to form instance nouns (nomina vicis, referring to a single instance of an action) from verbal nouns.
    ‎اِبْتِسَام (ibtisām, “smiling”) + ‎ـَة (-a) → ‎اِبْتِسَامَة (ibtisāma, “a smile”)
    ‎اِنْتِفَاض (intifāḍ, “rising up, shaking off”) + ‎ـَة (-a) → ‎اِنْتِفَاضَة (intifāḍa, “an uprising, an intifada”)
* Used to form abstract nouns from nisba adjectives in ـِيّ (-iyy). Alternatively, the combination of the two suffixes can be viewed as a single suffix ـِيَّة (-iyya).
    ‎اِشْتِرَاكِيّ (ištirākiyy, “socialist”) + ‎ـَة (-a) → ‎اِشْتِرَاكِيَّة (ištirākiyya, “socialism”)
* Used to form nouns referring to devices from occupational/characteristic nouns and adjectives (e.g. دَبَّابَة (dabbāba, “tank”) from دَبَّاب (dabbāb, “crawling, crawler”)) and from active participles (e.g. طَابِعَة (ṭābiʕa, “printer (computing device)”) from طَابِع (ṭābiʕ, “printer (person)”)).
* Used to form nouns of various sorts from adjectives: for instance, قَرِينَة (qarīna, “connection”) from قَرِين (qarīn, “connected”) or مُعَلَّقَة (muʕallaqa, “poster, placard”) from مُعَلَّق (muʕallaq, “suspended”).

##### Descendants

* Gulf Arabic: ـة (-a)
* Maltese: -a
* → Classical Persian: ـَه (-a)

## Egyptian Arabic
### Etymology

From Arabic ـَة (-a).

### Pronunciation

* IPA: /a/
* IPA: /it/ (construct form)

### Suffix

ـة • (-a or -it) (sound plural ـات (-āt))
* Feminine suffix attached to most feminine nouns
* Forms feminine adjectives from masculine lemmas
    ‎كبير (kibīr, “big”, masculine singular) + ‎ـة → ‎كبيرة (kibīra, “big”, feminine singular)
* Forms feminine nouns from masculine lemmas
    ‎عيل (ʕayyil, “little boy, kid”) + ‎ـة → ‎عيلة (ʕayyila, “little girl”)
* Forms some singular nouns from plural stems
    ‎برتقان (burtuʔān, “oranges”) + ‎ـة → ‎برتقانة (burtuʔāna, “an orange”)

#### Usage notes

Before suffixes it becomes ـتـ (-t-), except when the suffix results in a consonant cluster, then an extra /i/ is added before the /t/:
* ‎مروحة (marwaḥa, “fan (device)”) + ‎ـي (-i, “my”) → ‎مروحتي (marwaḥti, “my fan”)
* ‎مروحة (marwaḥa) + ‎ـنا (-na, “our”) → ‎مروحتنا (marwaḥitna, “our fan”)

#### Alternative forms

* ـه (alternative spelling)

## Hijazi Arabic
### Etymology

From Arabic ـَة (-a).

### Pronunciation

* (letter name): IPA: /taː(ʔ) mar.buː.tˤa/
* (phoneme): IPA: /a/
** IPA: /at/ (construct form)

### Letter

ة • (tāʔ marbūṭa)
* ة (tāʔ marbūṭa) is a variant of the letter ت (tāʔ) used at the end of words. It is formed from the letter ه (hāʔ) with the addition of the two overdots of ت (tāʔ).

### Suffix

ـة • (-a/-at) f
* Ending of most feminine nouns in the singular
* Feminine suffix for nouns referring to people
* Feminine suffix for adjectives
* Singulative suffix from collective nouns (they become grammatically feminine)

## South Levantine Arabic
### Etymology

From Arabic ـَة (-a).

### Pronunciation

* IPA: (Lemma Form) /e/, [e], [a], [ɑ]
* IPA: (Lemma Form) /a/, [a], [ɑ]
* IPA: (Construct Form) /t/, [(ɪ)t]

### Suffix

ـة • (-e/-a/-t) f
* Ending of most feminine nouns in the singular
* Feminine suffix for nouns referring to people
* Feminine suffix for adjectives
* Singulative suffix from collective nouns (they become grammatically feminine)

#### Usage notes

* Nouns ending in ـة are not always feminine, it can also occur in broken plurals and rarely in masculine singular nouns.
* According to the dialect, the underlying phoneme may be either /e/ or /a/. Among those with /e/, the realization varies according to the previous consonant as follows:
** “-a” (IPA: /e/, [ɑ]) after “emphatic” consonants (ḍ, q, r, ṣ, ṭ, ẓ), e.g. قصّة (ʔuṣṣa), فراطة (frāṭa), فكرة (fikra)
** “-a” (IPA: /e/, [a]) after “throat” consonants (ʔ, ʕ, ḡ, h, ḥ, ḵ), e.g. لغة (luḡa), جهة (jiha), شقّة (šaʔʔa)
** “-e” (IPA: /e/, [e]) after the remaining consonants and “r” in the ending “-īr”, e.g. غرفة (ġurfe), كاسة (kāse), كبيرة (kbīre)
** silent after a vowel “a”, which is then pronounced long and stressed, e.g. حياة (ḥayā), صلاة (ṣalā)
* In the construct form (i.e. when followed by an enclitic determiner or as the first noun of an idafa), the pronunciation is /t/.
** In the case of idafa, the spelling remains unchanged:
    لهجة البلد ― lahjit il-balad ― the language of the country
** When a suffix is added, the spelling changes to ت (t):
    لهجتها ― lahjit-ha ― her language

#### See also

* Feminine plural suffix for nouns: ـات (-āt)