لنْ نكونَ للعِــدَى

[J.F. de TROYES]

In the second stanza of موطني , the Palestinian song and national anthem of Iraq , the word عِــدَى is puzzling me . According to the context it seems to be used as a plural of عدو, instead of أعداء . Is it possible ?
Thanks a lot for your help.

 

[Sadda7]

Yes, it has many plural forms, this is from العين lexicon:

"ويجمع العدوّ على الأعداء والعِدَى والعُدَى والعُداة والأعادي."

 

[J.F. de TROYES]

Thanks so much for your quick reply. My Arabic-French dictionary only gives الأعداء and الأعادي . Is there a form more usual than the others ?

 

[Sadda7]

أعداء is the most common one, the others are rarely used and I believe can only be found in poetry.

 

[Mahaodeh]

I believe that أعادي is used in dialects. I’ve heard it in Iraqi Arabic. It’s not so common so perhaps it’s become a little archaic.

 

[WadiH]

There is also عَدُوِّين and عِدْوان in dialects.

 

[Sadda7]

Yeah, dialects have other forms too. In Algeria we say "عْدْيَان".

 

[Mahaodeh]

There is also عَدُوِّين

I’ve heard this one in Palestinian Arabic.

 

[elroy]

There is also عَدُوِّين

I’ve heard this one in Palestinian Arabic.

I’m not sure whether I’ve heard that one, but I have heard عَدَوّات — yes, بفتح الدال وبصيغة جمع المؤنث السالم بغض النظر عن جنس المُشار إليهم. Have you heard this before?

 

[WadiH]

I have not, but it's interesting that the د has a فتحة.

 

[elroy]

I feel like short vowels in Arabic are very fickle. Did you know, for example, that كفتة can be pronounced with any of the three vowels on the ك? I say كَفتة, but I’ve heard both كُفتة and كِفتة.

 

[WadiH]

They do vary quite a bit, but you would expect a 'sound plural' to stay 'sound'!