Morphology

Adjectives in Palestinian Arabic have relatively predictable morphological behavior. Most have sound plural forms, with only one broken plural pattern associated with a very common adjective pattern. Only two truly irregular categories of adjectives exist & they are discussed below.

Regular Adjectives

By default, Adjectives are marked as feminine by ة (-e) & plural by ين (-īn); that is, their plural forms are sound. Rarely, adjectives may not have any inflected forms, usually due to being in a rare pattern (e.g. طازة ṭāza) &/or being derived from a loanword (e.g. تمام tamām).

Most adjectives fall into a handful of patterns. Patterns with semantic implications are treated separately as adjective categories (see Semantics below). Aside from those, there are two neutral adjective patterns: CiCiC & CCīC — the latter being notable in that it usually entails broken plural forms.

CCīC Adjectives usually have the broken plural فعال (CCāC), but may be sound too; those borrowed from Standard Arabic (technically, CaCīC) tend to have sound plurals.

Sometimes adjectives seem to unexpectedly have broken plural forms, usually due to the term in question having an independent use as a noun. In these cases, the broken plural forms apply specifically to the noun senses of the term.

Demonym Adjectives

Demonym Adjectives are relative adjectives derived from Demonym Nouns or the names of countries, cities, etc. In theory, relative adjectives have sound plural forms, but Demonym Adjectives that are derived from a Demonym Nouns have their plural forms supplied by the noun itself. Hence, some of these terms have plural forms that are neither sound nor broken, but rather are back-formed by removing the يّ (-yy) suffix & sometimes applying some other transformation.

Regardless of the form of the plural itself, all Demonym Adjectives are characterized by the fact that their plural forms may only be used for animate nouns; it's always ungrammatical to use the plural form of a Demonym Adjective for a non-animate noun. Although non-animate plural nouns are usually grammatically feminine & only optionally plural if counted, dual nouns are always forcibly grammatically plural in Palestinian Arabic. Hence, the diseappearance of dual inflections for adjectives in Palestinian Arabic has left a lexical gap wherein Demonym Adjectives cannot be used with non-animate dual nouns without applying dual inflection to adjectives, something that otherwise only occurs in Standard Arabic.

In a minority of cases, the plural form is formed by placing the term's root in any of a variety of broken plural patterns usually reserved for nouns.

Defect Adjectives

Defect Adjectives — which are in the أفعل (ʔaCCaC) pattern — always have فعلا (CaCCa) feminine forms & فعل (CuCC) plural forms. Note that these inflectional patterns don't apply to other terms in this pattern that are not adjectives (e.g. أزعر ʔazʕar).

Elative Adjectives are, by definition, in the أفعل (ʔaCCaC) pattern; they are Defect Adjectives morphologically. Although this means they have the aforementioned inflected forms eymologically, they are not inflected in practice. Only Defect Adjectives that are positive adjectives are used in their distinct feminine & plural forms.

As for the formation of Elative Adjectives, they are formed productively by placing the root of any word in this pattern. Alternatively — like in English — أكثر (ʔaktar "more") may be used, most commonly if the positive form has more than three consonants or otherwise doesn't fit into the pattern.

Semantics

Some of the aforementioned adjective patterns have semantic associations.

Relative Adjectives

Relative Adjectives are formed by attaching the suffix يّ (-yy) to a noun, indicating something that is of or related to that noun.

Additionally, nouns may be formed from Relative Adjectives in turn by attaching the suffix ة (-e). Known as Nominalized Adjectives, these nouns usually refer to an abstraction of the Relative Adjective or — if the latter refers to a person — to a human collective.

Intensive Adjectives

Intensive Adjectives are in the فعلان (CaCCān) pattern. Usually associated with emotions, this adjective category indicates a current state (i.e. how something is currently or lately) — usually of a person — constrasting with adjectives that refer to intrinsic qualities &/or are used for inanimate nouns.

Intensive Adjectives are often associated with A2 Verbs, which tend to indicate something entering into a state (i.e. becoming a certain way).

Active Participles

Active Participles are morphologically like other adjectives. Semantically, they stand out in that they convey a verbal meaning, whether a present continuous or past perfect meaning.

Passive Participles

Defect Adjectives

Defect Adjectives that are strictly positive (i.e. not Elative Adjectives) tend to refer to certain bodily characteristics & impairments; the six primary color terms are in this pattern as well. Still, these are relatively infrequent & the pattern is only productive for the formation of Elative Adjectives.