Editing Shilha language (section)

==== Unincorporated loans ====
These are nouns of Arabic origin (including loans from French and Spanish through Arabic) which have largely retained their Arabic morphology. They distinguish two genders (not always unambiguously marked) and two numbers (explicitly marked). A notable feature of these nouns is that they are borrowed with the Arabic definite article, which is semantically neutralized in Shilha:
:Moroccan Arabic {{Transliteration|ary|l-kabus}} "the pistol" → Shilha {{Lang|shi-latn|lkabus}} "the pistol, a pistol"
:Moroccan Arabic {{Transliteration|ary|t-tabut}} "the coffin" → Shilha {{Lang|shi-latn|ttabut}} "the coffin, a coffin"
The Arabic feminine ending {{Transliteration|ary|-a}} is often replaced with the Shilha feminine singular suffix {{Lang|shi-latn|-t}}:
:Moroccan Arabic {{Transliteration|ary|l-faky-a}} → Shilha {{Lang|shi-latn|lfaki-t}} "fruit"
:Moroccan Arabic {{Transliteration|ary|ṛ-ṛuḍ-a}} → Shilha {{Lang|shi-latn|ṛṛuṭ-ṭ}} "tomb of a saint"
Arabic loans usually retain their gender in Shilha. The exception are Arabic masculine nouns which end in {{Transliteration|ary|t}}; these change their gender to feminine in Shilha, with the final {{Lang|shi-latn|t}} reanalyzed as the Shilha feminine singular suffix {{Lang|shi-latn|-t}}:
:Moroccan Arabic {{Transliteration|ary|l-ḥadit}} "the prophetic tradition" (masculine) → Shilha {{Lang|shi-latn|lḥadi-t}} (feminine)
:Moroccan Arabic {{Transliteration|ary|l-mut}} "death" (masculine) → Shilha {{Lang|shi-latn|lmu-t}} (feminine)
Arabic plurals are usually borrowed with the singulars. If the borrowed plural is not explicitly marked for gender (according to Arabic morphology) it has the same gender as the singular:
:{{Lang|shi-latn|lbhim-t}} "domestic animal" (feminine), plural {{Lang|shi-latn|lbhaym}} (feminine)
:{{Lang|shi-latn|lbzim}} "buckle" (masculine), plural {{Lang|shi-latn|lbzaym}} (masculine)
Loanwords whose singular is masculine may have a plural which is feminine, and marked as such (according to Arabic morphology), for example {{Lang|shi-latn|lɛlam}} "flag" (masculine), plural {{Lang|shi-latn|lɛlum-at}} (feminine).