Rain, n. Matar, ghayth. Rain shower, Matara. Light rain leaving small, quickly disappearing pools, Nugaa’a. Rain leaving pools but not covering the ground completely, Shabaka. Light rain completely covering the ground, ‘Amma. Heavy rain filling cultivation basins, Malya. Heavy rain causing water courses to run in spate, Seela. Very heavy rain waterlogging the ground, Wakhm. Light rain, Shakshaka. Cessation of rain, Sabna. Interval between rainfalls at the end of the rainy season, Shubaah. Early rain at beginning of rainy season, Rashshaash. Rainbow, Heem. Rain-mite, Bint al-Matar [lit. Daughter of the Rain], or Dood al-Matar, Worm of the Rain.
-Sudan Arabic, Sigmar Hillelson
They say that Arabs have as many words for camel as the Inuit have for ice and snow, necessity being the Mother of Neologism. I was only in Sudan during the dry season so I never saw it rain and never had cause to use the common word for rain, matar. KhairAllah talked often about jamals and naagas, he-camels and she-camels, and hashis and khusys, yearlings and geldings. But he never once mentioned shabakas and seelas, wakhms and malyas. If we had seen a heem on the trail I’m sure he would have said, SubhanAllah, Glory to God, and I never in my life would have forgotten how to say, Rainbow.