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In the above eye-catching graphic, artist saif0_0ali honours a poem by Abbasid era poet Muslim bin alWalid alAnsari, centring the words: La ara’ alhub 3aran لست أرى الحب عارا

Meaning – I don’t see love as a shame. The word عارا has the ān ending meaning that it is affiliated with the verb ارى I see , so it can be translated to I don’t see love as shame / shamefully.

You might notice that the explanation uses the word qaseedah قصيدة rather than shi’ar شعر Which tends to refer more to poetry in general. The qaseedah typically follows a simple rhyming pattern and is often a panegyric (an ode, in praise of someone).

The plural of qaseedah is qasa’id قصائد which is nicely broken.

The line beneath the qaseedah reads:

Yatakalum alsha’ir bilqaseedah a’alah ‘an hubuhu alkweeree bdhikr bitareeqa thuwreea

Fayara alhub ‘ala anahu shee’ asma’ min an yakun ‘aaran

Obviously کویری is a loan word from ‘queer’, although I don’t know to what extent it has caught on in casual Arabic

Also, bitareeqa thawreea ‘in a revolutionary way’ is a great sounding phrase. Finally, shee’ ‘asma min an yakun ‘aran – (he sees it as a) thing higher than it is shameful. The word ‘asma comes from the root سمو meaning to be high/elevated, which is where we get سماء , meaning sky (or سماوات , skies)

This is one of my favourite Arabic songs, and the sisters make a very cool trio. It was also my first introduction to the Yemeni Dialect and piqued my interest in that country, which numbers among the many that are, for whatever reason, often somewhat blank areas in Arabic teaching in the West.

The trio of sisters that make up A-WA are descendants of Yemenite Jews who emigrated to Israel in 1949, during what is now nicknamed Project Magic Carpet. Around 49,000 other Yemenite Jews emigrated in this period (up to 1950) and the current population in of Yemenis and their descendants in Israel is up to 400,000. Three years ago there were still a couple hundred Jews in Yemen, but with the Houthis flag literally saying

الموت لامرريكا الموت لاسرايل العنة على اليهود

Al mawt lamreeka almawt lisra’eel all’a3na ala al yahud

-Death to America death to Israel a curse on the Jews

and the country beset by famine and war besides, the last Yemeni Jews have had good reason to flee abroad.

Anyway, dialect. First thing you’ll notice is the title: hana mash hu al Yaman. This is not Yemen.

hana means here, mash hu is the negative participle plus huwa, “he” or “it is”. Mash, for those familiar with Shami dialects, will remind you of both ماني and مش , and it seems like a mix of the two. mash hu, it is not.

The intro is easy – and you’ve got the subtitles there to help you.

Blad bur, wash’eir, wa’enab, wazayt
Watin, waruman, watamr, wubayt

“Country of wheat and barley and grape and oil, and fig and pomegranate and date and home”

The rest of it gets tricky. I picked out wa’ad at’alam allugha واداتعلم اللغة which means “I will learn the language”. In Modern Standard you’d say وساتعلم اللغة , so it looks like اد is the future verb prefix in Yemeni. Perhaps?

Check out this blog that cites two different prefixes, b and sh. https://blog.fanofyan.com/yemeni/

Anyway, what I wanted to do in this post wasn’t so much linguistic teaching as some general tips for Arabic learners. Firstly: be wary with eating just what you’re given, because there’s a lot out there and Arabic study centres tend to be a little narrow minded in their teaching. It’s far too easy to get to the end of an Arabic degree thinking that Najib Mahfouz is the only Arabic author out there, or Feirouz the only good band. In my year at Qasid Institute in Jordan, we covered the Royal Family, women’s rights (not looking good) and Israel/Palestine pretty much bi-monthly (I’m probably exaggerating) and never once touched on the devastating war raging in Yemen – a war aptly nicknamed The Forgotten War – nor anything of Sudan. Other peoples and histories (such as famine and subjugation to the Ottomans, or the Mizrahim and the Kurds) are also omitted if they do not fit within the framework of nationalistic narratives.

It’s understandable that some teachers think that since Arabic is so vast and tricky they have to focus on Modern Standard, the Shami Dialect or some elementary Quran, but I think it’s a shame when this is to the deliberate or indeed derisive exclusion of everything else. Don’t be afraid to get out there and find things beyond what they spoon out in class, such as the culturally and linguistically subaltern, that which is slightly too saucy for your grammatically inclined Arabic professor.

Basically, have fun!

For me, the programme عيب by إنتاج صوت is the best thing that I’ve come across in the Arabic language so far, hands down. Like, the best thing to happen in the Arab world since cardamom in coffee.

http://m.sowt.com

Intaj sawt انتاج صوت means production of voice, or Sawt Productions. It’s a company that is producing a variety of high quality podcasts, from Egypt to Tunisia to the Levant. My favourite, عيب, eib, is based around the Levant. It uses a mixture of dialect and modern standard, but is usually pretty intelligible, well presented and always interesting.

https://m.soundcloud.com/sowtpodcasts/eib-1-ep-5?in=sowtpodcasts/sets/eib

Eib, عيب، is a really important word in Arabic with a lot of cultural weight. Almaany dictionary translates it as shame or disgrace, but I’d go further than that and say that it specifically refers to doing or being something frowned upon by society – what is eib in one place might not be eib in another. It is a certain kind of shame in front of the wider community and because of some deviancy from the norm. عيب عليك eib aleek means shame on you, and is a common curse.

قضايا واقعية تتعلق بنوع الاجتماعي الي بنظر المجتمع، ما زالت تعتبر مثير للجدل وحتى محرمة، أو بكلمة، عيب.

Qadaya waqi3eeya nu3 alijtima3ee ilee binathur al mujtama3, ma zaalat tu3atabr mutheer liljadal wahata muharrameh, aw bikilma, Eib.

Real cases related to the type of society, that in the view of the community are still considered controversial or even forbidden, or by the word, Eib.

How cool is that! I get goosebumps when I hear the intro every time. Sorry for the clunky english translation.

Ma zaalat, ما زالت , here in the feminine past tense, means “it is still”. I’m not really sure why the present tense isn’t used, since to me that reads as it was still, but that’s arabic for you. It’s a phrase used often in Modern Standard, in Shami Dialect you’re more likely to hear لسا lisa to convey still, as in

انا لسا ما سمعت بودكاست عيب

– I still haven’t listened to (the) Podcast Eib.

Muharrimeh محرمة is also a word with some cultural baggage, in that the root is حرم as in حرام، haram , which carries an implication of being religiously or morally prohibited, rather than just not allowed. Drinking wine, for example, is haram. If your friend does something naughty, you can roll your eyes and tell them حرام عليك haram aleek.

https://m.soundcloud.com/sowtpodcasts/eib-1-ep-5?in=sowtpodcasts/sets/eib

Anyway, here’s the info for the afore given link to series 1 episode 5 of Eib. It’s a real tearjerker.

القانون في الاردن يحرم زواج المرأة المسلمة من الرجل غير المسلم كما انه يعتبر غير مقبول إجتماعياً. ضيف هذه الحلقة شاب مسيحي أراد أن يتزوج مسلمة أحبها وكان خياره الوحيد أن يعتنق الاسلام وهو قرار دفع ثمنه غاليا.

Converting for love

The law in Jordan forbids marriage between a Muslim woman and a non-Muslim man. Not to mention it can also be socially unacceptable. For this Christian man, the only solution was to convert for the woman he loves and it cost him dearly.

Feel welcome to send me your thoughts!

Amin Yahya is a medical student from Syria studying his undergrad in China, and his relatively recent youtube channel about his experiences are already a gathering a large fan-base, by virtue of his enthusiasm as well as the content.

In this video he gives an introduction to the Chinese language (!)

*Is friendly and weird in Chinese*

كاني تحمست شوي علفيديو

ka’innee tahammasat shwayy a3lfeedeeu

Looks like I was getting a little excited about the (this) video. متحمس means an excited person, so تحمست means I was getting excited, which is a useful one. كاني is an odd one I had to ask a friend for help for, but it’s actually quite simple – ك means as if, plus اني means, it’s as if I… which means, of course, looks/seems like I… It’s a neat little construction and sounds very natural. Also, though of course you probably figured already, this is Syrian/Shami dialect.

سمعت الكلام الي حكيتو هلاء؟ كمل الفيديو

sam3at alkilaam ilee hakeetuu hala’? kaamil elfeedeeyu

-Did you hear the words that I said (them) now? Finish the video

للاخير وانتو بنفسكم حتعرفوا تحكوا الجملة هادي الي انا حكيتها

lilakhira wintu binufsukum hta3rifuu tahkuu aljumla hadi ilee ana hakeet-ha

To the end, and you on your own will be able to say this sentence that I said (it)

Notice that in arabic can refer back to the noun a lot where in English it would sound odd. For example, the words that I said them , the sentence that I said it.

For the future tense, Amin uses ح at the beginning of the verb. I guess this comes from a shortening of رح . When you have an tense adjusting particle, the verb it adjusts will never carry the ب that you get in the present tense following it. So you would never get حبتعرفو which is a relief because that’s quite a mouthful.

حبيت انو يكن معكم سيسيجي بتعلموا اللغة الصينية معناتها ما حيكن الفيديو الوحيد حيكون فيديوهات ثانية

I really wanted there to be a course with you to learn the chinese language, meaning that there won’t (just) be one video, there will be other videos.

Again, he’s using ح for the future, and ثانية to say more or other. The ث there is typically pronounced ت , although a Jordanian friend of mine once told me the distinction is a gender thing, that girls say it one way and boys another. Just say it whichever way you think is prettier.

Later he says,

طب امين مين انت لحتدرسنا اللغة الصينية يعني

Tub Ameen meen inta lihatudarrisna allugha alseeneeya y3nee.

Ok, Amin, who are you to teach us the chinese language? There’s a يعني thrown in at the end there, because you can put يعني nearly anywhere and here it means, I mean, really, come on. لتحدرسنا is form 2 future, li- ha- tudarris – na . for that – future particle – you will teach – us

انا ماني بروفشنال وماني معلم …بس مجرج اني عيشت بالصين لفترة ثلاثة سنوات

Ini manee brufeshunal, bas mujarrid innee a3eeshit bilseen lfitra thalatha sanawat

I am not a professional, I’m not a teacher… but I have lived in China for three years

ماني is a cool construction that only appears in Dialect, it’s the equivalent of ليست, so means, I am not. بروفشنال I’m sure you clocked, is the anglicized word professional. And مجرد means just, as in only, or merely. So in this context, it means, – it’s just that I lived… With بس مجرد اني its just that I …

تعلمت من الجامعة من التعامل مع الناس وحبيت اشارك هاي الخبرة معكم

tala3mut min aljami3a min ata3amul ma3 alnaas wa habeet ashaarik haee alkhubra ma3kum

I learnt from the university, from interaction with people, and I would love to share this experience with you.

How cute is that! So go for it, learn a little bit of Chinese along with your Arabic practice today.

Until next time…

Haifa Beseisso is a popular travel vlogger of Palestinian origin raised in Dubai. Her videos are fun to watch and good to get a peek into the various countries she visits, and her dialect is clearly spoken and easy to follow for those familiar with Levantine and Khaliji. There are also subtitles in English with each video, so it’s great practice and you won’t get lost.

هايي! سلام عليكم من سودان دنج دنج دنج Hii! Greetings from Sudan! Ding ding ding!

خلص يا زول انا سودانية اصلية That’s it guys, I’m Sudanese originally!

as the subtitles show in the video, this basically translates as “it’s final, I’m sudanese!” خلص is a cool word that you can use all the time which essentially means it’s finished, that’s that. So at the end of a conversation you could say خلص نمشي as in “ok then/that’s sorted, let’s walk”

زول is the sudanese variant of زلمة which is a colloquial, very slangy word for man/bro, so ya zul means hey man . اصلية comes from the root اصل, which literally means root/origin. So سودانية اصلية means I am of sudanese origin, and اصلية is functioning as an adjective that qualifies سودانية.

من الاشيا الي انا اسمع فيها كثير قبلما اجى على السودان هو الافطار الي بكن بالشارع

Lit: from the things which I heard about (in) them a lot before I came to Sudan is the Iftar, which is on the street

So iftar, it’s important to know, is from the same root فطر as فطور (breakfast), and means, “to break fast”, which happens at sunset during ramadan. It’s the best part of the day during the month because everyone’s really thirsty and hungry from fasting all day, and so you gather with your friends or family and eat a big meal together, typically starting with dates. Haifa is telling us that in Sudan, people will have their iftar on the street.

بفردوا , بفردوا, بحطوا سفراء بالشارع وبصير بوقفوا الناس تعال افطر معنا تعال افطر معنا

they lay, lay? they put mats on the road and start to stop passers by

so بفرد pronounced bafrid means i lay out, but she seems to get confused and pronounce it bufrad as in بفرض, which means I force (someone to do something). Then she goes with بحطواwhich just means they place (something somewhere). سفراء here means a mat that you eat on. بصير بوقفوا means they start to lay, with صار, بصير being an uber versatile verb which can mean to become, to pass, etc. I think in this case it means it comes to pass that, which is why بوقفوا is in the normal non-subjunctive present case with a ب at the beginning rather than without, as you’d get after a verb like بدي or بلش

When she says تعال she’s imitating the people on the street, who invite others passing by to eat with them: افطر is the imperative of break fast معنا with us. تعال of course means come here. Then she says Ana just fell in love with this, which is some cute arabingleezy.

وهاد الشي رح تشوفوه هلاء

And this thing you’re going to see it now

I find that الشي is often produced اليشي but it’s so grammatically wrong I doubt you’ll ever see it written.

واحد اهم الاشيا انا جئت عسودان عشان اشوفها

(it is) on of the most important things that I came to Sudan to see.

Keep watching to see some of the yummy Sudanese food and drinks Haifa tries out. Also check out https://soundcloud.com/sammany for some of the peng (Sudanese) tunes she uses throughout the video.