B1Unit 10 · Palestine and the diaspora · Lesson 97 of 100
City, village and Bedouin speech
lahje madaniyye · lahje fallāḥiyye · il-maʿna wāḥad, bass il-lafẓ bikhtlef
Goal: Recognize the main regional pronunciations and a few regional words, and understand them when you hear them.
Dialogue
A cousin from Amman visits the family, and Sitti Halime is there too. Everybody notices that the same word can sound different. You will learn how one letter changes from the city to the villages and to Jordan, and a few words that change from country to country. You will keep speaking the city Arabic of this course: the other forms are for your ears.
A Friday lunch at the Khalil house in Ramallah. A cousin from Amman (the son of Lina's aunt) is visiting, and Sitti Halime has come from the village.
- Guestyalla, Khalīl gāl il-ghada ḥāḍer!Come on, Khalil said lunch is ready! (gāl: Amman, for ʾāl)
- Linagāl? lēsh bitʾūl gāl, mish ʾāl?"gāl"? Why do you say gāl and not ʾāl?
- Guestfi ʿAmmān nās ktīr biʾūlu gāl w gahwe w galb. hādi lahjitna.In Amman many people say gāl, gahwe and galb. That's our accent.
- Sitti Halimew iḥna fil-balad binʾūl kāl w kahwe w kalb!And in our village we say kāl, kahwe and kalb! (village speech)
- Ranaw sitti bitʾūl chīf w chbīr!And Grandma says chīf and chbīr! (village speech)
- Linayaʿni kīf w kbīr?You mean kīf "how" and kbīr "big"?
- Sitti Halimeā, ya ḥabībti. hādi l-lahje l-fallāḥiyye. bass maʿkom baḥki madani.Yes, my dear. That's the village dialect. But with you all I speak city Arabic.
- Khalilya Līna, fil-balad kalb yaʿni ʾalb, w il-kalb ismo chalb!Lina, in the village kalb means "heart", and the dog is called chalb!
- Linaʿan jadd? hāda ṣaʿb ktīr!Really? That's very hard!
- Abu Khalilmish ṣaʿb. il-ḥarf wāḥad w il-maʿna wāḥad, bass il-lafẓ bikhtlef.It's not hard. The letter is the same and the meaning is the same; only the pronunciation is different.
- Guestw il-badu kamān biʾūlu g, zayy ktīr min il-urduniyyīn.And the Bedouin say g too, like many Jordanians.
- Ranaw il-lubnāniyyīn w is-sūriyyīn?And the Lebanese and the Syrians?
- Abu Khalilhumme biʾūlu ʾalb zayyna, bass ʿindhom kalimāt tānye. il-lubnāni biʾūl hayda, w iḥna binʾūl hāda.They say ʾalb like us, but they have other words. A Lebanese says hayda (Lebanon), and we say hāda.
- Linaw il-maṣriyyīn? kull il-ʿālam bifhamhom min il-aflām!And the Egyptians? Everybody understands them from the movies!
- Sitti Halimeil-muhimm, kull il-lahjāt ḥilwe. yalla ʿal-ghada, ya wlād!Anyway, all the dialects are lovely. Come on, lunch, children!
New words
| Palestinian Arabic | English |
|---|---|
| lahje | dialect; accentplural lahjāt; lahjitna = our dialect |
| madani | urban, of the city (of a dialect)baḥki madani = I speak city Arabic; feminine madaniyye |
| fallāḥi | rural, of the villages (of a dialect)il-lahje l-fallāḥiyye = the village dialect |
| fallāḥ | villager, farmerfeminine fallāḥa, plural fallāḥīn |
| badawi | Bedouinfeminine badawiyye, plural badu |
| lafaẓ | to pronouncelafaẓ / yulfoẓ; b-present balfoẓ; lafẓ = pronunciation |
| ḥarf | letter (of the alphabet)plural ḥurūf |
| maʿna | meaningplural maʿāni |
| Maṣr | Egyptfeminine |
| maṣri | Egyptianfeminine maṣriyye, plural maṣriyyīn |
| Lubnān | Lebanonfeminine |
| lubnāni | Lebanesefeminine lubnāniyye, plural lubnāniyyīn |
| Sūrya | Syria |
| sūri | Syrianfeminine sūriyye, plural sūriyyīn |
Grammar
1. One letter, three sounds
The Arabic letter qaf (a deep q) is said in different ways. In the city it is the glottal stop ʾ, the sound this course always writes. In the central villages it becomes a deep k. In the southern villages, among the Bedouin and in much of Jordan it becomes g.
| City (madani) | Central villages (fallāḥi) | South, Bedouin, Jordan | English |
|---|---|---|---|
| ʾalb | kalb | galb | heart |
| ʾahwe | kahwe | gahwe | coffee |
| ʾāl | kāl | gāl | he said |
2. The central villages: k becomes ch
In the villages of the center (around Ramallah, Jerusalem and Bethlehem), k is said ch, as in "church". The villages also keep the th sound of thalj, which the city says t: talj.
| City | Central villages | English |
|---|---|---|
| kīf | chīf | how |
| kbīr | chbīr | big |
| kalb | chalb | dog |
| talj | thalj | snow |
So in the village, kalb is the heart and chalb is the dog!
3. A few words that change
| This course (city) | Also heard | English |
|---|---|---|
| hallaʾ | halʾēt (Jerusalem, Nablus, Hebron), issa (north, Amman) | now |
| shu | ēsh (villages, south) | what |
| hāda | hayda (Lebanon) | this |
| ma fīsh | ma fī (Lebanon, Syria) | there isn't |
| lēsh | lē (Lebanon) | why |
Keep using the forms of the first column. When you hear the others, you will now know where they come from.
Practice
1Choose the right answer
Sitti Halime says chīf. She means:
In the village, kalb means:
In the central villages, the city ʾ is said k: ʾalb → kalb. The dog is chalb.
Your cousin from Amman says gahwe. He means:
Which word describes the speech of the city?
A woman from Cairo is:
A woman: -iyye.
2Complete the sentence
il-maʿna wāḥad, bass il-___ bikhtlef. = The meaning is the same, but the pronunciation is different.
hādi l-___ l-fallāḥiyye. = This is the village dialect.
hiyye min Lubnān. hiyye ___. = She is from Lebanon. She is Lebanese.
kīf ___ hal-kilme? = How do you pronounce this word? (to a man)
balfoẓ is "I pronounce", lafaẓ is "he pronounced".
3Match the Arabic and the English
lahje
ḥarf
maʿna
fallāḥ
badawi
Sūrya
4Put the words in order
The meaning is the same, but the pronunciation is different.
(Sitti Halime to the family) With you all I speak city Arabic.
5Say it in Palestinian Arabic, then check
Say that your family is from Egypt.
aṣli min Maṣr.
Ask a woman how she pronounces this letter.
kīf btulfoẓi hal-ḥarf?
6True or false?
Sitti Halime speaks city Arabic with the family.
She says maʿkom baḥki madani.
Abu Khalil thinks the different accents are very hard to understand.
He says mish ṣaʿb: only the pronunciation is different.
Summary
- You can name the kinds of speech: madani, fallāḥi, badawi, and talk about a lahje.
- You can recognize the qaf said ʾ (city), k (central villages) and g (south, Bedouin, Jordan), and the village ch for k.
- You know a few regional words, such as hayda (Lebanon) and halʾēt (Jerusalem, Nablus, Hebron), and you keep using the city forms.
- You can name Egypt, Lebanon and Syria and their people: maṣri, lubnāni, sūri.