www.byzcath.org Forums General Discussions Town Hall Basic Phrases in Arabic

Christ is in our midst!

Last time around, I was asking around for liturgical phrases to say in Arabic. Right now, I would like to say some Arab phrases. I am now in Perth, and for Sunday Mass, i now attend a Melkite parish. So, it would be lovely to say basic stuff like "good morning" and "how are you" in Arabic, to the benefit of our very hospitable and lovable Arab Catholic brethren.

Thank you for your assistance!

Slava Isusu Khrestu!


Saba'a AlKair ( Good morning )


Try this site

http://www.travlang.com/languages/


Z Bohom
So long = Wada'an



Nycholaij

PS
there is a lot more there!

Thank you!

And that's "Shukran" in Arabic!

Amado

Abouna = Father(priest)

Collin, try this site: http://www.lexicon.egypt.travel/ .

The pronunciation of the words is very good and clear. It is the Egyptian pronunciation, which is the most easily understood for all Arabic speakers, due the fact that most films, television serials, and music is in the Egyptian dialect.

I'm not sure of the make-up of the parish in Perth. If most people come from Lebanon, you may want to look for a similar site that gives the phrases as pronounced in the Lebanon.

The site mentioned above gives a pronunciation that is not even close to the right one, and will probably not be understood.

This reminds me of a story...A friend taught me how to say "I don't speak Arabic, but today I speak a little. That's all!"

I was going to say just "I don't speak Arabic", but I repeated that too well. Someone sitting next to him said he wouldn't believe me if I told him, so they went about to teach me the extended phrase.

If you're interested, I'll try and find what my friend wrote. It was Arabic of an Egyptian dialect and it may be heard the same at the parish, but I can't say.

Terry

Well, I can't really tell about the make-up. There are wide range of Arabs. There are even Palestinians.

It's possible they may speak a dialect akin to what can be heard on Al-Jazeera. My Egyptian friend told me that she was buying milk but didn't know it had been shipped from Lebanon. She took a swift drink of it and almost spit it out on me. She ended up buying a yogurt drink instead.

The dialect separation seems fairly strong, I don't know if the variants in spoken English would be a good analogy to understanding it.

Terry, that's one of the few big differences of vocabulary between the dialects. The Lebanese call drinking yoghurt "labnah" (note the LBN root of the word). They refer to normal milk as "Haliib", which is also the correct term in Classical Arabic.

The Egyptians call milk colloquially "laban" (that same LBN root), although they always write "Haliib" (usually only Classical Arabic is written). The Egyptians call yoghurt "laban zabaadiy", often abbreviating it to just the latter word. Egyptians and Lebanese who are unaware of those differences may make some funny mistakes.

Another similar funny one happened to me. Our local vicar general (who is from Syria and speaks a dialect similar to Lebanese) was telling a group of us about a problem he had with one of the wheels of his car. I thought he told me that he had a problem with a wardrobe and was completely confused! (In Lebanese, the word for wheel is "dulaab"; in Egypt that word is used for cupboard or wardrobe.)

Oh, even within the Church, there is conflict in dialects. One doesn't like this one, and other doesn't like that one. But, somehow they all get along

I think it is kind of like being from the north or south in the United States, being from Boston or New York, Texas or California. You can tell by the english accents

Shlomo Collin,

I would use http://wikitravel.org/en/Lebanese_Arabic_phrasebook. Since most Melkites are from areas where the Lebanese dialect is well understood.

Poosh BaShlomo,
Yuhannon

Thanks. I think the wikitravel one would be helpful.