Lost in Arabic, ask here :)

[Sita]

you are welcome, sorry I didn't answer your question on time, my connection was down for the past three days.
Was it about eyon baheya song? This type of songs is called "mawal" which I coulnd't find an appropriate translation, it could be a ballad. A mawal is a song that tells a tale from the folklore and it has a certain rhyme. So, baheya is usued in many mawals, the most famous is "yassen and baheya"
and the other one is 'eyon baheya.

Someone else found it for me luckily, and I didn't think it was fair to get both of you hunting for it. Thank you though for the extra info: it is all helpful. Baheya seems a common name used in folklore and song is there a reason?
yours,
Sita

 

[savary]

Baheya, some thoughts

well, actually I don't know the reason it is used in folklore, maybe there is a story behind it. There is also a famous poem by Ahmed Fouad Negm (one of the most famous and controversial poets who write in 'Ammeya) in which he calls Egypt, his beloved Baheya. It became a song (so famous) and this is part of it:
Misr yamma ya baheya: Egypt, my mother you are baheya (baheya also means bright and colorful)
ya ommo tarha we galabeya: you, with your scarf and galabeya
el zaman shab we enty shabba: time aged and you are still young
howa rayeh we enty gaya: he is leaving and you are coming (it is your time)

Though it is very difficult to translate becasue the terms have connotations with the Arab and Egyptian culture in particular, I think this is best I could do with my limited knowledge.

 

[YasminMay]

Hi, I've been wrestling with an arabic translation and thought I'd ask here!!

I'm having trouble over one little line;

تراقصني

It supposedly means "dance with me" - do you know if this is right?

Also, I'm wondering how you pronounce it, as I'm useless at converting arabic letters into english ones and working out the phonemes!

Could you give me some clues?

Thank you!!

 

[shiradotnet]

Evelyn, thank you so much for offering! Which dialect of Arabic do you speak?

 

[gisela]

Sorry Shira, Evelyn was a spammer who just copied the first post in this thread. She is banned and deleted.

 

[Corylus]

What a great thread, thanks savary!

I'm learning some Arabic at the moment from a CD. It was described as being 'Arabic' but reviews I read said it is more specifically Egyptian Arabic which is why I bought it as that's where I want to go.

I managed to speak to a visiting Egyptian briefly at the weekend (not many Egyptians in my area!) and use a couple of words. I'm really enjoying it, it's a lovely language.

I can learn speaking and listening, I'm good at learning by ear, but I know that the reading and writing are going to cause me problems!

 

[Meera]

I love Arabic. But i always get confused with the dialects. Fus7a is almost impossible to learn. I love the Algerian dialect and the Lebanese dialect but in my arabic class we use Egyptian and Fus7a. Egyptian is so vibrant

By the way does anyone on here learn any other Middle Eastren langauges? For example Farsi, Turkish or Kurdish? Im currently in my second year of Turkish and my first year of Arabic. I was just wondering, I have huge interest in Middle Eastren langauges.

 

[Farasha Hanem]

To my Arabic-speaking friends

This is from a post on my Facebook wall. Ummmmm, what does this mean? I can't find my Google translator.



طلب منك Farasha مبلغ من المال هل تقرضه ؟
أجاب:
الإجابة:

I left out the person's username.

Do I even want to know what it means? Oo;;;

 

[Daimona]

This is from a post on my Facebook wall. Ummmmm, what does this mean? I can't find my Google translator.

طلب منك Farasha مبلغ من المال هل تقرضه ؟
أجاب:
الإجابة:

I left out the person's username.

Do I even want to know what it means? Oo;;;

It looks like spam to me. Farasha: Just copy and past into Google Translate or write "translate ... to english" (where ... is the arabic text) in google.

 

[LeylaLanty]

Hi, I've been wrestling with an arabic translation and thought I'd ask here!!

I'm having trouble over one little line;

تراقصني

It supposedly means "dance with me" - do you know if this is right?

Also, I'm wondering how you pronounce it, as I'm useless at converting arabic letters into english ones and working out the phonemes!

Could you give me some clues?

Thank you!!

It looks like ti raaqS nii - It could be translated "(you feminine) dance with me" but literally is "(you feminine) dance to/for me". Pronounced "ti RAAQS nee" where the capital letters mean emphasis.

 

[Meera]

I have a little question in Arabic. What is the best dialect to learn? Is Egyptian, Lebanese or Gulf better one to learn? I was trying to learn Egyptian for a while but some of my Arab freinds are telling me its not a nice dialect? Sorry I'm not sure if this question was asked before.

 

[Darshiva]

Egyptian for the same reason most ESL learners choose american english - that's where the cinema is based so it's pretty much universally understood.

 

[Duvet]

I was going to start a new thread, but then thought I might as well tag onto this old one.

I visited Egypt twice a few years ago, and came back having met enough nice people to want to learn the language for next time. I got together with a friend and bought a book and cd on Egyptian Arabic and we tried it between ourselves for a couple of months, but really didn’t get very far. Then circumstances changed, practise waned and we stopped. But I’ve recently gained the opportunity to learn Lebanese Arabic from a native speaker, along with a different friend (who already has some Egyptian Arabic speech and writing skills), and it’s aroused my curiosity to try it again, but this time with real people.

So is there still anyone else here trying to learn Arabic? How’d you get on? How recognised is Lebanese Arabic between countries? Has anyone come across a good on-line source/support?

 

[Daimona]

So is there still anyone else here trying to learn Arabic? How’d you get on? How recognised is Lebanese Arabic between countries? Has anyone come across a good on-line source/support?

There are several online resources. I used LookLex / Learn Arabic as an introduction some years ago (my aim was to transliterate my arabic CDs) and then signed up for a live class. According to my teacher, Lebanese and Egyptian dialects are the most commonly understood Arabic dialects.

 

[Dunyah]

How would you translate "Leylet al Naseeb"? It is the title of a piece by the Al-Ahram Orchestra. My Arabic friend says that Leylet means night but it is not usually used with the word Naseeb, which means What God has planned or written for a person - like destiny, maybe?

 

[shiradotnet]

So is there still anyone else here trying to learn Arabic? How’d you get on? How recognised is Lebanese Arabic between countries? Has anyone come across a good on-line source/support?

I think Arabic language skills are very valuable for belly dancers, even if you don't learn a lot. A journey of 1,000 miles begins with a single step, and even if you only learn a small amount at this time, it'll be more than you knew before!

This page of my web site shows some of what I discovered when I decided to start learning Arabic, along with a blog of my early studies: The Near East Today

For me, the combination that proved helpful was to use the Pimsleur's lessons to give structure to what I was learning (and to serve as a review tool between the times I spent with live people), and then to use conversation with real speakers to make it "stick".

I used the Egyptian dialect lessons from Pimsleur's, but since you have a Lebanese speaker to work with, I'd suggest you go for the Eastern Arabic version of their program.