Arabic Genie » Arabic Culture

Arabic Chat Example

ArabicGenie — Tue, 13 Jul 2010 13:04:44 +0000

A few months ago I published an article about the Arabic chat alphabet. If you are new to the concept of the Arabic chat alphabet, please read that article first. Today I want to continue this topic by providing two example sentences written in Arabic English and showing how they can be converted into more readily understandable Arabic script.

Note that the following sentences have been caught “in the wild” and they do not all conform to grammatical and orthographical standards.

Example: a conversation between friends

A: wlah emta 5atbti? wlah ma 7d 5abrni 2lf mabruk ya 7lwe!
B: katrin 7bebty alah ebarek fiki 3orsi fi 21-5 anshlh

Now for the “translation” or transliteration into Arabic script:

A: ولله امت خطبت؟ ولله ما احد خبرني. ألف مبروك يا حلوة
A: By god when did you get engaged? No one tolde me. Congratulations honey!

B: كترين حبيبتي الله يبارك فيك. عرسي في 5 21 إن شاء الله
B: Katrin darling, thank you for your wishes. My wedding is on the 21st of May God willing.

As you can see it’s really not that difficult to understand the Arabic chat alphabet once you get the hang of the numbers representing certain letters. Of course, often it might take you some time to decode the message if it’s written in a dicalect you are not familiar with.

Oh Mountain – Wind Will Not Shake You

ArabicGenie — Wed, 10 Feb 2010 11:40:12 +0000

A reader of this blog sent me the following message:

Hi Arabic Genie … noticed your blog & was very impressed .. saw that you translated in arabic for people… not too good with computers so didnt know how to post but noticed an email address ..

There is a saying in arabic “Ya Jabil May Hazak Reeh” not sure exactly how its spelt but i know that is how its pronouced …

Are you able to translate to arabic font ?

It took me a while to figure out the saying from the transliteration provided, because I was confused by the word “May” (thinking that it referred to “water”). I then realized that the “y” forms part of the next word: “ya jabil ma yhazak reeh”. Making some guesses, I finally arrived at this:

يا جبل ما يهزك ريح

(yaa djabal maa yahuzzak reeH)

Literally, this translates as: “oh mountain, wind can’t/won’t shake you”. I hadn’t seen this proverb before, and only a few results come up on Google. Basically, I guess it means that one should be as strong as a mountain in the face of adversity.

Perhaps a native speaker can provide some examples of usage?

Here is an image of the saying:

One thing to note is that the saying is colloquial, not formal Arabic. However, the negation ما (maa) is used in most dialects and understood everywhere.

No related posts.

Mysterious Arabic Calligraphy

ArabicGenie — Mon, 08 Feb 2010 17:21:05 +0000

Today I received an e-mail from a reader of this blog who is struggling to decipher a piece of Arabic calligraphy. Here are the picture and the e-mail:

Hi

I’m planning on getting a tattoo. I have found this design but I don’t know what it says. I have even asked my mother who is a native arabic speaker, but because of the calligraphy style its really difficult to read even though you can differentiate the letters. I would really appreciate if you could take a look.

Thanks very much, look forward to hearing from you

Well, I’ll admit that it took me a few minutes myself to figure out what the writing says, not least because I was misled by my knowledge of Persian and suspected that part of the writing read خوب – “good”. However, it then dawned on me that the writing is divided horizontally, with the upper word reading خور (khawr) and the lower دبي (dubay). Below I have coloured the upper word red and the lower word blue:

Hence, the calligraphic writing refers to خور دبي (khawr dubay), or “Dubai Creek” in English – a famous geographical landmark in Dubai.

Happy New Year!

ArabicGenie — Fri, 01 Jan 2010 09:58:07 +0000

May I take this opportunity to wish all my readers a very happy and prosperous new year 2010!

سنة سعيدة وكل عام وأنتم بخير

(sana sa3eeda wa kull 3aam wa antum bi-khayr)

Merry Christmas in Arabic

ArabicGenie — Tue, 22 Dec 2009 19:58:43 +0000

As we are fast approaching Christmas and its associated festivities, it might be both interesting and useful to take a look at a few Arabic words and phrases surrounding the celebrations. So read on to discover how to say Merry Christmas in Arabic!

What Christians are celebrating on Christmas is the birth of Jesus Christ. This is immediately obvious in the translation of Christmas into Arabic:
عيد ميلاد المسيح
(‘eed milaad al-maseeH)

Literally, this means “celebration of birth of the-Messiah”.

Now, to say “merry Christmas” we generally omit the part of “the-Messiah”, since it usually is pretty obvious which birthday celebration we are referring to at this time of the year. We can simply say:
عيد ميلاد سعيد
(‘eed milaad sa3eed)

Literally: “celebration of birth happy”.

This is a general phrase that can also be used to congratulate less prominent individuals on their birthdays.

You could also use a slightly different word in the end:
عيد ميلاد مجيد
(‘eed milaad madjeed)

Literally: “celebration of birth glorious”.

Now, to say “I wish you a merry Christmas” you simply need to add two words in front of either phrase above.

In case you are wishing a merry Christmas to a group of people use this:

أتمنى لكم
(atamanna lakum)

Literally: “I-wish for-you (plural)” – I wish you

In case you are wishing a merry Christmas to a man use this:

أتمنى لك
(atamanna lak)

And addressing a woman:

أتمنى لك
(atamanna laki)

So you can have…

for a group of people:

"I wish you a merry Christmas" in Arabic

أتمنى لكم عيد ميلاد سعيد
(atamanna lakum ‘eed milaad sa3eed)

"I wish you a magnificent Christmas" in Arabic

أتمنى لكم عيد ميلاد مجيد
(atamanna lakum ‘eed milaad madjeed)

for a man

أتمنى لك عيد ميلاد سعيد
(atamanna lak ‘eed milaad sa3eed)

أتمنى لك عيد ميلاد مجيد
(atamanna lak ‘eed milaad madjeed)

for a woman

أتمنى لك عيد ميلاد سعيد
(atamanna laki ‘eed milaad sa3eed)

أتمنى لك عيد ميلاد مجيد
(atamanna laki ‘eed milaad madjeed)

So, there you have all kinds of different ways of saying “I wish you a Merry Christmas” in Arabic. Let me take this opportunity to wish all my readers a Merry Christmas!

More Christmas Stuff

Arabic Logo Creativity

ArabicGenie — Fri, 30 Oct 2009 22:51:05 +0000

Today the elflisan blog called my attention to the CNN Arabic logo, which is indeed very creative. The Logo consists of the English letters CNN, but arranged in such a way that they are incorporated in the Arabic word بالعربية (bi l-3arabiya), or “in Arabic”. Really clever and must have taken the logo designer quite some time to come up with, I assume.

Apparently, the Arabic 7-up logo does something similar. Does anyone know of other such examples of Arabic-English script integration? It definitely is very interesting and I’ll be on the lookout for other such creative uses of Arabic calligraphy.

Arabic Alphabet Pronunciation

Do You Speak Arabic Chat? ta7ki 3arabi?

ArabicGenie — Fri, 25 Sep 2009 14:39:28 +0000

When chatting online Arabs often use the Latin letters to write in Arabic instead of the Arabic alphabet. And, because certain sounds in the Arabic alphabet don’t have a counterpart in Western languages, there are a number of symbols used to represent these special sounds.

So don’t be surprised to see numerals such as 3, 5, 6, 7, 8, or 9 being used online – these numbers represent distinct sounds in the Arabic language. For instance تحكي عربي؟, or “do you speak Arabic?” becomes “ta7ki 3arabi?”.

Below is a table that summarizes how the numbers are used to replace certain Arabic sounds. I also suggest some mnemonics for how to remember which number corresponds with which letter.

Arabic Letter	Transcription	Comments
ح	7	the letter Haa’ looks quite similar to a 7
خ	5, 7’	the apostrophe represents the dot on the letter khaa’; alternatively the numeral <5> is used
ص	9	imagine a <9> lying on the side, in which case the numeral looks very similar to the letter Saad
ض	9, 9’	the apostrophe represents the dot on the letter Daad
ط	6	the shape of the numeral <6> is not too different from the shape of the letter Taa’
ظ	6, 6’	the apostrophe represents the dot of the letter Zaa’
ع	3	the letter ‘ayn looks like a mirrored <3>
غ	3’	the apostrophe represents the dot on the letter ghayn
ق	8	imagine that the two dots of the letter qaaf closed the top, which would result in an eight lying on its side

Update: See my new article on the Arabic chat alphabet where I dissect two sample sentences and translate them into normal Arabic script.

Watch Arabic TV Online – Live!

ArabicGenie — Fri, 04 Sep 2009 14:28:30 +0000

I’m always on the look-out for ways to watch Arabic TV online. Today I found some excellent resources that I want to share with you.

First up is Zattoo – a program that streams a number of TV channels over the internet. Luckily, Al-Jazeera Arabic is also available and the quality is rather good, especially the quality of the audio. So just a quick heads-up for anyone who’s been searching for ways to watch Al-Jazeera online: go and check out this program.

Other Arabic TV channels can be found on livewtv.com. Among others, you can watch: ar-rrisaala, RTM Morocco, Iqraa TV, Al Majd, and 2m Morocco.

Another great news channel is Al Arabiya. You can watch it on livestation.com.

Watching Arabic TV can do wonders for your Arabic and now you can’t fall back on the excuse that Arabic TV is not available in your region.

Reader Request For Arabic Tattoos: Happiness and Scorpio

ArabicGenie — Sat, 29 Aug 2009 17:38:00 +0000

Today a reader sent me a request for two specific translations of English words into Arabic:

Hi Max!

I am writing you from Hungary, I have seen your e-mail adress in your webpage. I have a problem, exactly that I want an arabic tattoo, but I am a bit unknown in this language, I hope you can help me. I would like to know how to write “happiness” and the horoscope “scorpion” in the arabic language.

I am very grateful, if you help me!

I’m happy to oblige.

Scorpio

The first request is for the astrological sign “Scorpio”. In Arabic this would be برج العقرب (pronounced burj al-3aqrab), literally “sign (of) the scorpion”. However, for the purpose of a tattoo it would probably be better to abbreviate this simply to العقرب (al-3aqrab), or “the scorpion”. In case your PC doesn’t display the letters properly here’s a picture of the word using three different fonts.

The Zodiac sign "Scorpio" in Arabic

Happiness

As for the second request, “happiness”, I would translate it as السعادة (pronounced as-sa3aada). This literally means “the happiness”. The article “the” is used, because in Arabic a statement such as “Happiness is important” would be translated as “THE Happiness is important”. Below you can see the word written in three different fonts.

"Happiness" in Arabic

You might want to try out a few different Arabic fonts to see which one you like. There are a lot of free fonts at http://freearabicfonts.com/. Or perhaps you could ask an Arab calligrapher to make a special calligraphy for you using the word you have in mind?

I hope this helps. But you might also consider:

Learning The Arabic Alphabet The Easy And Effective Way

With the revolutionary method I explain here you’ll master the Arabic script in no time. This way you’ll be sure that the Arabic tattoo you were thinking of getting really is written correctly.

BBC Correspondent Learns Arabic In Damascus – And Fails!

ArabicGenie — Sun, 23 Aug 2009 16:54:48 +0000

There is an interesting article on the BBC News page detailing the experience of one of their correspondents in learning Arabic in Damascus. While I certainly applaud his efforts, I nevertheless have to remark on some inconsistencies in his article.

In the article, the author writes:

But however modest our achievements, the presence of foreign students does seem to please the Damascenes. “Tadrusus el lawra Arabiya – hunna?” they ask delightedly – “You’re studying Arabic – here?”

Now, I very much doubt that an Arabic native speaker from Damascus would have asked “Tadrusus el lawra Arabiya – hunna”. First of all, if the comment was supposed to be in Modern Standard Arabic (MSA) / فسحى (fusHa), then the question should have been “(hal) tadrus(u) al-lugha al-3arabiyya hunna?”. Secondly, more probable, someone from Damascus would have asked in Damascene dialect “btedrus 3arabi hoon?”.

This faux-pas puts doubt on the author’s claim that he had “studied hard” during his stay in Damascus. Despite this, I recommend this article to those thinking about studying Arabic in Damascus. It is a beautiful city with mostly welcoming people and a far cry from the fanatical stereotypes perpetuated by the media.

The article can be found here.