Episode 10: شو عم تقري؟ (what are you reading?)

Levantine Arabic: Bayni w Baynak

مرحبا جميعا و أهلا و سهلا فيكم على الحلقة التالتة في الموسيم التاني

Hi everyone! Welcome to episode 3 of season 2.

Today me and Safa talked about our favorite books, or at least we tried... things got a bit silly at times but we persevered. Language notes below or follow this link. Also if you haven't checked out Lingualism it's a great place to find some great Arabic learning resources!

00:52 I said: انا مرشح /ana mrashiH/ I’m a bit bunged up

I remember being told in a separate conversation with Safa that it can be used without someone thinking you might have corona. Aka: ما معي كرونا ، انا بس مرشح (I don’t have Corona I just have a cold).

Comes from form 2 verb: رشّح you could also say: مبراح رشحت /imbareH rashaHit/ yesterday I caught a cold.

00:59: Safa said: صحيا الحمدلله مني مرشح ، بس جسديا … health wise I’m ok, I’ve not got a cold, but physically… note the two adverbs: صحيا /SuHiyan/ from صحّة (health) and جسديا /jasadiyyan/ physically from جسد (body)

01:29 I said : صحة العقل (mental health) note Safa corrected my pronunciation: SuHi il3a’il : SuHit il3a’il. This is the classic rule of ة being pronounced as ت in the middle of idafa constructions. Idafa constructions are where two nouns are put together where only the second one is definite, either because it carries an indefinite article, pronoun or is a name aka: بيت اهلي ، صوت صفا ، باب البيت (my parents’ house, Safa’s voice, door of the house)

01:41 Safa said: من اسبوع تقريبا خلصت كتاب اسمه فن الامبالاة about a week ago I finished a book called the Art of indifference. (This is an english book in Arabic translation, the original title is ‘the art of not giving a fuck’) The Arabic word used to translate ‘not giving a fuck’ is الامبلاة which literally means ‘indifference’. Also note pronunciation of خلصت كتاب as if it was one word: khalaS-Tikteb

01:55 Safa said: هو يعني بعلمك تكون مرتاح يعني فكريا /huwe ya3ni bi3almak tkun murteH ya3ni fikriyyan/ it teaches you to be relaxed, as in mentally. فكريا is another adverb.

01:58 Safa said: و في كتاب هلا، مش هلا عم بقراه يعني، بس هلا بدي خلصه، كنت عم بلشي فيه من قبلا اسمه سيكولوجية الجماهير there’s a book now..I mean I’m not currently reading it, but now I want to finish it, I started it a while go called.

It can be really hard to pick out object pronouns especially in Lebanese, because so often they’re silent.

This sentence highlights the basic rule for masculine object pronouns: Word ends in consonant: ه pronounced /u:/ Word ends in vowel: ه is silent.

02:40 Safa said: حخبرك في شكل مختصر كل كتاب عن شو بيحكي /Hakhabrak fi shakil mukhtaSar kil ikteb 3an shu byiHki/ I’ll tell you briefly what each book is about. Note مختصر (brief) is اسم مفعول from form 8 verb: أختصر (to shorten/ summarize) which in turn comes from the root خصر also where the word for hips is derived: خصر / خاصرة

02:55 Safa said: كتير عندك سلام ع الخبرة الي عم تمروا فيها that you’re really at peace with the experiences you’re passing through. فيها… the ها refers back to experience. تمروا is you plural. Literally: the experiences that you pass through them.