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voron wrote:I wonder if this Munther Younes guy is a native Arabic speaker (I don't doubt the quality of the book, just curious about his background).
vijayjohn wrote:voron wrote:I wonder if this Munther Younes guy is a native Arabic speaker (I don't doubt the quality of the book, just curious about his background).
I would think so. He got his BA in English from the University of Jordan.
eskandar wrote:Congratulations on your progress with Arabic, voron! I always admire your dedication (all the moreso because you typically study languages I'm also learning )
يا بلادي جوك هادي ما أحلاك يا بلادي هلالك ملعب للنجمات فيك بيتغنى الحادي بلادي بلادي يا بلادي بلادي بلادي بلادي | Oh my country, your air/weather is mild How beautiful you are, my country Your crescent is a playground for stars About you sings the cameleer. Oh my country... |
voron wrote:1) أحلاك - this is the superlative of حلو plus a possessive pronoun, right? I knew the construction ما plus superlative from MSA, but I didn't know (or forgot) you can append a possessive to it.
2) In بيتغنى we can see this typical Levantine prefix ب for the habitual present tense.
حسنك متله ما بيصير وعاطيك من فضله كتير نسر يقف ونسر يطير فوق التلة والوادي | Your goodness, the like of it doesn't exist And He (the Lord) gave to you from His grace a lot An eagle stops, an eagle flies Above the hill and the valley |
voron wrote:I've been watching pieces of the Lebanese series MAMNOU3! (it's virtually the only Levantine series available with the subtitles) and I've learnt how to say "come in!":
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ArnErU6l-I0&t=0m9s
It's فوت, which also has a meaning "to pass".
فَات، يْفُوْت
eskandar wrote:Great find! I bet you can also track down some Levantine films with English subtitles. There are lots of great artsy Palestinian ones, at least.
Do you know about the colloquial dictionary Mo3jam? It can be really useful for this kind of thing!
Damn, I'm so tempted to start messing around with Levantine Arabic. It's so interesting to compare it to Egyptian, and this series looks entertaining enough... What's your strategy ya Voron? Do you try to transcribe the series in Arabic as you watch, or just focus on comprehension?
Bab al-Hara takes place in the 1930s, a time when the Middle East was colonized by Western powers. Syria was under French control and Palestine – where some of the neighborhood men go to fight at the end of the second installment of the series – was British-occupied. Bab al-Hara depicts the last moments of Syrian society as it existed in its centuries-old Ottoman era make-up, just prior to the transition into colonial and post-colonial modernity.
eskandar wrote:Meanwhile there's this guy [...] who also has a useful blog.
voron wrote:Some notes about the song Eskandar posted in the Arabic thread:
viewtopic.php?f=25&p=1080162#p1079939
I can understand more or less every word and grammar in the Jordanian verses. One part I don't understand:
إنو أنا بقدرأكون في كوبا لا تنساني
Does it literally say "Because I can be in كوبا, don't forget me"? What is كوبا?
Limagne wrote:Cuba, maybe?
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