The Olive Tree Dictionary: A Transliterated Dictionary of Conversational Eastern Arabic (Palestinian)

778 Pages·2007·87.44 MB·English

by  J. Elihay

Olive Tree
Dictionary
A Transliterated
Dictionary
o f Conversational
Eastern Arabic
w w w .m i n e r v a .o r g . i 1
The Arabic language
Throughout the Arab world, Standard Arabic is the language used for all written texts, such
as books, newspapers and correspondence, as well as for radio and television news
bulletins. This form of .Arabic is the same everywhere, from Morocco to the Persian Gulf.
For everyday verbal communication, on the other hand - in conversations at home or at
work, in business transactions, television interviews, etc. - colloquial Arabic is used, and
this varies from place to place. These local dialects may be very similar to one another -
Lebanese, Syrians, Jordanians and Palestinians all understand one another without much
difficulty - or they may differ from country to country to the extent of being almost mutually
unintelligible: an inhabitant of the eastern part of the Arab world won’t understand much of
a conversation conducted in a western dialect such as Moroccan.
It is important to bear in mind that spoken Arabic, and its eastern dialects in particular, is no
crude back-street slang with a limited vocabulary; it is the national means of daily
communication, and its vocabulary extends to all areas of life. Although different from the
written language, it borrows from Standard Arabic (SA) all the new words which modern
life demands, and thus enriches itself constantly. This enrichment process takes place on a
daily basis, as Arabic speakers absorb the language they hear from TV and radio hosts and
the experts and celebrities they interview. Chat-show conversation is conducted in a
mixture of the local dialect and modem vocabulary borrowed from written Arabic. Viewers
take in these expressions unconsciously and use them later in their own speech.
Even though it is, of course, advisable to learn to read written Arabic, it is impossible to live
in an Arab country and communicate with the population without knowledge of the local
dialect, and this is why we need dictionaries of the spoken language.
Palestinian Arabic
The Arabic spoken in Israel and Palestine, and by the Palestinian diaspora in Lebanon, Syria
and elsewhere, is an eastern dialect of Arabic which is understood throughout the Middle
East This dialect, no doubt because of its central geographical location, has several
advantages over neighbouring dialects such as Lebanese, Syrian and Egyptian: in
Palestinian the stress falls almost exactly as it does in classical Arabic (this is not the
case with Egyptian dialect, for example), while the vowels are close to those of Standard
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Arabic, being more varied and more distinct than those of Lebanese or Syrian. In addition,
the Palestinian vocabulary contains both words used in Egypt and words common iinn
Lebanon and Syria, thus providing access to these neighbouring dialects, e.g.. lissa /ba^d
= stiU- bardo / kamfln - also; zoyy / milri = like. From this brief survey it
concluded that the study of Psilcstinian dialect provides sn excellent basis for
communication in Arabic throughout the Middle East
Why phonetic transcription?
Why have I transcribed the Arabic words into Latin letters, rather than using the Arabic
alphabet?
-The practical response is that most people wanting to look up a word they have heard will
not necessarily read Arabic easily, and will find it easier to identify the word as it appears in
"English" transcription. I do, however, recommend learning to read and write the elegant
Arabic script, which will provide you with a vital stepping stone to (eventually) learning
Standard Arabic.
-There is another, more scientific reason for preferring transcription: Arabic script suits the
Standard Arabic language, with its comparatively limited range of sounds. The sounds of
colloquial spoken Arabic are more plentiful, and more complex: its vowels are more
numerous and more variable than those of Standard Arabic When Arabs write colloquial
Arabic (as they often do in captions to newspaper cartoons and in the "balloons" which
emerge from the characters’ mouths) they do so in rather a hit-and-miss style. There are
no rules which must be strictly adhered to, and so the reader has to be familiar with the
particular dialect used in order to read the words exactly as they were intended to be read
Colloquial Arabic as written in Arabic script is an accepted form of shorthand which can be
properly understood only by someone who already knows the spoken language well
"English" transcription, on the other hand (with the addition of a few diacritical signs),
allows us to give the vowels their due and to depict the sounds of spoken Arabic with great
precision. All books on Arabic dialects make use of transcription.
Variation and regional differences
In this dictionary I have chosen urban speech as my standard, for several reasons: it is
relatively uniform, it is the dialect normally heard in television interviews, for example, and
it is what non-Arabs are expected to speak. Rural dialects differ from region to region, and
the dialect of a specific village sounds odd when used indiscriminately by a non-Arab -
unless, of course, he or she has developed dose ties with that particular village. An
informant of mine from ’Umm il-Fahem who settled in Jerusalem made a very dear
distinction between urban and rural dialect in a question she once asked me: "Do you want
me to talk the way they do in town or the way we do in our village?" There is a lot of
research to be done on regional and village dialects, but this does not Call within the scope of
to help non-Arabs acquire the language. My aim is to equip students of
a book designed
Arabic with a Curly standard form of speech which will enable them to understand most of
what they hear and to express themselves in an accent which will exdte neither surprise
nor ridicule. Nevertheless, I have included in the dictionary a number of words commonly
used in rural areas, such as ban; hal-hin (here; now). In Palestinian urban speech, too, there
are regional differences, and a word or expression widely used in Jerusalem may not be
in Nazareth, or vice-versa. Such words have been marked with a (J) for
Jerusalem or a (G) for Galilee, or may be followed by the rather non-committal expression
In some areas*: this enables the reader to understand a word he may have heard in
Tarshiha. for example, while at the same time warning him that if he uses it elsewhere he
may not be understood.
Where do the words and expressions come Cram?
Anyone who browses through the dictionary and reads the sample sentences will realise at
once that all the examples are "taken from life". For decades I have been recording
conversations and radio programmes in the colloquial language (interviews, discussions,
children’s programmes, medical programmes, etc.) and from all of these a great deal of
udonnatKxi has been extracted. The sentences used as examples in the dictionary - which,
in most cases, have been written down exactly as they were uttered - reflect genuine
KlualKxu which occur in the everyday life of Arabs in Israel and Palestine. After the
material was collected a considerable number of words and expressions were found to
require further research in order to discover their precise meaning and to check to what
extent they were understood throughout the country.
The UAUrmng are examples of typical sentences:
• I was expecting that question.
• Please sign all the copies!
• Don't let your enxrtions run away with you!
• Yiw'rc playing with fire.
• Everyone looks back on his childhood with noi
When will you get there? - It depends on the traffic.
• My insurance company covers everything.
• He’s on the phone for hours at a time.
• It all depends what kind of drug he's on.
• The inoculation is effective, but not one hundred percent.
• It’s none of his business, he should keep quiet.
• They put an advertisement in the newspaper.
• A bird in the hand is worth two in the bush.
How and where do I look up a word?
This is certainly a problem - after all, the novice English learner, too, finds it hard to accept
that the word went is to be found under go and may be totally baffled by logic-defying
pronunciations - but there are strategies for overcoming these difficulties. The following
are a few pointers which will help you find a path through the jungle of sounds.
1) Verbs: It is not possible to give every form of every verb, and you will be required to
look up verbs in the "basic form’’, i.e., the third person masculine singular in the past tense.
This means that forms such as bitrek and matruk Q\e leaves I abandons; left l abandoned)
must be looked up under tarak (he left / he abandoned), and so forth.
3) You must bear in mind that forms such as yiffel may be derived from either facal or ’affal
- see v-le and v-13 in the Verb Tables at the back of the dictionary. For example, yikser
comes from kasar (v-le), but yikrem comes from ’akram (v-13).
4) A large number of verbs start with an i- which is not always pronounced, and the hearer
does not always realise that a form such as stanna (wait!) has to be looked up under istanna
(see rule HD). In the same way, ’anajhmcuret (I blushed) is to be found under ihmarr.
5) A word beginning with m-, ma-, mu-, mi- may be a verb form (an active or a passive
participle). If you don’t find it under the letter M, try searching under the root letters or
under the basic form (third person masculine singular) of the verb, for example:
mothun will be found under (ahem,
mtawwel under tawwal.
mit’assef under t’assaf.
For further information and special cases, look up the dictionary under edda-, e-, i-, m-,
mma-, mu-, td-.
Remember: At the back of the dictionary you will find Verb tables which provide the
conjugations of the verbs in the spoken language.
[5]
English index
Vfe love an index at the end of the book (pp. 645*735) which will enable you to
look i*> wonts in and find their various translations into Arabic in different parts of
die dictionary:
Abbreviations and symbols
Ktive pvt. active participle: doing / having done
*4
adr
pron pronoun - see -ni, *ak, *02, -kom.~, and rule tU , p. 757.
collective noun. For further explanation see rule RT1.
ool
the construct state, see rule Q].
comparative adjective (e.g., bigger). When such an adjective is placed before
the noun it denotes the superlative (biggest), see ’akbor*.
f at
Nouns which denote females (human or animal) are always
(bant, 'imm. fonts).
which end in -a (*a) or -e, and which are followed by the
, are almost always feminine.
Nouns which end in -a. but which are not followed by the number QQ,
eg ., mafaa.
A few nouns do not follow any of the above rules, e g ., barb (f), zalame (m).
i
fpl
plural
C a t*
J tr *
fct
mat
Nouns which end in a consonant are almost always m asculine
fat
see above under f cr 6
m fk
16]
plural
pl
plural of paucity; for further explanation sec rules QT) Qz].
pi pauc
preposition
prep
pronoun
pron
Standard Arabic. Some writers prefer the terms Classical Arabic or
SA
Written Arabic.
subjunctive, i.e., the imperfect without b-*.
subj
transitive
trans
verb belonging to conjugation 1, 2; see Verb Tables, pp. 737-754.
v-1, v-2
verbal noun, e.g., working, eating, development, execution, etc.
VN
See Verb Tables, pp. 737-754.
links two words, to indicate that they have to be pronounced together:
in this respect they may be viewed as a single unit:
w araj-w alad is pronounced as wtt-rol walad (behind the boy):
Suftjdctir = §uf-tek-tir (I’ve seen a lot).
’ana^tsardaqct = 'a-n at-sar-d a-q et (my drink went down the wrong way).
+ with the addition of (the word or suffix following this sign).
+ plus-or-minus, i.e., with-or-without (the word that follows). That is to say,
the word which follows this symbol may be added or left out without any
change of meaning - both versions are acceptable. See cubwe*, ’abraq*.
is equal to...
the outcome/product is...
/ precedes an alternative form
//
The word preceding this symbol is used in Jerusalem, the word following it
is used in Galilee: haiqet//'issa (now) = halqet in Jerusalem, ’issa in
Galilee.
]
A single square bracket after the plural of a noun introduces its singular
form. The singular form appears after the bracket, e.g., byut ] bet*, i.e.. the
word byut is the plural of bet, and the asterisk indicates to the reader that
the word can be looked up in the dictionary in this form.
[]
Square brackets are used for a variety of purposes:
a) After a noun in Arabic the plural form of the same noun is given in
square
brackets. As the plural forms vary greatly, the singular and plural forms for
[7]
each noun should be learned together, e.g., madrase [madares] (school);
bet [byut] (house).
b) The 3rd person masculine singular imperfect form of the verb is given in
square brackets, immediately after the corresponding form in the past tense,
e.g., saf [isufj - to see. Literally he saw (that he may see],
c) Within the English translation of an Arabic text, square brackets enclose
one or several words in English which are not represented in the Arabic, but
which are necessary to complete the text in English, e.g., m isjm n ih =
/That's] not good!
> indicates that the preceding word is the comparative form of the adjective
which follows the symbol, e.g., 'akbar > kbir*, i.e., 'akbar (bigger) is the
comparative form of kbir (big), and the asterisk indicates that the word
should be looked up under kbir. The comparative form is also used to
express the superlative (biggest). For further details see under 'akbar*.
< > These symbols enclose the literal English translation of the specimen
Arabic sentence when the corresponding idiomatic English expression
contains words different from those used in Arabic. The reader should not
be disconcerted by the rather odd forms of English sometimes used in these
literal translations: they are intended to imitate the structure and content of
the Arabic sentence as closely as possible, in order to help the reader
understand every word in i t
For examples, see entries such as:
banat id-dinen - tonsils < daughters of the ears>
cilmjtn-nafs - psychology < science of the soul>
The hyphen is used:
a) To distinguish between the various sections of the Arabic words, e.g.,
katab-ha (he wrote it), so that the reader can understand their construction
(in this case, verb + attached pronoun) and pronounce them properly:
darasha might be misread as da-ra-sha with the English ‘sh’ sound, whereas
daras-ha makes things clearer.
b) To link together words in English, in order to indicate that, in
combination, they serve to translate one Arabic word, e.g.,
jaybe bayet <
<she-who-brought/shc-wh&-gave-birth...>, which-has-spcnt-thc-night> .
[8]
^ ^ short dash in examples of conversational exchanges indicates a change
of speaker. See, for example, <afwan*. <afye*, tgayyor*.
—> becomes... / changes into... / the result of this combination is... e.g.,
ward + -ha -*■ ward-ha (note that the stress has shifted).
# This sign is reminiscent of the sharp sign in musical notation. Just as the
sharp sign in music indicates a rise in pitch, so, in this dictionary, this sign
indicates a rise in the style of the conversation, i.e., a higher register of
speech. It is used to indicate educated speech, speech above the level of
everyday conversation, and words borrowed from Standard Arabic.
* An asterisk at the end of a word invites the reader to look that word up in
the dictionary.
[5] Q|] A number inside a square directs the reader to the Rules at the back of the
dictionary, where problems relating to particular words are explained.
• This sign means that the following sentence or phrase is provided to
demonstrate how a word is used.
(T) Beware! This taboo word should not be used (as it is considered very rude
or offensive). But you must be able to understand such words when you
encounter them.
I I These arrows indicate that the tone rises on a particular syllable, and drops
on another. For an example, see ma* (ma2 / ma3).
The alphabet - the consonants
This section can be read as a preliminary to study, in order to obtain an overall picture of
the sounds and how they should be pronounced. It is also intended for later reference, as
required.
The Arabic alphabetical order is (from left to right):
* * * &
fr ' u O
*
j j
J J
I E E C u *
»
b t
t j h h d d r z s s
■
*
Js>
\y> J? 3 J
< 3 a
£ J (3
•*
t t P 0
? d t z C mm
# * g f q k 1 m n h w y
[9]
In this dictionary entries are arranged in the order of the letters of the English alphabet, so
as to make them easy to look up. Note, however, one exception: the c, which has no
English equivalent, appears throughout the dictionary as the first letter of the alphabet. For
example, the word mammal will appear earlier in the dictionary than the words m a’kulat
and m abda'.
c <■ A guttural sound produced from the very bottom of the throat, e.g., m aci
(with me), ka<ke (cake). Goats say m a£.
* ’ The glottal stop. This is the sound made by a speaker of English just before
beginning to say a word which begins with a vowel - the little explosion of
air that precedes the pronunciation of words like "enough", "altogether”,
"onward", or "I owe you” ( ’ay ’ow yu). In certain dialects of English this
sound can occur in the middle of a word, as in the Cockney or Glasgow
pronunciation of "bottle”. In Arabic the glottal stop can appear anywhere in
the word - at the beginning, in the middle or at the end - and it is always
clearly heard, e.g., btis’al = btis- ’al (you ask); min ’es (from what?), jari’ =
ja - r i- ’c (courageous), never bd-sal or mi-naish or jari.
In this dictionary words like ’aja, ’es, ’ikram should be looked up under the
vowels A, E, I.
a See Vowels below.
b As in English, e.g., bab (door).
d As in English, e.g., dayman (always).
m
d
The English voiced ‘th’, as in they, wither. This sound is rarely heard in urban
speech, where it is usually replaced by a ‘d’ or a V . See under d in the
dictionary.
hada (rural), hada (urban) — this (one).
daki (rural), zaki (urban) = clever, intelligent
4
An emphatic ‘d’ sound, pronounced with the tip of the tongue pressed
against the upper teeth and the back of the tongue touching the palate, e.g.,
dollet (I stayed).
e See Vowels below.
f
As in English, e.g., fut! (come in!).
g To the English ear this sounds rather like a uvular Parisian R, or the sound