Showing posts with label definite article. Show all posts
Showing posts with label definite article. Show all posts
al-mufa'9alah
Today's
word is a noun in Kuwaiti Arabic, but used as an adjective in English.
So
whereas you'd say 'my favourite brother' in English, you'd say: ukhu-ii
al-mufa'9al in Kuwaiti.
Obviously
'favourite' changes its spelling according to whether the noun it's paired with
is masculine or feminine. In the above example, the word 'brother' is clearly a
masculine word. But how would you say my favourite sister?
Answer: ikhit-ii al-mufa'9alah.
3aafyah
In Kuwaiti, the noun al-3aafiyah is used with the preposition "bi" when someone
is about to have a meal to make bi l-3aafyah. It's the Kuwaiti Arabic translation of "bon appetit" quite simply.
bi l-3aafyah I'll call over to my
sister-in-law’s daughters as they crack open their cans of biibsii and they’ll dutifully call back: Allah yi3aafii-ch!
Until
today, I believed that this salutation was the only use of 3aafyah. How wrong I was. Like most Arabic words, it has a wealth of nuances. Theyab tells me that in Morocco, 3aafyah
means "a fire". How strange, I thought, that a word meaning “enjoy your meal” in Kuwaiti Arabic could also mean “fire” in the Moroccan dialect?
An answer came when my thoughts turned to rama'9aan, and the feeling of eating a first bite of food after long hours of fasting. The surge of gratitude that hits you has all the movement of fire. Your fading body has its vitality restored in a rush of warmth.
We can only guess how full of diverse meaning 3aafyah must be in Modern Standard Arabic since the word, like many others, has been easily split into diverse sub-meanings and scattered across the Arab world.
Though Arabic dialects may have lost a lot of their poetry to day-to-day practicality, there it is lying buried beneath the surface of so many words, only visible to those wanting to look more closely at the apparent discrepancies and cracks, like truffles in sand.
al-2ajaar
I kept seeing the same blue poster on lamp-posts at roundabouts. Eventually, I asked Theyab what it said. "It's an advert for rooms to rent and al-2ajaar for each one," he explained.
Renting seems to be the future, even in Kuwait where currently families own their bayt. The shift from ownership to having shuqaq with 2ajaar leaves me feeling a bit wistful.
One of the most first things I noticed during my first visit to Kuwait was the huge family bayuut which at first I mistook for office blocks. Perhaps in fifty years' time they'll still be standing in their square and multi-coloured glory, but sectioned off and rented to groups of strangers.
One of the most first things I noticed during my first visit to Kuwait was the huge family bayuut which at first I mistook for office blocks. Perhaps in fifty years' time they'll still be standing in their square and multi-coloured glory, but sectioned off and rented to groups of strangers.
Theyab often tells me about his childhood bayt, its beautiful courtyard and uniquely shaped rooms. One day, I asked if we might visit it. So off we drove to Jabriyah, only to see that al-bayt had been bulldozed and replaced with a towering block of shuqaq.
I was horrified, but Theyab was laughing. I asked him what was so funny - after all, his childhood memories had literally been erased. He pointed at the impossibly narrow street flanking the house and said, "one reason we moved is that there's no room for the five of us siblings to have cars. And now look - there must be 22 new shuqaq in this building, and still maakuu mukaan 7ag mawaaqif!"
Arabic
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Pronounced?
|
English
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أجار
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2ajaar
|
a rent
|
الأجار
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al-2ajaar
|
the rent
|
بيت
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bayt
|
a house
|
بيوت
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bayuut
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houses
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شقة
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shuqqah
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an apartment
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شقق
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shuqaq
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apartments
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ماكو مكان حق مواقف
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maakuu mukaan 7ag mawaaqif
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There’s no place for parking
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