Beginner - Levantine: Where are You From?

I good beginner lesson. I have rarely heard the the term ضاحية used though. After traveling and learning about Arabic the past few years, I've noticed that there are multiple ( I would say about a dozen) words/terms for geographical locations and areas that differ between countries.

I think it would be a great presentation or file to compile a list of numerous countries and what they call their areas... provinces, states, wilayats, cities, villages, towns, districts, wards, etc...

I've seen Arabic words like: زقاق، در، ولاية، سنجق، قرية،مقاطع، محافظ، etc... I may have misspelled some, but those are just the few of the top of my head. Anyway just a thought, that I think could enhance Arabic learners vocabulary and understanding of the vast array of differences in the Arabic speaking world!

Tomes

That is a very good idea Tomes, as always.
Most of these terms are directly derived from classical Arabic and therefore they should be understood throughout the Arab countries, of course with exceptions.
I guess best way to tackle that is to make an application in our Activities page so people can read and hear the words with translation and probably with examples.
Just keep an eye on ArabicPod and you will find that coming through inshallah ;)

Is بحكي Levantine? Can I also say أتكلم ?

@maasbar بحكي is Levantine but it’s understood throughout the Arab world. You can use it in Saudi for example, but they might think you’re from the Levantine area. You can also say أتكلم, this word is more frequently used in the Arab gulf states, but again it’s standard and understood throughout the Arab world.

In this podcast Sierra and Elias point out that most of the Arabic names of European cities are very like their European equivalents. A notable exception is ﺍﻠﺒﻨﺪﻗﻴﺔ (al-bunduqia), which is the Arabic word for “Venice”. This name is apparently a derivative of ﺒﻨﺪﻖ, which means “hazlenut”.

تحدّث (ta7addatha / yata7addath) is another verb (form 5 regular) in MSA, which can be used instead of حكى or تكلّم

Thanks for sharing these geographical terms with us Tomes. Let’s go over each one you’ve raised here:

زُقاق = lane or alley
There's an area of downtown Beirut called زقاق البلاط - the verb بلط means "to pave with flagstones" - because the streets there are narrow and paved with cobblestones.

دَرب = narrow mountain path or track
I think this is what you mean by در. Right?

ولاية = state or province
The Ottoman Empire was divided into provinces called ولايات, each one governed by a وَلي. The word today is commonly used to mean states such as in the US, which, of course, is الولايات المتحدة الأمركية.

سَنجَق = administrative district
The ولايات themselves were divided into smaller administrative districts by the Ottomans and called سَناجِق

قرية = village or hamlet
Another word for village is ضَيعة, which is commonly used in Lebanon.

مقاطعة = administrative district
Generally a smaller area, sometimes used to refer to a "county" as in مقاطعة لوس أنجلس = Los Angeles County

محافظة = administrative district, zone or territory
Used to refer to electoral districts in Lebanon - مقاطعة can be a synonym.

Hope that helps. Let us know if you have any other questions.

That's an interesting exception that you bring up, Desmond. I'm guessing it has something to do with the fact that a بندقي is a Venetian sequin - in this case, "sequin" actually means a coin that was used in the middle ages in Venice. Perhaps it looked like or had a similar color to a hazlenut, I'm not sure. According to wikipedia, the word "sequin" is actually derived from an Arabic word سكّ which means "to mint or coin."

Another notable exception is the Arabic name for Greece الينان (AlYunan) which probably comes from the historic cities of Ionia, though that's also a guess.

Hi Vinod, تحدّث has a related meaning to حكي but it's generally not used in the same way. For example, I would say بحكي إنجليزي as in, "I speak English" but I would not form the same sentence from أتحدث. I'd use أتحدث to say, e.g., I'm talking about the arts. أتحدث عن الفنان OR I'm talking to my mother. أتحدث إلي أمي. Is that more clear?

Thank you for your very detailed comments, Sierra. When I first came across the Arabic word for "Venice" I assumed it had something to do with the colour of the water in the lagoon, which is not particularly clean.

You've misspelt the Arabic word for "Greece". In all likelihood you didn't press the appropriate key hard enough.

Isn't it odd that there are two adjectives for "Greek"? One of the adjectives is a derivative of "al-yuunaan", while the other might be transcribed as "ighriiqyy" (igh pronounced like irr in Ger. "irren", rii like Fr. "ri" and qyy like Fr. "qui"). Last year I discovered the word in an Arabic video entitled "Teach children Arabic: History of Arabic Numbers in Time Telling". Do you know that video?

Thanks a lot Sierraprasada for the reply, and for clarifying the usage of حكى and تحدّث .

Thanks

Oops, thanks for catching that typo, Desmond! I haven't heard of the video but it sounds fun. Given that اليونان is somewhat removed from the word "Greece," I'm not surprised that there's another adjectival form of it: إغريقي. Glad my earlier comments helped.

The video I mentioned can be found on YouTube. The dialogues are very good. I was wondering if you could present a few extracts in one of your podcasts.

Sierra, Ehab, and Mohammed et. al,

Thank you that was great! Sierra, outstanding explanations as well! It'd be great to see that list Ehab in an activity and perhaps corresponding countries.

As for the word در , my understanding is that it replaces the word for بيت in many Gulf countries and is used very much like an address for example:

545 محالة
زقاق 2
در 505

I forgot to mention Muhallah and Hayy (حي) as well as some other administrative terms.

Thanks again!

Tomes
تومز

حكى is also said hechee in some slang dialects. But there is no sound for 'chee' in Arabic so beware. It may sound nice to some but don't make a habit of saying it.

Can we say "takallam" in Arabic instead of "bah'ki" to denote the meaning of "speak"...?

How do you say Italian (the language)? Pls transliterate, as I haven't started to learn the arabic alphabet just yet... thx!!

@honduras
اللغة الإيطالية
allu3'atul ee6aaleeya

@vinod - thanks!!