Lower Intermediate - Egyptian: Not going to school

The Egyptian time adverbial at the end of the opening sentence needs to be explained in more detail. Like its standard Arabic equivalent (ﺍﻠﻴﻮﻢ), it evidently consists of a definite article and a noun, and this noun is visibly related to the standard Arabic word “nahaar” (ﻨﻬﺎﺮ), which means “daytime”. The letter “laam” has been elided because “nahaarda” begins with a sun letter, but why is “alif” pronounced like the “i” in Engl. “in”? And why has “da” been added to “nahaar”?

good idea to refer to classical - it helps (at least my) understanding the differences.
is the use of "lissa" the same in classical ?
the additional vocab : egyptian or classical ?
cheers

@ Desmond, “da” means ‘this’ in the Egyptian dialect, So the literal translation for النهار دة is “this day”. Another example sentence in the Egyptian dialect:

هو ده الولد اللي بتحبه البنت – This is the boy that the girl loves

@ plop, the word “lissa” is never used in classical, you’ll never hear it in the news for example. It’s very colloquial and is also used outside Egypt, like Saudi for example. The additional vocabulary are in the Egyptian dialect, but in this particular lesson, the supplementary vocabs are used throughout the Arab world the same way.

hada? hadihi...di ?.....enquiring minds and all that.

To Ustad Saleh and Moshaya:

I wish we could stick more to classical or levant dialect. One of my arabic teacher used to say that Egyptian dialect has the most "lahan", so stay away from it. The young ladies are doing an excellent job but I would rather learn something that is spoke widely by all and not limit to Egyptian dialect.

Jazak-Allah Khair!

Ahlan Quest,
Thanks for highlighting that. All dialects have la7n (inaccuracy) somewhere down the line, and that is why we encourage everyone to focus on the classical Arabic as it is very robust and strong language.
However, knowing other dialects is a good thing if one feels confident enough to delve into it. Also many of our listeners requested Egyptian dialect, so we really try to reflect upon the need of the listeners. Nevertheless, classical Arabic has a major share of our lessons so far and it would still be in the future, so be happy :)
Salaam

Thanks for adding the Egyptian lessons, and please continue. It's my understanding that Egyptian is one of the most widely understood dialects because of the influence of Egyptian movies, TV, and music throughout the Arab world. And in my experience, every speaker of a particular dialect will tell you that their dialect is superior and to stay away from others--so take it with a grain of salt!

@ Mohamed

Thank you for the useful information.

@ quest

Egyptian Arabic is spoken by 80 million people and is one of the most influential and widely studied varieties of Arabic. I’m sure Egyptians would feel insulted if you were to tell them that their language is inferior to other varieties of Arabic.

It is absurd to claim that Egyptian Arabic is inferior to any other language. If you adopt this line of reasoning you’ll have to be consistent and say that Italian and Spanish are inferior to classical Latin, that modern Greek is inferior to ancient Greek, and that American English is inferior to British English.

Inevitably, certain ideas can be expressed more precisely or more elegantly in some languages than in others, for no language is perfect, and some deficiencies have to be accepted when they cannot be remedied by linguistic engineering. When I write in German or French I can express certain ideas more effectively than would be possible in English, but when I write in English I can say things that neither French nor German will allow me to say with the same degree of precision or the same stylistic virtuosity.

Egyptian Arabic differs in many respects from classical Arabic, but this does not mean that Egyptian Arabic cannot be wielded effectively by great orators and poets. Nor does it mean that every feature of Egyptian Arabic that is unclassical is worthy of contempt. How, for instance, would you prove that “’uura” (ﻋﻮﺮﺓ), the Egyptian word for “forehead”, is inferior to its standard Arabic equivalent (ﺠﺒﻬﺔ)?

@ Ustad Saleh

Salam....Jazaka-Allah khair! I was not trying to insult any dialect.....I understand the demand from other listeners have to be met and the young ladies as I have said before are doing an impressive job.

@Desmond

I wasnt claiming anything other than fact that Classical Arabic is largely spoken & understaood and should be first learnt before exploring other dialects....thank you for your views.

@ quest

I agree that it is wise to study MSA before tackling Arabic dialects.

@Desmond

In Egyptian Arabic "uura" is an equivalent for "forehead"?First time I hear this ,can you explain it more in details,please

Thanx in advance: )

@ czarek25

It’s quite easy to find information about Egyptian Arabic on the Web. If you visit the desert-sky.net website you’ll find useful vocabulary lists as well as a considerable amount of grammatical information. Key in “hukuuma government”, press the enter key, and you’ll land in the middle of the site. The word “'uura” (ﻋﻮﺮﺓ) is in the section devoted to the human body.

If you want to know how “'uura” (ﻋﻮﺮﺓ) is pronounced by native speakers of Egyptian Arabic you can listen to a video on YouTube. The title is “Arabic Vocabulary – The Head”. The channel is inspirion06.

If you listen to Egyptian videos you’ll soon pick up a lot of useful expressions like “mish (ﻤﺶ) kidah (ﻜﺪﻩ)”. This can be used to translate English tag questions like “isn’t he”, “can he”, etc. In Levantine Arabic this is “mish (ﻤﺶ) heyk (ﻫﻴﻚ)”. I hope that you'll find this helpful and that all the Arabic letters will be visible on your screen.

@ Desmond

Thanx for all explanations you gave me :)

Actually word "forehead" in EA it is "قورة" but as we know the Egyptian's dont pronouncate "ق" in 99% of words concerning Egyptian dialect so it becomes "2oora"

As u mentioned word : like "مش" in Egyptian dialect in Levantine the equivalent is also "مو"(moo) not only "مش"(mesh) so it can be also " مو هيك" =moo heek"

Greetings

Note for beginners

That letter "ق" is usually pronounced as a glottal stop(like the sound in between Uh and Oh )

@ czarek25

“Mish” (ﻤﺶ) is extremely common in popular Lebanese songs. You’ll find typical examples in “sayf” (ﺼﻴﻒ), a song sung by Haifa Wehbe. If you listen to the video on YouTube you’ll probably enjoy the music.

Best wishes
Desmond

@Desmond

Well unfortunately she is not my favourite artist :) Many ppl say that her Egyptian accent is almost as good as Lebanese one.I can agree on that (I heard some interviews with her and she is almost like Egyptian:)

I guess you mentioned Levantine Dialect (so when we talk about Syria you barely hear word مش :)this is why I mentioned مو

All the best
Czarek