Middle East - Anthony Ham [565]
In many transliteration systems ’ayn is represented by an opening quotation mark, and the glottal stop by a closing quotation mark. To make the transliterations in this language guide (and throughout the rest of the book) easier to use, we have not distinguished between the glottal stop and the ’ayn, using the closing quotation mark to represent both sounds. You should find that Arabic speakers will still understand you through the context of your topic of conversation.
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CONVERSATION & ESSENTIALS
Arabs place great importance on civility, and it’s rare to see any interaction between people that doesn’t begin with profuse greetings, inquiries into the other’s health and other niceties.
Arabic greetings are more formal than greetings in English, and there is a reciprocal response to each. These sometimes vary slightly, depending on whether you’re addressing a man or a woman. A simple encounter can become a drawn-out affair, with neither side wanting to be the one to put a halt to the stream of greetings and well-wishing. As an ajnabi (foreigner), you’re not expected to know all the ins and outs, but if you come up with the right expression at the appropriate moment, they’ll love it.
The most common greeting is salaam ’alaykum (peace be upon you), to which the correct reply is wa alaykum as-salaam (and upon you be peace). If you get invited to a birthday celebration or are around for any of the big holidays, the common greeting is kul sana wa intum bi-kher (I wish you well for the coming year).
After having a bath or a haircut, you will often hear people say to you na’iman, which roughly means ‘heavenly’ and boils down to an observation along the lines of ‘nice and clean now!’.
Arrival in one piece is always something to be grateful for. Passengers will often be greeted with al-hamdu lillah ’al as-salaama, meaning ‘thank God for your safe arrival’.
Questions like ‘Is the bus coming?’ or ‘Will the bank be open later?’ generally elicit the inevitable response in sha’ Allah (God willing), an expression you’ll hear over and over again. Another less common one is ma sha’ Allah (God’s will be done), sometimes a useful answer to probing questions about why you’re not married yet!
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HEALTH
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EMERGENCIES - ARABIC
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ACCOMMODATION & SERVICES
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TIME & DAYS
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MONTHS
The Muslim Hejira calendar year has 12 lunar months and is 11 days shorter than the Western (Gregorian) calendar year, so important Muslim dates will fall 11 days earlier each (Western) year.
There are two Gregorian calendars used in the Arab world. In Egypt and the Gulf States, the months have virtually the same names as in English (eg January is yanaayir, October is octobir), but in Lebanon, Jordan and Syria, the names are quite different. Talking about, say, June as ‘month six’ is the easiest solution, but for the sake of completeness, the months from January are:
The Hejira months also have their own names:
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SIGNS – ARABIC
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NUMBERS
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TRANSPORT
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HEBREW
Written from right to left, Hebrew has a basic 22-character alphabet – but from there it starts to get very complicated. Like English, not all these characters have fixed phonetic values and their sound can vary from word to word. You just have to know that, for instance, Yair is pronounced ‘Ya-ear’ and doesn’t rhyme with ‘hare’ or ‘fire’.
As with Arabic, transliteration of Hebrew script into English is at best an approximate science. The presence of sounds not found in English, and the fact that the script is ‘incomplete’ (most vowels are not written) combine to make it nearly impossible to settle on one consistent method of transliteration. Numerous spellings are therefore possible for words when