You are probably familiar with the fun (or not-so-fun) phenomenon of so-called tamyiiz (تمييز, sometimes translated into English as ‘specification’). In fuSHa, tamyiiz is one of the many uses of the accusative – you take a noun, stick it in the accusative, and it turns into something that can be (often clunkily) translated as ‘in terms of’ or ‘by way of’. This handy PDF gives some nice examples: يزداد ايمانًا ‘increase in belief’, يختلف علوًا ‘differ in height’, اجمل اسلوبًا ‘more pleasant with regard to style’. You’re probably most familiar with it from the last usage, with superlatives and comparatives. ...

You might be able to detect something of a consistency of format in these. This one’s from Welcome to Syria, a Facebook meme page. A: مبارح حلمت اني كنت بالجنة mbaare7 7alam@t énni ként béjjanne Yesterday I dreamed that I was in heaven حلمت اني كنت – this would also work OK as حلمت اني (with no past), because of the usual absence of tense-shifting. It appears here though. ...

Saar-ySiir is another one of those very, very common verbs that appear all the time but that are rarely treated in detail. I said ages ago I was going to write a post about صار, and now seems like a good time to put it out. So here goes! Happen One of the core meanings of صار is ‘to happen’. Although حصل and the fuSHa حدث (pronounced 7adas) are also occasionally used, صار is by far the most common verb to appear with this meaning: ...

One point we didn’t cover in any of the previous posts is the very basic issue of how to express doing something to yourself (reflexives) and doing something to one another (reciprocals). Both of these are quite important and differ (to some extent) from fuSHa, so let’s cover them here! Reflexives The reflexive pronoun In English we have the reflexive pronouns formed with possessives and ‘self’, and in fuSHa we have basically the same system with نفس ‘spirit’. Whilst there are contexts in which you might hear نفس with reflexive meaning in colloquial, far and away the most common reflexive pronoun in Shami is not formed with نفس but with حالـ plus possessive pronouns: ...

This transcription is of a scene from حلاوة الروح (‘sweetness/beauty of the soul’, though a literal translation doesn’t quite cover the meaning), which if I remember correctly came out a couple of years ago during peak musalsal season. In it our two heroes, Sara and Isma’il, meet in a Beirut bar by chance. Isma’il is the brother of a childhood friend of Sara’s, Nisreen. Sara, an aspiring filmmaker, has just got back to Beirut after months staying at her father’s house in Dubai. She has left without telling her father, who runs a TV station there and had promised her a job, after months of disappointment in which she has not even seen him once. She tells her Lebanese friend (whose name I have forgotten) about her plans, and halfway through the conversation Isma’il comes over to introduce himself. ...

This clip is from بقعة ضوء buq3et Daw2 (spotlight), a sketch show which has been airing for quite a long time now and has featured at one time or another basically every Syrian actor. It is the first scene of the episode حمام السلام ‭‭7amaam éssalaam ‘the dove of peace’. The entire episode is an allegorical tale about destroying what you have by fighting with your friends and neighbours over political differences. The two main characters, Wa7iid and Sherko, are pigeon-fanciers (كشاشة kashshaashe or حميماتي ‭‭7amiimaati). This hobby (or sometimes profession) is provided with the following saucy definition by one internet site discussing a decision to impose government licensing laws on people who want to keep pigeons: ...

/wp-content/uploads/2017/04/Rajje3na-3albeet.mp4 حاسس روحي نشفانة مو جوا ماني طايقك ماني طايقك I feel like my soul’s dried up from the inside. I can’t stand you anymore, I can’t stand you! طب رجعني ع البيت رجعني ع البيت بلا ما ننقاتل وننفضح قدام الناس بالشارع! Just take me back home. Take me back home! Better than fighting and embarrassing ourselves in the street in front of everyone! رجعنا على محل ما طلعتني اخي Take us back to the place where you picked us up. ...

/wp-content/uploads/2017/04/Tezz-bi-halkamm-alf.mp4 اي لا ما حزرتي. ترجعي لشغل السكر وتدوريلي ع البيوت ببلد ما منعرف فيها حدا؟ لا, بتقعدي ببيتك وبتسكري الباب على حالك وطلباتك بتوصل لعندك. ستي, وطز بهالكام الف ليرة بدك تطالعيلنا ياهون. Yeah, no, no chance. Go back to selling sugar and go from door to door in a country where we don’t know anyone? No. You stay at home and lock the door and anything you need will come to you. Screw this few thousand lira you want to earn for us. ...

/wp-content/uploads/2017/04/Wlahashshi.mp4 بس يعني انت من خلال تجاربك الطويلة بتعرف انو الواحد احيانا ممكن يطلع خلقو وبساعة غضب ما بيعرف شو بيتصرف او شو بيحكي But, I mean, from your long experience you’ll know that sometimes, a person can lose their temper, and in a moment of anger, they don’t know what they’re doing or what they’re saying. ولهالشي بطالع الزبالة والقرف من تمو؟ And that’s why they say such unspeakable things? ...

/wp-content/uploads/2017/04/Baaba-Taale3ni-min-hoon.mp4 بابا مروان انا اجيت لا تخاف بابا Marwan, son, I’m here now. Don’t be scared. بابا طالعني من هون Dad, get me out of here! رح طالعك حبيبي رح طالعك. حبيبي فوق ايد الباب في قفل. حكو ع اليمين و ع الشمال لحتى تسمع الطقة بس تسمع الطقة بيفتح لحالو I’ll get you out, kiddo, I’ll get you out. Just above the door handle there’s a lock. Shake it from left to right until you hear the click, and as soon as you hear the click it’ll open on its own. ...