All of the videos we’ve looked at so far, with the exception perhaps of that Camel song everybody liked so much, have been from TV and have represented a kind of scripted conversational language which represents more or less (minus the drama) the way that people speak in normal everyday situations. Obviously this is important – if you’re going on a year abroad, or want to learn Arabic to communicate with people in normal situations, this is the kind of language you need to become familiar with.
However, 3aamiyye is obviously not just used in the home, in bars, or anywhere people gather to discuss the details of their lives to the backdrop of vaguely ominous music. It’s also used in the workplace, to give presentations, and to talk more or less formally about issues like science or politics. This is a side of 3aamiyye which is often neglected simply because it is generally assumed that these areas of life are more or less the domain of fuSHa. In reality, outside prepared speech, it is more common for educated people to make use of a high-register form of 3aamiyye incorporating many fuSHa-isms unusual in regular speech within a basically 3aamiyye structure than it is to find people ad libbing in ‘pure’ fuSHa.
With this in mind, here’s a transcription of a brief clip from الاتجاه المعاكس al2ittijaah almu3aakis (‘the Opposite Direction’), a famous TV political debate show presented by Faisal al-Qassem on al Jazeera in which two dramatically opposed figures are invited to debate a controversial topic.
The episode is titled Is Asad Planning to Seize the Property of Millions of Refugees? and the speaker is Dr. Abdulmon’em Zaineddeen, ‘Coordinator of the Brigades of the Revolution’. The topic is Law 10 of 2018 (a common format for laws in Arab countries for some reason) which made it mandatory for property owners to prove their ownership of that property by early May or risk forfeiture, triggering accusations that the state was making a land grab.
The language used by the speaker throughout – despite the fact that his Arabic Wikipedia page informs me he holds a doctorate in Islamic jurisprudence (fiqh) – is basically 3aamiyye in character. Pronouns, prefixes and suffixes are consistently 3aamiyye. Verbal morphology – outside a few set expressions – is consistently in line with 3aamiyye too. But his word choices lean much more towards the faSii7. Keep an ear out for both.
اما ما يسمى بالقانون رقم عشرة
2amma maa yusamma bilqaanuun raq@m 3ashara
As for the so-called Law Number 10
اما – ‘as for’. This is a fuSHa-esque construction, though note there’s no fa-
ما يسمى بـ – this is obviously a fuSHa structure. You’ll notice throughout the video that although the majority of verbs, even ones which we associate more with fuSHa, appear in a more 3aammiyye form, there are a few set phrases like this one which appear just as in fuSHa.
انا رح اتساءل قبل ما ندخل بصلبو
2ana ra7 2étsaa2al 2ab@l ma nédkhol bSulbo
I’d just like us to consider before we talk about it in detail
ندخل بصلبو – another fuSHa expression, meaning ‘enter into the heart of’. Notice though that the 3aamiyye prefix is used (né-) and that it is missing b- not because it’s a fuSHa expression but because it is subjunctive, triggered by 2ab@l ma. Notice also that he uses 3aammiye pronouns throughout.
ناهيك عن انو اللي اصدرو نظام غير شرعي فاقد الشرعية لا يترتب عليه اثر
naahiik 3an 2énno 2élli 2aSdaro niZaam gheer shar3i faaqed éshshar3iyye laa yatarattab 3alee 2athar
Put aside the fact that it was passed by an illegitimate regime which has lost its legitimacy with no legal force
ناهيك عن – another fuSHa-ism. Combining a preposition with énno is also fairly fuSHa (see below where he ditches it in naahiik énno).
اللي اصدرو – transparently ‘the one who passed it/promulgated it is…’, but I translated it a bit differently to preserve the rhythm in English.
فاقد الشرعية – faaqed (not faa2ed), but the participle is used in an arguably more 3aamiyye sense (‘having lost’).
لا يترتب عليه اثر – another set phrase, this time from legal jargon, meaning something like ‘which has no effect’. Even though the verb is in a recognisably fuSHa form (yatarattab not yétrattab) it still has no final short vowel, and 3alee is pronounced as in 3aamiyye.
ناهيك انو اصلا حتى مجلس الشعب اللي قام بـ بـ يعني بإقرارو ايضا غير شرعي
naahiik 2énno 2aSlan 7atta majles éshsha3b élli qaam b-, b-, ya3ni b2iqraaro 2ayDan gheer shar3i
Forget that to start with, even the People’s Council which, which, uhh, passed it was also illegitimate
قام بـ – another common fuSHaism you’ll be used to from media Arabic, used by this guy quite a few times in the course of his piece
نحنا عم نتحدث عن يعني نظام فاقد الشرعية كل ما يبنى على قراراتو فهو باطل
né7na 3am nét7addas 3an ya3ni niDHaam faaqed éshshar3iyye kull maa yubna 3ala qaraaraato fahuwwa baaTel
We’re talking about, uhh, a regime which has lost legitimacy – anything based on its decisions is meaningless
عم نتحدث – a high-register equivalent to حكى obviously based on the fact it’s fuSHa – but rendered entirely 3aamiyye in structure: 3am, né-, t- instead of ta-, and s for ث despite the fact that he goes on to say niDHaam with a dh sound only seconds later. Pronouncing these sounds (called لثوي in Arabic) in fuSHa is a mark of education, but lots of Syrians struggle with it or even in high register contexts do it inconsistently.
كل ما يبنى على قراراتو فهو باطل – this is a variation on a fiqh expression, كل ما نبي على باطل فهو باطل ‘anything based on an invalid thing is therefore invalid’. Note again the fuSHa-ness of the verb.
رح نتساءل تساؤلات سريعة: اذا كانت الفكرة انو هذا النظام بعد ما قتل مليون واحد وبعد ما هجر وبعد ما
ra7 nétsaa2al tasaa2ulaat sarii3a: iza kaanet élfikra énno haadha nniZaam ba3@d ma 2atal mélyoon waa7ed w ba3@d ma hajjar w ba3@d ma
Let’s just consider quickly: If the idea is that this regime, after it has killed a million people, and driven out others, and so much else…
اذا كانت – this is probably a case of the past being used with اذا to add a further element of doubt from the speaker’s perspective.
هذا – note the switch up to the fuSHa form of ‘this’.
مليون واحد – a pretty 3aamiyye form
بعد ما هجر وبعد ما – literally ‘after it displaced and after it -‘. Unlike in English, however, it’s idiomatic to repeat an expression like this to produce an effect similar to ‘and so on and so on‘. Also note the lack of need for an object in many cases in Arabic where English would need one.
الآن صار قلبو حنون عليون بدو يعدلون الاعمار
al2aan Saar 2albo 7anuun 3aleyyon béddo y3édlon él2i3maar
Is now feeling sorry for them and wants to reconstruct the country for them
صار controls both 2albo 7anuun (‘its heart has become soft’) and béddo (‘now wants’ or ‘now is going to’)
يعدلون الاعمار – again, 3aamiyye forms of fuSHa verbs. You’re probably familiar with the use of the verb أعاد ‘do again’ with a maSdar to calque European words with re-, as in ‘reconstruct’ here. This doesn’t have an object either where in English we need one. It does, however, have a nice -l- pronoun expressing ‘for their benefit’, attached onto the 3aamiyye equivalent of 2a3aad (3aad y3iid), with the resulting shortening of the vowel that normally happens in these cases.
هادا مشروع اعادة الاعمار اللي عم يتكلم عليه بيحتاج بيئة آمنة مستقرة
haada mashruu3 2i3aadt él2i3maar élli 3am yétkallam 3alee byé7taaj bii2a 2aamne méstaqérra
This reconstruction project that they’re talking about needs a safe, stable environment
اعادة الاعمار – note that even though this is a fairly fuSHa expression we still have 3aamiyye definite articles and forms of the taa marbuuTa (which are almost omnipresent in speech – al and -at are often replaced with él- and –ét even when people read)
يتكلم على – again, a fuSHa-ish verb but in an entirely colloquial form, as well as a colloquial use of على in the meaning of ‘about’.
وين البيئة الآمنة؟ الطيران عم يقصف نص المدن, تلت المساكن مهدمة, نصف المدن خارج سيطرة الـ, النظام
ween élbii2a l2aamne? éTTeeraan 3am yéqSof néSS élmédon, tult élmasaaken mhaddame, nuSf élmédon khaarej seeTart él-, énniZaam
Where is the safe environment? The air force are striking half the cities, one third of all homes have been destroyed, half of the cities are outside the control of the, the regime
نص and نصف – a mixture of 3aamiyye and fuSHa forms in the same sentence!
تلت – a weird in-between form – not télt, but also not thulth.
سيطرة النظام – note the contraction of –ét to -t in anticipation of the upcoming vowel.
نحنا عم نتحدث عن استمرار للقصف, اكثر من الشعب, تلت تشر مليون, اكثر من نص الشعب مهجر
né7na 3am nét7addas 3an istimraar lalqaS@f, 2akthar mén éshsha3@b, tléTTashar mélyoon, 2akthar mén néSS éshsha3b @mhajjar
We’re talking about continuing strikes – more than the people, thirteen million, more than half of the people are displaced
اكثر من الشعب – perhaps the thought he put into saying 2akthar instead of 2aktar made him briefly forget what he was going to say, because it seems like he misspoke here
تلت عشر – can most people even produce fuSHa numbers without a run-up? Anyway, 3aamiyye numbers are common in this sort of context.
نحنا عم نتحدث هاي البيئة الآمنة اللي بيحتاـ
né7na 3am nét7addas – hayy élbii2a l2aamne lli byé7taa…
We’re talking… This is the safe environment that it nee…
Seems like he gets so eager about the next sentence here that he lets this one trail off in the middle of the last word.
ومين اللي بدو يعمر هو نفسو اللي ما بيعرف غير الدمار والقتل واللي دمر مدن ومسحها
w miin élli béddo y3ammer huwwe nafso lli maa bya3ref gheer éddimaar w él2at@l w élli dammar médon w masa7a
And who’s going to be doing the rebuilding? It’s the same guy, who only knows destruction and killing and who’s destroyed and levelled cities
نفسو اللي – the English needs something a bit more specific than the Arabic, which just means ‘the same (masculine) thing or person’. It could well be referring to the regime rather than to its leader as implied by my English translation.
مسحها – note the 3aamiyye pronunciation
نتساءل ايضا يعني اذا كانت حقوق المالكين اللي هنه ثابتة لإلون بشكل نظامي في السجل العقاري ثابتة
nétsaa2al 2ayDan ya3ni iza kaanet 7uquuq élmaalikiin élli hénne thaabte la2élon bshek@l niZaami fii sijill él3aqaari thaabte
Let’s also consider – if the rights of property owners, which are set down officially in their name in the property register, are indeed fixed
اذا كانت – probably again implying doubt, something like ‘if it is indeed the case that’
ثابت – used here to mean ‘fixed’ or ‘established’, and pronounced with th. Note though that ثبت يثبت sébet yésbat is used commonly in colloquial to mean ‘stand/sit/hold still’ (e.g. to a child).
اللي هنه – élli huwwe, élli hiyye and élli hénne are fairly commonly used in the meaning of ‘which is’ in this sort of context (so-called ‘non-restrictive relative clauses’)
ليش الآن تطالبهون بوثائق جديدة وليش تعطيهون مهل ما زال هنه مالكين واصليين
leesh al2aan TTaalébhon bwasaa2eq @jdiide w leesh ta3Tiihon méhal maa zaal hénne maalikiin w 2aSliyyiin?
Why would you demand new documents now, and why would you give them time limits – as long as they’re property owners and genuine?
ليش – obviously the colloquial form, but notice also the use of the subjunctive on TTaaleb and ta3Ti to form a structure meaning ‘why (would you) demand… why (would you) give?’
ما زال – fairly fuSHa.
ليش, ليش تقوم بالهالأمر هاد؟
leesh, leesh tquum bhal2am@r haad?
Why would you do this?
ليش تقوم بـ – another use of leesh + subjunctive with the qaam b- construction we talked about before.
هالامر هاد؟ – haad here put after 2am@r (again a fairly fuSHa choice of word) emphasises ‘this’ when paired with هالـ.
واذا في قوانين اصلا سابقة لموضوع إعادة الإعمار, ليش تسن قوانين جديدة؟
w 2iza fii qawaaniin 2aSlan saabiqa limawDuu3 2i3aadt él2i3maar, leesh @tsénn qawaaniin @jdiide?
And if there are already laws prior to the issue of reconstruction, why would you pass new laws?
لكن السؤال الاهم فوق كل هاد: ما جدوى اصلا إصدار هاي القوانين ونحنا في شريعة الغاب نعيش فيه بسوريا
laakin éssu2aal él2ahamm foo2 kéll haad: maa judwa 2aSlan 2iSdaar hayy élqawaaniin w né7na fii sharii3ét élghaab n3iish fii bsuurya
But the more important question, above all of this: what is the point of passing these laws when we’re under the law of the jungle that we’re experiencing in Syria
ما جدوى – ‘what is the point?’ ‘what is the benefit?’ also fuSHa.
ونحنا في – ‘when we are’ – this of course is a واو الحال.
يعني ما في عندون قانون اصلا هي العصابة هي اجت اصلا بالدوس على القانون
ya3ni maa fii 3éndon qaanuun 2aSlan hayy él3iSaabe hiyye 2éjet 2aSlan béddoos 3ala lqaanuun
I mean – they believe in law to start with. This gang came to power to start with by stamping all over the law
ما في عندون قانون – this feels like a similar idiomatic use of عند to for example ما عندو مزح ‘he can’t take a joke’ – there’s no such thing as law where they’re involved.
الدوس على القانون – uncontracted 3ala is very unusual in speech, even odd, before the definite article but here is fuSHa-ish (and the whole thing sounds a bit elevated)
كلياتنا منعرف كيف عدلو القانون ليصير من عمرو اربعين سنة إلى عمرو اربعة وتلاتين
kélliyyaatna mna3ref kiif 3addalu lqaanuun laySiir mén 3émro 2arba3iin séne 2ila 3émro 2arba3a w tlaatiin
We all know how they amended the law so it changed from someone aged 40 to someone aged 34
كيف عدلو القانون – This is a reference to the constitutional amendment made during the late years of Hafiz al-Asad to lower the minimum age of any presidential candidate from 40 to 34, allowing Bashar to succeed his father at the head of the Syrian government. The structure of this sentence is almost entirely 3aamiyye, with the exception of a lone 2ila in the middle where لـ would normally appear.
الدستور؟
éddustuur?
You mean the constitution?
ليناسب الدستور يناسب مقاسو. نحنا عم نتحدث عن القانون رقم تلاتة وستين اللي سمح لوزارة المالية بمصادرة كل املاك ما يسمى عليه منطفق وصف الارهاب حتى يشيلو املاك كل شي معارضين
la ynaaseb éddustuur, ynaaseb maqaaso. né7na 3am nét7addas 3an élqaanuun raqm @tlaate w sittiin élli sama7 lawizaart élmaaliyye bmuSaadart kéll 2amlaak maa yusamma 3alee munTafeq waSf él2érhaab 7atta yshiilu 2amlaak kéll shi mu3aariDiin
So that the Constitution would suit, would fit him. We’re talking about Law 63, which permitted the Finance Ministry to confiscate all the property of those to whom they say the description of ‘terrorist’ is applicable, so they could take the property of all the opposition
ليناسب مقاسو – seems to be intended to mean ‘fit his size’.
سمح لوزارة المالية بمصادرة – using a slightly fuSHa structure, perhaps because he’s talking about a law – rather than سمح لوزارة المالية تصادر.
منطفق – probably misspoken, since it isn’t a word. As you’ve probably noticed his brain sometimes gets ahead of his mouth. Seems fairly clear he means something like ما ينطبق عليه.
اذن هذا القانون تم وضعو لاهداف محددة
izan hadha lqaanuun tamm waD3o la2ahdaaf @m7addade
So this law has been put in place for specific purposes.
اذن – a fuSHa/high-register ‘so’ not used in normal conversation
تم وضعو – this isn’t waD3 ‘situation’, it’s the maSdar of وضع ‘put’, appearing in the common Media Arabic passive construction tamm + maSdar. As in many other languages, وضع (and its 3aamiyye equivalent حط) can be used without a specific place: while we can’t say ‘put it!’, you can say حطو in Arabic and leave the place implied. Here to ‘put a law’ means ‘put in place a law’, ‘put out a law’, or if you want to go a bit further away from the literal ‘pass a law’.