A long, long time ago, we did a brief post about the use of ابو in Egyptian to express a certain kind of possession. This post is a specifically Levantine expansion on that one.
‘The one with’, ‘the one wearing’
Very much a شب ابو لحية
Even if you’ve only taken your first few steps in learning Arabic, chances are you know the word ابو abu ‘father of’ – even if it’s only from people’s names. You will probably also have learnt the word أم ‘mother’, at least in fuSHa. (While 2abu is the same in all dialects in this context, its counterpart, ام ‘mother’, is either 2əmm (Sy/Leb), 2imm (Pal or Palestinian-Jordanian) or 2umm (Jor), depending on where you’re from. The first two alternatives are pronounced very similarly.)
What you might not have come across, however, is the idiomatic use of these two words in contexts like the following, where it means ‘the one with’, ‘the one wearing’ etc (and is more or less synonymous with fuSHa ذو and similar to one of the uses of another useful word, تبع):
شفت ام الاحمر؟
shəf@t 2əmm @l2a7mar? (S)
Did you see the one (the girl) in red? [the mother of red]
لا لا ابو العيون الزرقا
la la, 2abu l3ayuun izzar2a (P)
No, no, the one (the guy) with blue eyes [the father of the blue eyes]
ام الجاكيت والبنطلون شفتك واقفة فوق البلكون
2əmm @jjakeet w@lbanTaloon shəftek waa2fe foo2 @lbalkoon (L)
The girl with the jacket and the trousers, I saw you standing on the balcony
All these three examples refer to actual people. But ابو and ام can be used in more or less the same meaning to refer to any masculine or feminine object respectively. Likewise, 2əmm can be used with plurals where feminine singular agreement is permissible:
هات ام الخمسين ليرة
haat 2əmm @lkhamsiin leera (S)
Give me the fifty lira one [bottle, قنينة, fem.]
هات ابو الخمسين ليرة
haat 2abu lkhamsiin leera (S)
Give me the fifty lira ones [courgettes, كوسا, masc. collective]
ناس ام وجهين
naas 2umm wijheen (J)
Two-faced people [plural]
Nicknames
ابو and ام are also used, as you probably know, in conjunction with the eldest (male) child’s name to form common terms of address.People with children are usually known by these names rather than their first name, and some people are sensitive about their wives’ or mothers’ actual first names in particular being used instead of this form. Note that although this sort of name is formally called كنية kunya in fuSHa, in Syrian كنية kənye usually refers to the surname instead and these names fall under the general category of لقب laqab ‘nickname’. You’re more likely to hear people 2abu and 2əmm 3ammaar for example.
Some men who don’t have children still have nicknames of this kind, usually derived from their father’s name (on the assumption that your oldest male child will be named after your dad, which is common).
ابو and ام are also used with a form derived from people’s first names (usually CuuC) to form nicknames entirely unrelated to the names of their children:
ابو اللول abu lluul < lu2ayy
ابو اللوس abu lluus < 2ilyaas
ام السوس imm issuus < sawsan, su3aaad
Some men’s names have associated nicknames not derived in this way. Usually this is because of a historical or culturally important figure with a child of the same name:
ابو علي abu 3ali < 7seen (Husayn, i.e. because of Ali Abu Talib, whose son was named Husayn, whose son was thus named 3ali)
Nicknames of this kind are also often used as pseudonyms in artistic or political contexts.