French words form an integral part of the Lebanese dialect. This influence stems from France’s 23 years of mandate rule over Lebanon after World War I. Since then Arabized French words have become a defining feature that you hear sprinkled throughout daily Lebanese conversations. In this episode, Mariam points out several Arabized French words in the Lebanese dialect and tells us about the contexts within which they are used.
Lebanese Arabic Transcript and English Contextual Translation
1
أهلا وسهلا فيكن أصدقائي عاللانغويج وايف. معكن مريم، من جديد. واليوم، رح نحكي عن وحدة من أكتر اللغات، اللي أثّرت بلهجتنا العامية، وزادت عليا كتير مفردات بعدنا منستعملن، لحد اليوم.
Welcome my friends on Language Wave. This is Mariam again, and today we will be speaking about one of the most languages that influenced our common dialect and added to it a lot of vocabulary which we still use up until today.
2
وحدة من العبارات، اللي بتخطر على بال أغلب الناس، بس بدن يحكو، أو يمزحو، بشي عن اللهجة اللبنانية، هي جملة بتنقال، أوّل ما شخصين بيعرفو، بعض يلتقو. فبقول الأول للتاني “هاي. كيفك؟ سا فا؟” بقولو إنو هالجملة انشهرت عن اللهجة اللبنانية، لإنو فيا تلات لغات. “هاي”، اللي هي إنكليزية، و”كيفك”، اللي هي عربية، وبالأخير “سا فا”، اللي هي فرنسية، وبتعني منيح أو بخير.
One of the expressions that come up to most people’s minds when they want to speak or joke about something in the Lebanese dialect is an expression that is said once two acquainted people meet. The first says to the second “Hi, Kifak? Ça va?” They say that this expression became famous about the Lebanese dialect because it has three languages in it. “Hi” is English, “Kifak (how are you)” is Arabic, and finally “Ça va”, which is French, and it means good or okay.