Hi Dogsbollocks,
Here are some clarifications I think you may need for your story:
Officialy, all arabic countries speak the modern standard Arabic. It
is a language that has been artificially created from the classical
arabic (the one of the coran). They needed to create words like
'maTaar' (Airport) that were not written in the Coran.
Dialects are the actual languages that people consider their mother
tongs, because that is the language they learn growing up in their
families. They have to go to school to learn the modern standard
arabic. So they speak the dialect in family, in the street, or in
local business. The standard arabic is used for government
communication, in newpapers, and on tv - all things officials. It is
forbiden to use the arabic alphabet to write the dialect (because the
alphabet is considered sacred, and the dialect is officialy considered
vulgar, although paradoxally, the dialect is the actual language of
the country). So the standard arabic is the language that 2 arabs from
two different countries would use to communicate (a jordanian with a
tunisian). But they both must be educated (if they have not been to
school, there's no way they can speak the standard, they only can
speak their dialect). The standard is the equivalent of the english
language for europeans: they all learn english at school, and most
probably, a spanish guy would communicate with a german guy in
english, if they've both been to school.
Each country has his own dialect (or several dialects). the closer 2
countries are, the more similar their dialects: Lebanese is much
closer to Iraki than to Tunisian. This is beacause pre-islamic
Cultures all had their own language: After the Islamic conquest, from
north africa (up tp Spain - Spain conquered by the Arabs in 711, and
was reconquered by the spanish people after 800 years of Arabization.)
to central asia, to middle east, the arabic language was imposed on
all, at the same time as Islam. But the result was that, in every
conquered region (fronteers didn't exit at the time) the spoken
language became a mix of the pre-islamic language, with arabic. That
is way all arabs do not have the same mother language.
As far as your story is concerned First you should know that
jordanians and palestinians speak exactly the same dialect because...
they are exactly the same people. Palestine was artificially cut in 2
pieces by the english: One part was named Transjordan, and later
Jordan. The other part The State of Israel. A saoudi tribe chief was
imported to Jordan, and named king of Jordan by the English (although
his people were a small minority of the new country, jordan). When the
jewish people, like the Spanish, reconquerd their country (I forgot to
tell you that "Palestine" was a term invented by the Romans in 70
C.E., after their conquest of Israel, in order to try to blank memory
of the fact that there was once a country named Israel - they just put
tipex on the map, and wrote palestine on top of israel..) in
successive 1948 and 1967, the king of jordan put the war refugees in
camps, instead of trying to welcome them in the newly created jordan
state, probably because, him being artificially in power, and relying
on a minority tribe to govern, taking in more people would only weaken
his position. anyway, enough history...
Because you did not specify the country before asking your questions,
Rainbow gave you standard arabic translation, not always dialectal
ones. For exemple, look at that = Shuf/Shufi haada/haadi (masc/fem).
Let me know if you need jordanian translations, or if your are ok with
the modern arabic you were given.
Regards.
The Gimp |