Lesson 23: Arabic Greeting Rituals

In America, greeting rituals can vary by region.  I live in the South, where the typical greeting ritual goes like this:

Southerner1:  Hey!
Southerner2:  Hey!
S1:  How are you?
S2:  Just fine!  How are you?
S1:  Just fine, thanks!  So how are you?
S2:  Well, you know, Dad's in the hospital again...
S1:  Aww, no!
etc.

The first greeting is usually "Hey" which calls attention.  "Hello" is usually used for the telephone, or for greeting strangers.

S1:  Hello, may I have a few minutes of your time?

This is more polite than a stranger saying:

S1:  Hey, can I have a few minutes of your time?  (this would seem incredibly intrusive.)

The first "how are you?" is a source of great confusion for foreigners, who often reserve that question for when they really have time to answer.  Sometimes we ask this first "how are you?" without even wanting to know anything real.  When I teach foreigners English, I teach them that the answer to the first "How are you" is "fine" and the answer to the second "So, how are you?" is a real answer.

In the same way, Arabs have their own, somewhat confusing greeting rituals, often with 3 layers, just as this American Southern greeting is, although sometimes with 4 or even 5 layers.

Layer 1:
Among Muslims
Like it or not, the Muslim faith is integrally tied into the Arab language.  Non-Muslim Arabs, such as Coptic Christians in Egypt or Druze or Meronite Christians in Syria, resent that Islam is taught alongside the Arabic language.  However, these groups represent a small minority of Arabic speakers.  The reality is, Islam dominates the culture and language of Arabs.

Among Muslims, the first greeting between yourself and someone you know, is usually a formal, very ritualized greeting.  The most common greeting among all Muslims, no matter what language they speak (Urdu, Farsi, Bengali, French, English...) is

as-salaamu 3aleykum  "Peace (be) upon you."
The proper answer is:
wa 3aleykum (as)-salaam.  "And upon you, peace."

However, in a less formal setting, the first layer may be the non-religious:
SabaaH al-Xeyr.  Morning (of) Goodness.
to which the proper answer is:
SabaaH an-nuur.   Morning (of) Light.

Or, if it is not morning, but afternoon/evening, the first greeting may be:
masaa' al-Xeyr.   Evening (of) Goodness.
to which the proper answer is:
masaa' an-nuur.  Evening (of) Light.

However, these can vary colloquially or regionally:
In Syria:
SbaaH el-Xeyr.  Morning (of) Goodness.  (="Good morning")
answer:
SbaaH el-Xeyraat.    "SabaaH al-Xeyr"s!  (= "Three "Good morning"s!)

And among non-Muslims, and in situations where you are unsure of someone's religion, such as on an airplane:
marhaba!  A Greeting! (="Hello!")
answer:
marhabteyn!  Two Greetings!  (="Two 'Hellos')!"

Layer 1 greetings are sufficient for interactions between yourself and a police officer, between an airline stewardess and a passenger on a plane, or when asking for directions from a stranger.  However, before moving into a friendly conversation, another layer (or two) must be crossed, also in a ritualized way.

Layer 2
Layer 2 greetings are usually non-religious, and usually have the word "Welcome" in them, which sounds strange to English speakers.

ahlaan!  Welcome!
The word "ahlaan" is used to welcome you into the presence of the person saying it.  This is usually a signal of friendship, somewhat like "Make yourself at home" sounds in English when a guest enters your house.  This signals the person being "welcomed" that they can relax, since they are among friends.
Another variant of it is:
ahlaan wa sahlaan!  Welcome and Hello!

The proper answer to this verbal friendly "touch" is:
ahlaan biik! (said to a man)
ahlaan biiki! (said to a woman)
ahlaan bikum!  (said to a group)

This means literally "Welcomed by you!".

The word "ahlaan" comes from the root a-h-l meaning "extended family" or "kin."

In a business, professional, or religious setting, do not expect to be greeted with "ahlaan/ ahlaan wa sahlaan," since it is a symbol of intimacy.

Layer 3
The third layer of the greeting is where the person who is sitting or greeting you at their door will invite you to sit down with them or come inside their house.  This is done with the phrase
tfaDDal (said to a man)
tfaDDalii  (said to a woman)
tfaDDaluu  (said to a group)

tfaDDal means something like "help yourself," and is used when offering an empty seat, inviting you inside, inviting you to eat sweets they have spread out on their table in their reception room, or handing you a gift.


Now let's go through several different greeting rituals, with different levels of formality, along with the question "How are you?" and its proper answer in each situation.

Greeting Ritual Example 1:
Two Muslim men meet, who do not know each other well.
M1:  as-salaamu 3aleykum.  Peace be upon you.
M2:  wa3aleykum salaam.   And upon you, peace.
M1:  keyf al-Haal?  How is the health?
M2:  al-Hamdu lillaa.  w-inta? Praise be to God.  And you?
M1:  al-Hamdu lillaa.  Praise be to God.

Greeting Ritual Example 2:
Two Muslim men meet in a coffee house. They are close friends.
muhammad: SabaaH al-Xeyr, ya saamir!  Good morning, Saamir!
saamir: SabaaH an-nuur, ya muhammad!  Good morning, Muhammad!
muhammad:  ahlaan wa sahlaan!  "Feel at rest!"
saamir:  ahlaan bik, keyf al Hal?  "I'm welcome with you! How is health?"
muhammad:  al-Hamdu lillaa, ana bi-xeyr.  w-inta, keyf Hal-ak?  Praise be to God, I am with health.  And you, how is health-your?
saamir:  hamdi-llaa.  Praise God.
muhammad:  tfaDDal, ya saamir, tfaDDal, tfaDDal!  Sit down, Saamir, sit down, have a seat!

As you can see, the proper answer to "how are you?" is never "I'm sick" or "I have a toothache" but "Praise be to God."  This is part of the Muslim mindset of submission to God in all circumstances.  "al-hamdu li-llaa" "The praise to-God" is said so often that the phrase is often shortened to an ungrammatical form "al-hamdillaa" or simply "hamdillaa".

Among Arab men who are close friends, it is not uncommon for them to hold hands while walking down the street, engaged in intimate conversation about deep matters of the heart.  However, homosexuality is practically non-existent in the Middle East.  If an Arab man takes your hand, it in no way implies homosexual feelings, which are taboo, and a sin in Islam!

However, between men and women, Muslim men and women rarely touch each other.  Cheek kissing is absolutely out of the question, as is hugging a woman who is not family.  Shaking hands is pushing it, and many women would feel uncomfortable if you offered your hand to them.  Many men put their hand over their heart and lower their eyes when introduced to a woman.  However, this might be the last interaction between the a stranger and that woman, especially if her husband is with her.  It is considered a sign of respect for a man not to look at or acknowledge another man's wife when talking with him, even if she is standing right beside him!

Between women:
In most Muslim countries, women are expected to cover their hair in public.  Depending on the country, this may be more or less followed.  In urban Morocco, which is heavily westernized, it is common to see women dressed like Westerners mixed in with women wearing the full burka which covers their whole body.  However, in Saudi Arabia, in some cities women may not show their faces or any part of their body other than their eyes in public.

However, in their homes, with family, women remove the cumbersome burka and wear fashionable clothes.  They wear jeans, stylish scarves, blouses, and look nice for each other.  The rule is, when a strange man who is not family enters the house, all adult women must cover their hair.  So if you are a man, and you are invited to a man's house, don't be surprised to see the women scurrying to find scarves to cover their hair when you walk through the door, as they hastily greet you.

There are certain rules about which men women must cover their hair with.  I believe women may have their hair uncovered in the home with their fathers, their husbands, and their sons, but not their nephews or uncles.

Nadya visits her friend 3eysha's home while their husbands are away at work.  3eysha opens the door and sees Nadya standing there.
Nadya: Marhaba, ya 3eysha!  Hey, 3eysha!
3eysha:  Marhaba, ya Nadya!  Salaamu 3aleykum!  Hey, Nadya!  Peace be with you!
Nadya: wa3leykum salaam!  Peace be with you!
3eysha:  ahlaan, ahlaan wa sahlaan, tfaDDalii! keyf Hal-ik? "Welcome, be welcomed, please come in! How is your health?"
Nadya (entering the house and taking off her hair covering):  hamdillaa, hamdillaa, wa inti ya 3eysha, keyf-ik?  Praise God, Praise God. And you, 3eysha, how-you?
3eysha:  bi-Xeyr, al-hamdu-lillaa, ahlaan, tfaDDalii! (pointing to a chair)  I am with-health, praise be to God, welcome, please have a seat!
Nadya:  shukran.  Thank you.  

Lesson 22: The Importance of Consonants in Arabic

By now you will probably realized that "everything in Arabic is all about the consonants."  This is a very new concept for speakers of Indo-european languages such as English, German, French, Spanish, Russian, Italian, Farsi, etc, where vowels and consonants have equal importance.

English:
big:  large
bog: a swamp
bug:  an insect
bag:  a sack

keep:  to hold onto
cap:   a hat
Kip:  a name
cope:  to deal with
cop:  a police officer


However, in Arabic, vowels are not as important, since the meaning is contained in the consonants:


Saghiir and iSghéér are the same word.
kabiir and kibaar both mean "big" but one is singular and one is plural.
yaktub vs. yaktob vs.  yektob (no difference- one is formal, two are colloquial)
mu3allima vs.  m3allma vs.  m3éllme (same word- one is formal, two are colloquial)
tlaat  vs.  telaatii vs.  thalaatha  (same word pronounced differently by region)

If you get the important consonants in a row, but can't remember the right vowels, chances are people will still understand you as long as you conjugate the verbs correctly (ya vs. ta vs.  a etc).  Sometimes, it does make a difference in meaning, as we will see later.  However, vowels in Arabic are usually so unimportant that they are not even written in books, magazines, and newspapers!

The important point of this lesson is that the consonants are everything in Arabic.  

Lesson 21: Funny Arabic Stems

There are several kinds of Arabic Roots which don't obey the rules as they should.  Three of these are:

1.  Stems with aa, ii,  and uu as one of the "consonants" (these verbs tend to use all three, depending on the tense):
q-aa-l  to say
"na-quul"  we say

2.  Stems with ' (glottal stop) as one of the consonants (sometimes the ' glottal stop gets deleted or changed to something else):
q-r-'  to read

3.  Stems with two of the same letters in a row (sometimes the two "same" letters are squished together and the vowels are put in a funny place):
t-m-m  to complete, "perfection"

Learning the ways to conjugate these verbs takes practice, and we will study verbs like this slowly over time.

Lesson 21: Colloquial Verbs

This is an Egyptian/Levantine version of the Present Tense of verbs.  I have deleted the ya-ktub-iina "memory aid" conjugation from here on, since it does not exist in Arabic.

ana   b-a-ktub  I am writing
inta  b-ta-ktub  You(m) are writing
inti   b-ta-ktub-ii (na)  You(f) are writing
howa b-ya-ktub   He is writing
hiya  b-ta-ktub   She is writing

(n)aHna m-naktub  We are writing
intuu b-taktub-uu (na)  You all(m/f) are writing
hum b-yaktub-uu (na)  They(m/f) are writing

Let's try another one.

ana   b-adrus  I am studying
inta  b-tadrus  You(m) are studying
inti   b-tadrus-ii   You(f) are studying
howa b-yadrus     He is studying
hiya  b-tadrus      She is studying

aHna m-nadrus  We are studying
intuu b-tadrus-uu  You all(m/f) are studying
hum  b-yadrus-uu   They(m/f) are studying.

Colloquial Arabic just has one plural "you" form and one plural "they" form:  intuu and hum.

Lesson 20- Altering the Verb Stem

In English, we use prefixes and suffixes to adjust the concept.

-scribe ("write")

sub- "under"

a- "to"

de- "from"

sub-scribe (under-write-  to receive writings sent down to you from a publisher)

a-scribe  (to-write-  to add characteristics to someone's reputation, metaphorically "by writing them")

de-scribe (from-write-  to write down characteristics of a person from your knowledge of them)

In Arabic, however, prefixes and suffixes are not used.  Instead, the Root Verb Stem is altered in very regular, predictable ways.

For example,

I.     k-t-b means "writing" but 

II.   k-t-t-b means "causing someone to write" "dictate"

III.  k-aa-t-b means "writing with someone" "corresponding"

IV.  [...]

V.  ta-k-t-t-b means "causing each other to write" or "being caused to write"

VI.   ta-k-aa-t-b means "causing each other to write to each other" "writing back and forth"

there are 10 different "patterns" of verbs, and we will eventually learn them all.

For now, let's review the stem "ta-k-l-l-m", which is Root alteration V.  This means "(words) are being caused to be said" = "speaking."

One important way to think about forms II and V is that they both have the middle consonant DOUBLED.  Doubling the middle root letter in Arabic is often called the "intensive" because it often implies doing something intensely.

I.  q-t-l   killing, to kill

II.  q-t-t-l  to massacre, to slaughter

V.   ta-q-t-t-l  being massacred, being slaughtered/massacring each other, slaughtering each other  

However, a doubled middle root letter just as often has a "Causitive" meaning such as "causing someone to kill" "having someone killed" or "having something written."

Remember to add two ta-'s with the "anta/anti (inta/inti)" and "hiya" form when working with verbs in alteration V.

ana a-takallam
anta ta-takallam
anti ta-takallam-iina
huwa ya-takallam
hiya  ta-takallam  (yatakallamiina)

Lesson 19- Non-Standard Pronunciations

Every dialect region has its own pronunciation of the Standard Language, because letters not found in the local languages spoken at home are hard to learn in school.  These different accents give a color and a flavor to speaking fus-Ha among educated Arabs, as well as Muslims whose first language is not a dialect of Arabic, but Urdu, Persian, Indonesian, or an African language.  Here are some example of non-standard pronunciations of certain letters.

th  as in "think"
Many colloquial dialects do not have this sound, and students who are unable to master it in school continue to pronounce it as either t, s, or z depending on how the word is pronounced in their dialect.

For example thalaatha three is very often pronounced telaata by Levantine speakers, and ithneyn two is pronounced itneyn.

ð  as in "the" or "that"

Most colloquial dialects do not have this sound.  It is extremely common to hear even educated speakers pronounce this letter as d or z. 
haaða  this in most dialects is some form of "haada," or simply "da," as in Egyptian.  Also haaza.
ðaalika  that becomes zaalika in the speech of many Arabs.

j

As mentioned before, j is pronounced as g in all instances in Egypt.  Even our word "camel" comes from the Egyptian pronunciation of the word "jamal."
However, this letter varies by region from the hard j in English "junk" to the soft, smooth French j in Bonjour.


Z  This letter is techincally pronounced Ð, a "dark" emphatic version of the letter ð.  However, this letter is difficult to learn, even for Arabs, and most Arabs shortcut and pronounce it as emphatic Z.  Some books even teach this letter as Z since the pronunciation is so common.

q
This is certainly the letter with the most variation.  It is always pronounced in the classical fashion when saying the name of Cairo, al-qaahira.  However, elsewhere, it seems like this letter is a free-for-all, being pronounced as g, ', k, or q in different places even by the same speaker.  Certain dialects favor ' (the glottal stop) such as Egyptian and Levantine, while the Gulf favors g or k.  I am certain someone much more educated than me could explain to me how to pronounce this letter, but for now I usually pronounce it as ' since I think it is the ugliest letter in the language and the harshest on the ears.

daqiiqa  minute
da'ii'a  minute (Egyptian/Levantine pronunciation)

r
When reciting the Qur'an, it is considered unbecoming to pronounce this letter as a trill, for reasons unbeknownst to me.  Therefore, when listening to the Qur'an, or singers from minarets, one will usually hear the letter r pronounced in the French way, the same as gh.

3
The letter 3 is more prominent in the speech of men, and is considered a masculine sound.  In women's speech, it is significantly less noticeable.

'
The glottal stop is sometimes cut out, with the vowels on either side pushed together, as in English.

aL-mar'a
aL-mara

Lesson 18- Do you speak Arabic?

New verb

k-l-m  words

Derived present stem: takallam to speak

ana   a-takallam                                I speak

inta   ta-takallam                              you(m) speak

inti    ta-takallam-iina                       you(f) speak

huwa ya-takallam                              he speaks

hiya   ya-takallam-iina ta-takallam  she speaks

naHnu     na-takallam            we speak

intuu       ta-takallam-uuna   you guys speak

antunna  ta-takallam-na       you ladies speak

hum        ya-takallam-uuna   they(m) speak

hunna     ya-takallam-na       they(f)  speak

Vocabulary:

kaalima  word (pl.  kaalimaat)

Conversation between two men:

ar-rajul 1.     Lew samáHt, ínta ta-takállam 3árabi?  

ar-rajul 2.     na3am, ana min aL-maghrib.  min eyna anta?

ar-rajul 1.     ána min lubnáan.  min fáDlak, wayn aL-hammáam?

ar-rajul 2.    aL-hammáam fii tílka L-banáaya hunaak.  

ar-rajul 1.   shúkran jizíilan.  

ar-rajul 2.  3áfwan.  

Man 1:    Please (excuse me), do you speak Arabic?

Man 2:  Yes, I am from Morocco.  From where you?

Man 1:  I am from Lebanon.  If you please ("From your grace"), where is the bathroom?

Man 2:  The bathroom is in that the-building there.  

Man 1:  Thanks greatly.

Man 2:  You're welcome.  ("Excuse me.")