Lexical differences with Arabic

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The reason Arabs and foreigners who've learned Arabic or another dialect have such a hard time with Lebanese is not only pronunciation or grammatical variations: it is to an extent due to an abundance of words that are just not part of their vocabulary, or that they use completely differently.

As far as I can tell, there are three main sources for the words that don't exist in Arabic:

1. Heavy phonetic/structural transformation of the words to adapt to the Lebanese system (although some of these may in truth belong to category 3).

2. Importation from other languages: this is closely connected to the page on Lebanised words, but I'm focusing here on words that have been with us for so long (generations at least) that the speakers are completely unaware of their origins.

3. Words that are in fact older than the Arabic language itself and that are still in use. Sometimes they can be similar enough to Arabic as to look like they're derived from it, while in truth they came to us straight from early history in a parallel evolution to their Arabic cousins. For instance the very old word deeb ("wolf") found in family names, owes nothing to Arabic dhe'eb although their kinship is immediately obvious.

4. Words that have arisen in Lebanese, and Lebanese only? I'm not even sure this category exists, but many of our most commonly-used words are completely mysterious to us (I'll use ?? to point them out).

Sometimes a Lebanese word does exist in Arabic but in a kind of "last choice" state. Take for instance French and English. English for French "maladie" is "illness" or "disease". The word "malady" does exist in English, but it's only used in special situations, otherwise it just looks odd. Such is the situation when Lebanese has chosen to use Arabic's seemingly less favored words, and you will know them when you see several words in the Arabic column where the very last one is the one used in Lebanese.

If you happen to have additional information about the etymology of any of the words below, feel free to let me know.

1. Grammatical words

Lebanese

English

Arabic

Possible Origin

shoo

what?

mádha

Not sure but possibly shee ("thing"), Arabic shey'

barke

maybe

rubbamá

Possibly from the word barake ("blessing"), implying "maybe, [if I am blessed enough]…"

deghre

straight ahead

mubásharatan

Turkish duguru

bass

but

láken

In Arabic bass means "enough!", but I don't know if there's a connection

hella'

now

al'án

In Arabic halla means "why not?" but I don't know if there's a connection

mbala

This word exists neither in English nor in Arabic but finds a translation in French "si". It is an affirmation in answer to a negation, as opposed as the simple affirmation that is "yes"

(no equivalent)

??

fee

there is

(a number of possible turns of phrases)

Not sure but possibly feehi ("in it"), nominal sentence that came to mean "there is"

2. Verbs

Lebanese	English	Arabic	Possible Origin
sha'laba	topple, turn over	qalaba	Phoenician
shéf - shoof	saw – see!	ra'a, sháhada	??
zá7 - zee7	moved aside – move aside!	tadáfa3a, afsa7a fee l-majál	Arabic azá7a means "to remove", so there was a shift of meaning
asha3 – 'e'sha3	saw – I see in the sense of "catch sight of"	lama7a, ektashafa, lá7aza	Perhaps 'asha33 ("to radiate", from the word for sun ray)
ballash	started, began	bada'a	??
fét - foot	entered – enter!	dakhala	??
tallat	froze (for computers only)		In Arabic thallath means "triple" but I don't know if there's a connection
khaza'	tore	mazzaqa	In Arabic khazaqa means pierced
shankhar	snored	shakhara	Phonetic evolution from the Arabic or older word? As the pattern is the same as for sha'laba above, it could be the latter
kabb	threw	rama, alqa	in Arabic kabba means "to topple someone over"
dahar	exited	kharaja	??
ta3	come! (imperative only)	ta3ála	Truncated form
shél	removed	azá7a, salaba	??
hét	hand over to me (imperative only)	a3ti	??

3. Adjectives

Lebanese	English	Arabic	Possible Origin
sha'loob	upside-down	qeleb	Phoenician verb sha'laba
mnee7	good, all right	jayyed, hasan	possibly a form of the verb mana7a that would mean "to have been granted something", that then went on to mean "good".

4. Nouns

Lebanese	English	Arabic	Possible Origin
beeseh, bseyne	cat	qitt, hirr (bseynat?)	??
ooda	room (usually bedroom)	ghorfat	??
shób	heat	7arárat, sukhúnat	Probably French chaud
malta	safe haven	-	Phoenician maleth