!أنا حُرّة

Language focus: Present participle, اسم الفاعل In today's (long-ish) episode, I read the first few Egyptianised* paragraphs from the novel أنا حرة by the popular Egyptian novelist Ihsan Abdul Quddus. The novel is of course written in فصحى, although dialogues are all in مصري.  After that, I talk you through the expression عمري ما/ عمره ما etc, meaning "I / he etc. never ...." and how to construct it. I then explain the different uses of the present participle (اسم الفاعل) in Egyptian Arabic and how that differs from فصحى.  A brief overview of that is shown in the table at the end of this page. In the Egyptian text below, I've also highlighted the instances of عمره and اسم الفاعل so you can easily spot them. Because the episode is already so long, I thought I'll briefly explain some of the Egyptian vocabulary here instead: جاب (في) سيرة - In the فصحى text, it says that the girl was مثار أحاديث كثيرة among the gossiping women of the neighbourhood, i.e. she was frequently the topic of their conversations. I thought a bit about how to render this in Egyptian, and went for  طول النهار يجيبوا في سيرتها, i.e. they would constantly (lit. all day) talk of her, mention her, bring up her character. جاب سيرة is usually used to just mean "to mention". By adding في after جاب it just makes the expression more gossipy! In the last paragraph it says that the sister called her older brother "أبيه عباس". This word أبيه (abey) is a by now obsolete title which in the past (till I guess the 1960s or so) was used to address an older brother. The female equivalent to that is أبلة (abla), and both, I understand, come from Turkish. Enjoy the episode, sorry if I ramble on a bit, and as always please let me know if you have any feedback, comments, questions or suggestions!  Clip from the 1959 movie below, starring Lubna Abdelaziz and Shukri Sarhan (Note how he uses the expression يجيبوا سيرتك in 0:05) :) (* On re-listening to the podcast I realise that it sounds like I'm saying I translated the entire novel into Egyptian Arabic!! I did no such thing of course, I was only referring to the paragraph used here!) PS: To complement this podcast, the latest video on the Bilmasri Idioms page is now on the expression عمري ما which I explain in this episode, using clips from four movies/ tv shows. Find the idioms on Instagram, Facebook, or on the idioms page here on this website. https://www.bilmasri.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/05/anahorra.mov بالفصحى بالمصري عام 1936... الساعة السابعة صباحاً ... وكانت تقف في شرفة البيت رقم 3 بشارع الجنزوري بالعباسية. فتاة في الخامسة عشرة من عمرها.. سمراء ملتهبة الوجنتين، ملتهبة الشفتين (...) كانت ترتدي ثوب المدرسة وفي يدها حقيبتها المدرسية، تضعها أحياناً فوق حاجز الشرفة وتميل عليها (...) سنة 1936... الساعة سبعة الصبح ... كانت واقفة في بلكونة البيت نمرة 3 في شارع الجنزوري في العباسية. بنت عندها خمستاشر سنة.. سمرا خدودها ملتهبة، شفايفها ملتهبة (...) كانت لابسة لبس المدرسة وفي إيدها شنطة المدرسة بتاعتها، ساعات تحُطّها فوق سور البلكونة وتميل عليها (...) 1 وكانت في وقفتها ترقب طلبة مدرسة فؤاد الأول الثانوية وهم يمرون من تحت شرفتها، كأنهم موكب العبيد يقدم فريضة الخشوع للملكة.. وكل منهم يحاول أن يرفع عينيه إليها، ثم يردهما عنها بسرعة وكأن قد غشيهما ضوء ساطع لا قبل لهما باحتماله. وبعضهم يحاول أن يثير اهتمامها فيقف يجادل زميله بصوت مرتفع، أو يثير معركة مفتعلة ...

Om Podcasten

Bilmasri is a podcast and blog (www.bilmasri.com) dedicated to the Egyptian dialect. It is for learners of Arabic (ideally anywhere between lower intermediate to advanced level) who have so far been focusing on Modern Standard Arabic (MSA), who may or may not have some knowledge of another Arabic dialect, and who would like to understand how the Egyptian dialect works. The starting point of most blog posts and podcast episodes is a text in Modern Standard Arabic – a news story, an excerpt from a work of fiction, or another form of text – which has been adapted into Egyptian Arabic. In the first part of each podcast episode, I will slowly read out the Egyptian version of the text. In the second part, I will take you through (in English) one or more aspects of the language just heard: this could be the pronunciation, grammar, vocabulary, idioms, etc., with a particular focus on the differences and similarities between Egyptian and MSA. The blog post will contain both Egyptian Arabic and MSA versions of the text, followed by a brief summary of the podcast discussion. The blog’s tags will help you find any language-related topics you’re looking for, and the episodes they’re discussed in.