Recently, I went to an Arabic meet-up group where one of the attendees recommended the radio series حي المطار (Airport District) to me, as a great Syrian dialect resource. 15 minute episodes and ‘clearly spoken’ colloquial Arabic, I was told–only to find that at my level, I have to listen at an excruciatingly slow and repetitive pace to catch most of what’s being said.

I will most likely begin breaking down these episodes once I decide to take them on in the future; in the meantime, I tried looking around for similar resources (with subtitles!) and happened across another media project partially funded by BBC Media Action, Syria Refugee Lifeline. This vimeo page has dozens of videos up on a variety of topics, mostly having to do with daily life in a refugee camp and interacting with various UN bodies.

They share amongst them that most patronising tone of Western-produced content for refugees and often seem as if they were written for children, even though it is mostly adults who would be consuming this content. However, for our purposes they are a unique resource as they employ a mix of عامية and فصحى, often with colloquial Arabic being spoken by interviewees while standard Arabic is used on placards. Particularly helpful is the narrator to most videos, who speaks in a sort of Levantine-inflected Standard Arabic, meaning it is very uniform and not too complex.

We will analyse the politics of these videos, and their patron organisations, another time–believe me, I am very interested in this!–but for now we will try to get what we can out of it linguistically.

For our first set of lessons, we will use the following video:

Give it a go and see how much you can understand without looking at the subtitles. As they say, listening without translation is an important part of exposing yourself to the pace and rhythm of speech. Of course, I have difficulty following that very advice, so if you want some help, continue below. I myself had an extremely difficult time at first and could only hear the subtleties once I read along with the transcription. For the English version, click this link.

NB: My own translation will differ in many places from the video’s, not because the video version is not correct, but because I will be translating many things literally and somewhat inelegantly to get my point across. There are some important gaps and mistakes in the video’s translation, however, which we will come across as well.

Now let’s dive in, line by line.

سوريين بيشاركوا تجاربهم بمخيمات البقاع

The video opens with the above subtitle. Firstly, in عامية, human plurals are almost universally shortened to ين- rather than ون-, meaning the normal rules of declension in فصحى can be ignored–a huge relief! Next, ‘بيشاركوا’, which comes from the third-person plural of شارك, to participate or to share. In many dialects, especially Egyptian and Levantine, most present-tense verbs are preceded by ب, of which there are many subtleties of usage–check out this post to start. For now, it is enough to understand that verbs preceded by ب tend to refer to ongoing, habitual activities or to presently occurring ones. So far, then, we have ‘Syrians share’–share what? ‘تجاربهم بمخيمات البقاع’, that is their experiences (تجربة/تجارب + هم) in the Baqaa refugee camps (مخيمة/مخيمات). So, ‘Syrians share their experiences in the Baqaa refugee camps’.

كان بعده اوّل ما عم ينبنى منيح و صار فيه تحسينات شوي شوي صار يتحسن حمدالله

Let’s break this down piece by piece–كان is the past tense for ‘to be’, and بعد means ‘still’, followed by اوّل , which here functions as an adverb or adverbial phrase, ‘at first’ (confusing because اوّل ما is also a phrase). Also notice that بعده carries the male pronoun marker, ه.

Next, ‘ما عم ينبنى منيح’: this عم is the present continuous marker, roughly turning a verb intoما its gerund form. The passive verb اِنْبَنَى (to be built) is used here, along with the Syrian/Levantine colloquial word منيح, which means ‘good’. So alone, this would be ‘it is being built well’, but it is negated by the ما to become ‘not being built well.’ With our first chunk we know that together we have something like, ‘At first, it still wasn’t being built well’.

Next, the helping verb صار, on which we will certainly have to do an entire lesson soon. For now, think of صار as ‘to become’. It is often used in phrases like ‘شو صار؟’ (What happened?/What’s up?) and ‘صارلي’ (a helping phrase which usually indicates ‘it has been for me’, as in ‘صارلي تلات سنوات بعمان’, ‘I have been in Amman for 3 years’). ‘صار فيه تحسينات’, in this case, would indicate something like ‘improvements (تحسين/تحسينات; notice the irregular feminine plural) were made’. Also notice the ه in فيه, which is often hard for English speakers to wrap their head around. It is a sort of necessary redundancy in Arabic grammar which takes some getting used to, as we would literally render this as ‘there became-it’ or ‘in-it’; for now remember that the subject or object of a sentence is almost never assumed and must be referred back to throughout the sentence.

Lastly, this man says ‘ شوي شوي صار يتحسن حمدالله’. ‘ The شوي شوي, of course, means ‘little by little’. Once again we see the pesky صار , but it should be clear by now. يتحسن means ‘to improve’, so together we have: ‘little by little things [became] improved, thank God.’ Before we continue, note the way the full phrase الحمدلالله has been rendered simply حمدالله, which is exceedingly common. So, all together then:

‘At first, it wasn’t being built well; there were some improvements and little by little things improved, thank God.’ The original translation takes some liberties with this, to say the least, and actually expresses the complete opposite meaning. What gives? I have asked around to some native speakers to see what I’m missing and so far they agree with the negative translation, but I will have to update this when I’ve come to a conclusion if it’s really a case of بعد ما or اوّل ما, but neither of those really make sense.



هدا المُخيّم عمّروه الشباب…الكل ايد وحدة

Notice here the next man using هدا rather than هذا. You will often see this shortened even to simply ه, which would look like: هالمُخيّم. Next we have عمّروه, the past tense third-person plural for عمّر, ‘to build’ and secondarily ‘to renovate/populate’. Again, notice the ‘redundant’ masculine marker ه at the end of the verb, indicating the noun (المخيّم). And who is the subject? He says الشباب, plural of شبّ or ‘men/boys’. It can also sometimes be used more generally to refer to ‘people’. It is unclear how he is using it in this case, though the official translation reads ‘people’. His tone throughout the video, however, leads me to believe he is talking about younger males in the camp.

Next, he uses a bit of an idiom that I myself had to look up to understand. Firstly الكل of course, means ‘everybody/everyone’. Next we should note that while it is transcribed as ايد, he pronounces it closer to its فصحى pronunciation, يدّ, meaning ‘hand’. وحدة is the feminine form of واحد, meaning ‘one’, as it is a feminine noun (despite no ة). The meaning would literally be ‘[as] one hand’–so, ‘Everyone as one hand’, or ‘Everyone together [as one].’ The official translation puts it, ‘They did it it themselves’; I am unsure how accurate this is.

So in the final rendering: ‘The guys built this camp, all [of them] together.’

بيساووا خِيَم بعضهن كلياتهن يعني بيساووا خيمة برده بيساعدوا جار بيساوا خيمة تانية

This woman uses a common Syrian word for ‘to do’ or ‘to make’ (which otherwise may be rendered as عمل) in the present third-person plural, which is ساوى/ يساوي, preceded by the ‘habitual ب’. She then says خِيَم, which is the plural of خَيمة, ‘tent’ or ‘shelter’, followed by بعضهن. This next word is tricky, for a few reasons: firstly, it sounds similar to بعد (‘after/still’), and because the pronoun suffix she uses is a Syrian variation on هم, or ‘they/them’. If you notice, the very first subtitle (which reads like a slightly more formal dialectical sentence) used هم, which is common in فصحى; however, in spoken Syrian Arabic همّ often becomes هِنّ, and when joined as a suffix it often drops the ه. So it really sounds more like بعضُن, which is in fact closer to the official transcription. Secondly, it conventionally means ‘some’ or ‘several’, as in ‘بعض الناس’, or ‘some people’. However, when following a verb like this, it means ‘together’ or ‘each other’, such as ‘بيشوفوا بعض’ (they see each other) and can also sometimes carry a preposition such as in the phrase ‘نطلع مع بعض’ (we go out together). Lastly, we have كلياتهن–a Levantine rendition of كل with the third-person plural marker. So the sum total of our first chunk is: ‘They make tents together, all of them’.

She thinks for a second with the universal ‘umm’ of Arabic, يعني, and then explains: ‘they make a tent’ (بيساووا خيمة), followed by برده, which I believe is an alternate spelling of برضه, meaning ‘also’.

She goes on to say that ‘they help a neighbor’ (بيساعدوا جار) to make ‘another tent’ (بيساوا خيمة تانية). تاني/تانية is an important word in spoken Arabic, and often replaces اخر/اخرة; it literally means ‘second’ (coming from the فصحى word اِثْنَيْنِ), but tends to mean ‘another’ or ‘other’, as in ‘مرة تانية’ (another time). So, all together: ‘They all make tents together, and then they also help their neighbor make another tent’.

كل واحد اله خيمة بيشتغل فيها, خلصت خيمة بيشتغل مع جاره

We return to the older man who states that ‘each person’ (literally every + one, كل + واحد) ‘اله خيمة بيشتغل فيها’. Firstly we see the construction اله, which means ‘he has’, inflected by the gender of the suffix (الها ,الهن, etc.). Next بيشتغل, the present third-person colloquial verb for ‘to work’ (shared and understood across the Arab world), again replacing عمل. And then we have فيها, which refers back to خيمة. So, ‘Each person has a tent that they work on’. Notice the English instinct to insert ‘that’ to link sentence structures is not always present in Arabic: this is because the connecting word, اللي, is only used in reference to definite constructions. So ‘Each person works on the tent the organisation gives them’ would be rendered ‘كل واحد بيشتغل في الخيمة اللي يعطيه المنظمة’, because الخيمة is definite. The instinct is difficult to unlearn when speaking Arabic at first, but I can assure you it comes with time!

Next, the mans says that ‘[when] a tent is finished’ (خلصت), ‘they work with their neighbor’. Again notice the lack of connecting words; in Arabic the man does not actually say something like لما as in ‘when’, but it is simply understood from his sentence construction. All together, we have: ‘Everyone/each person has a tent they work on, and when it is finished, they work with their neighbour [on the next one].’

الواحد اذا بده يجي يسكن بخيمة ما لازم يحطها عالأرض دغري على التراب. يصُبّ حواليها و يعمّر حيطان أفضل بتحمي من البرد و من الشوب و من الحشرات.

We are getting into some longer constructions and more complex constructions now. This man again begins with the abstract person, which in English we would render as ‘one’ or ‘someone’: الواحد. He next says ‘اذا بده يجي يسكن بخيمته’, beginning with the conditional word اذا, and then the most common Levantine manner of expressing desire, بده. This latter word can be conjugated with pronoun suffixes to indicate who is doing the desiring: for example, ‘انا بدي روح عالمحاضرة الجامعية’, meaning ‘I want to go to the university lecture.’ So, ‘if one wants’–to what?–‘يجي يسكن بخيمة’, ‘to come and live in a tent’.

What must one do if one wants to live in Baqaa? The man begins the next part of his sentence with the very common expression of necessity in عامية and فصحى alike, لازم. He negates this necessity with the particle ما, and then the verb يحط, ‘to place/put/set down’ (notice the female pronoun-suffix that’s elided from ها to simply -ا in the man’s pronunciation). So ‘one must not put it on the ground (أرض), on the soil (تراب), straight away (دغري).’ As you can see, as in any natural conversation there is a bit of a rambling style in which he repeats or clarifies what he means by ‘ground’, not stressed in the official translation because of a kind of redundancy.

He then goes on to say ‘يصُبّ حواليها و يعمّر حيطان’. The verb يصُبّ means ‘to pour/to flow’, no doubt here in reference to the concrete one must pour to create a base. حواليها means ‘around’, so with the suffix pronoun, ‘around it’ (as, in the area of the tent, the feminine noun خيمة); he then says to build حيطان or ‘walls’ (singular حايط or حيطة). Note that حوالي can also mean ‘about’, such as ‘ رح اوصل بدري حوالي الساعة وحدة ‘ (‘I am going to arrive early, around one o’clock). So, in sum: ‘One must pour [a concrete base] and build walls’, the first part of which has been rendered (with the liberties of translation!) as ‘you should level the ground’.

He goes on to say ‘أفضل بتحمي من البرد و من الشوب و من الحشرات’. The أفضل, here, is not ‘I prefer’, but the superlative form of the noun ‘فضل’, meaning ‘distinction/quality’, so in this case, ‘the best [quality]’, i.e. simply ‘the best’. Commonly you will hear احسن for this, which has the same meaning and is used as the superlative of منيح (rather than something like امنح). Here, it is part of a grammatical construction meaning ‘It is best to’, such as ‘احسن ما توقع’, or ‘so that you don’t fall’. In this case the man is saying, ‘it is best to protect (يحمي) from the cold (برد) and from the heat (شوب) and from insects (الحشرات).’ But this does not strictly make sense out of context–but in conjunction with the earlier phrase it is clear he means ‘It is best in order to.’ The construction seems to be, ‘لازم + فعل + أفضل + فعل’, or ‘Must + verb + [as it is] best [in order to] + verb’.

So all together, the sentence reads: ‘If someone wants to come and live in a tent [here], he should not build directly on the ground. He must create a base and build walls, in order to protect from the cold, heat, and insects.’ Phew! Almost there for this first minute.

يرفع العرضية بالباطون, بدال ما نصب 10 سم يصبلها 30 سم 40 سم تتخفّف الرطوبة

Another older man gives more advice, here without using لازم, but it is understood that he is ‘walking through’ the steps of construction (‘you/one does this, you/one does this’). ‘One raises (يرفع) the ground level (أرضية) with concrete (باطون)’, and then he says بدال ما (this can also be rendered بدل ما), which means ‘instead of’. So ‘instead of [us] pouring 10 cm, one pours [for it] 30 or 40cm’. Firstly, notice he says سنتي for ‘centimeters’; it is transcribed simple as سم in the video. Also notice he says يصبلها, not simply يصبها: the ل here indicates doing something ‘to’ or ‘for’ something else and takes the pronoun suffixes, such as in ‘!احكيلي’ (‘tell me!) or ‘لازم تعمللي ‘ (‘you should do [it] for me’). He then says ‘تتخفّف الرطوبة’–this first ت can be confusing when looking up verbs (as it seems quite clearly to be the beginning of the conjugation for أَتَخَفَّف, ‘to be decreased, to be mitigated’), but it is actually a shortening of حتى, which means ‘until’ or in cases such as this, once again ‘in order to’ (yes, another one). The verb here is خفّف, from a root you may recognise from خفيف (light), means ‘to reduce’ (aka ‘to make lighter’), here ‘to reduce moisture’ (رطوبة).

We will end here for the first minute of this video. I hope it has been helpful thus far! See the next part here.