Phoenetics and Charming Accents

[shadow1]

Once upon the time in the far far away land of <?xml:namespace prefix = st1 ns = "urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:smarttags" /><st1:country-region><st1:place>Australia</st1:place></st1:country-region>, I met a man in his 50’s who comes from the northern rugged town of <st1:City><st1:place>Basharri</st1:place></st1:City>. Sensing that I was Lebanese he decided to extend his patriotic friendliness to me( don’t you just hate that?). He opened a conversation and was talking to me for 3 min before I had to interrupt him as I had a tough time understanding his English. I politely said: Sir, you don’t have to speak with me in English, I understand Arabic perfectly. The man angry and offended said he was speaking in Arabic and called me a name often reserved to identify the male’s lower intellectual centre. I was flabbergasted.
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Accents are a phenomenon that has always fascinated me about <st1:country-region><st1:place>Lebanon</st1:place></st1:country-region>. They range from the cute southern accent to the brash northern one with its Syriac influence, From the sophisticated Metn accent to the charmingly vulgar bekaa3i one.
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What’s more intriguing, in my region the Shouf, almost every town has its unique accent which range form mildly distinctive to being almost from another country altogether. Even in my multiracial hometown which has human species that belong to the Maronite, the Shia and the Sunni faiths, every group has its own unique way of pronouncing words even though these species have lived side by side for God knows how long.
In a town near mine called Braja, people have been blessed with great humour and an accent that make listening to their stories a double delight not to miss.
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To put things in <st1:place><st1:City>Perspective</st1:City>, <st1:country-region>Australia</st1:country-region></st1:place> is a country 770 times the size of <st1:country-region><st1:place>Lebanon</st1:place></st1:country-region> and yet almost all its non-indigenous people speak English with the same accent. And yet in tiny <st1:country-region><st1:place>Lebanon</st1:place></st1:country-region> with small distances every region and almost every town have developed their own way of pronunciation.

How did the Lebanese manage to have so many accents in defiance of common sense? Which regional accent do you find charming?

[Fragrance of Roses]

You cannot believe how much I laughed reading your post Shadow! I do not know whether it being a fact is what makes this sooo funny, or whether it is the way you phrase it!!!

I come from a village in the Shouf too (borderline Southern Lebanon) where the accent is very similar to the American's southern Dixie accent! I swear if those people spoke English with that same accent they speak Arabic (or God knows what it is at times), you'd think they are from Alabama or something! So a typical "Hi Abir! How are you?" would be:
"AbA-yiir! Kay-Fay-K? Mnay-7Ai?"
As a result, I stopped visiting my home town because it always took me hours to listen to two sentences! They are in nooo rush to finish saying anything, and so my overly stretched patience broke in half not too long ago. I have not been there in ages!

Why are accents so diverse? I will elaborate later. What I find very interesting is not only the accent, but also the terminology of certain areas and districts! Simply hilarious!
My favorite is the typical Abul Abed's Beiruti accent like my best friend! Just listening to her makes me laugh soo hard! I like the Keserweni accent, the southern accent, and most especially... the Ra7bi accent! Ro7beh!
What else can we say... "Haida Libnan!"

[shadow1]

Originally Posted by AbirWard

I come from a village in the Shouf too (borderline Southern Lebanon) where the accent is very similar to the American's southern Dixie accent! I swear if those people spoke English with that same accent they speak Arabic (or God knows what it is at times), you'd think they are from Alabama or something! So a typical "Hi Abir! How are you?" would be:
"AbA-yiir! Kay-Fay-K? Mnay-7Ai?"
!

Scent of a Rose,

Oh dear.
If I were you I would spare no effort and waste no time trying to get someone like Professor Higgings and Eliza Doolittle to come to your town and do your own local version of My Fair Lady. That'll teach those peasants that the Rayn in Sapayn Sties Maynly in the Playn is not acceptable and in no time they'll be able to say : The rain in Spain stays mainly in the plain.

My goodness, the way you enunciated makes that man from Basharri sound
like an arabic graduate from Azhar Uni..

I used to favour the Metn accent ( like Salwa L Attreeb) but now I find that accent a bit too contrived and lacking in charms. I'd take the Barja accent anytime or The southerners. They are so deliciously vile.


BTW. What's wrong with the dixie accent down yonder. I reckon the Southern drawl is kind of cute especially the one in Georgia.

[lebluv]

hello everybody..
i'd ike to read ur opinions about different lebanese accents..
how do u react when hearing any special accent?
do u try to speak the accent of ur adresser or u just get into it?
whats the funniest , most beautiful acent in ur viewpoint?
thanks in progress

[Sirius]

I'm from the Bsharri region, but have lived most of the time in Beirut. So my accent is quite the normal Beiruti one. When I go up to my village, accents are very much different... my name changes from fouAd to fouEd, i pass my cousin the TOBA instead of TABEH (for soccer ball), and he would be eating a KHYORA instead of KHYARA!

Things here in Australia aren't any different. Lebanese have English accents of their own, quite distinguishable from the normal Aussie accent. The Lebanese-Australian accent is a mixture of Aussie and Northern Lebanese accents.

Pretty fascinating :D

[Mey]

Sirius funny post

Well I like to make fun of accents in a jokingly (not mean) way.

At work, we have a friend from Baskenta, and he has some funny phrases, like ynayzzil (instead of ynazzel) and ytaylli3 instead of ytalli3, in addition to the usual dal of Michel el Murr.

I love to hear different accents, and by the way I have something that others tell me is annoying, when I am around people who speak different accents, or dialects (Dalzi dont lecture the difference now) I tend to speak their accent and dialect, some tell me it annoys them

For example when I go to the Gulf, I pass some Gulf phrases, when I go to Syria, when I go to Baalbeck, etc...

Thing is, I mean good about it, but some get offended

[lebluv]

i am from south near the border..but i lived all my life in beirut...ya3ne i speak a mixture of accents...when i speak with my Fiancee who is beierutiyye asliye i speak beirute like " ana ma badde , ma mni7 , ma troo7e , ma t2oolile " but whenever i am mad or nervous it flips to " ane badeesh , ma troo7eesh , mish mne7 ...w ahama shi ma t2ooleeleesh " like zalghoota it sounds...
in my village battikh become battekh...the nuame "7sein" become "7sayn" the name "3alaa" simple become "3ila2" and "ousama becomes " 2isama"
my fiance some how now speaks alike...but i like her fathers accent...we dont have the letters to tell how but ill try..." kifek , shu 2olet , inta w 7umilhe .." i think u know abul 3abed...
one more thing...in beirut we may say "uff leh" in my village it is "3aza lay"
in my village some speak chinese too..."Shinnihaaw" it stands for " shu hinne haw" or in beirut "shu haidol"..
thanks

[Lallous]

Funny post. I face this problem very frequently. I work part-time as a salesman and I have always Lebanese customers that speaks awful French or English. What's even funnier is when they know I am Lebanese because I wear a nametag written on it Elias and they still don't speak Arabic. Sometimes, I dare to speak Arabic because it is much easier for me and them and the message passes through better, but then they start bargaining about the price and you are so ashamed and you want to avoid to be associated with them. So it is a case by case situation. I speak fluently almost 5 languages with a proud Lebanese Metniote accent, but the people's problem is never from the accent but from the grammar and the vocabulary they don't master. Be proud of your accents but learn the language basis.

For local accents, I am a Metniote but I may use some "jerdi' expressions. I never have any problems with any accent because I lived in Lebanon but my friends who lived in Canada all their life could barely understand some uncommon expressions. You could link the accents to the lack of education poeple used to have. They didn't know how to write and messages were sent from mouth to ear and they made all this beautiful mix we all like and appreciate whenever we hear it.

[Xena]

you all talk about beiruti accent as if it's the normal accent!
ya3ne i think you've never heard a real beiruti accent in that case...
my father is from beirut, and when i visit the family...allah la ysame3kon! .. like eltellak becomes "oltoleeek", mtabbal becomes "mtobbeeel" ..to2obrineh.becomes something like to2brinaaa (actually the end is pronounced between the é and the a)...and of course the T is a very heavy T...it's like talking while eating!

my mother is southern, but since my maternal familly was born in beirut they speak 3ade...even my grandmother, she doesn't have a strong southern accent.. bass of course i love her "ya ti2ibrine ya sitti biddik a3mellek fraakeeh?" just love it!

so i ended up with a weird accent! of course when i'm with friends i speak normally no accent involved..
but when i'm with my paternal family even though i keep my normal accent however i tend to say tawla instead of tawleh,,,swa2a instead of swe2a

when i'm with my maternal family i tend to speak using the "Shins" like lesh instead of leh... baddish instead of mabadeh...mafesh instead of mafi... et ainsi de suite

but i prefer the southern accent over the beiruti!!

[Osiris]

Originally Posted by Xena

ya3ne i think you've never heard a real beiruti accent in that case...
my father is from beirut, and when i visit the family...allah la ysame3kon! .. like eltellak becomes "oltoleeek", mtabbal becomes "mtobbeeel" ..to2obrineh.becomes something like to2brinaaa (actually the end is pronounced between the é and the a)...and of course the T is a very heavy T...it's like talking while eating!

LOL ya Xena !!
You made my day !!

What about some southern accent like "Ya 2abbare" we are waiting! :p