Lebanese phrases now making more sense

I never learnt a great deal of Lebanese at home because my mother is Australian and although my father is Lebanese, he never spoke Arabic much at home, he didn't like it enough to teach me it and we only saw my Dad's family once a year at the most. However I did pick up a few phrases from my Mum and Dad, most which I always used to pronounce badly (and now don't pronounce quite as badly) but now after studying here in Yemen I understand what most of them mean.

My family and I went to Lebanon in 1984 when I was 4 and at that time I attempted to learn Lebanese with a great deal of enthusiasm. To this day my Dad still teases about the bad way I used to proudly count to 10 in Lebanese... "where-hid, naaan, cliirty, arba, humseey, siteee, suba, tamanee, tisa, ush-ra".. which should be pronounced more like "whaHid, tnan, tlateh, arba3h, khamseh, sitteh, sab3h, tamayeh, tis3h, 3shra3".

During our holiday there I learnt a phrase which I understood to mean something very kind to say to people and so I said it to every Lebanese guard at every check point we stopped at and it always made them smile and laugh. The phrase I used to say was 'arty kalafey' and I remember it really well. Actually I think Lebanon ranks as my earliest childhood memory. Anyhow, the correct phrase is "Allah y3Teek 3afyeh" which means God give you health. When said by Lebanese the first two words blend together a bit so it sounds like "Allay3Teek 3afyeh". Spelt in Arabic it becomes الله يعطيك عافية

Mum used to say "nam, nami, habibee" while I was a whole lot younger and she was getting me to sleep. I always knew Habibee meant my darling but the first part alluded me up till a few months after arriving in Yemen. Nam is simply the word for sleep.

After my grandmother heard someone sneeze she'd always say "smallah" and here in Yemen they say "alHamdillah". Both basically mean bless you. The first literally means in the name of God - all prayers and many documents are started by Muslims with bismallah al-raHma al raHiim" which means in the name of God the merciful and the compassionate (not 100% certain on the latter two words). The second phrases means thanks be to God and it's used any time someone hears that something good has happened.

Mum and my grandmother used to say "Umee, hal-ley" when they wanted someone to get up. Umee I'm not sure of the meaning of but I assume it means get up. Whereas "Hal-ley" means now.

Any time someone did something shameful in the family we'd say "ayba shum alayk" - particularly if someone was running naked or without pants or just in a towel (which in the case of my father and grandmother was quite often). Al-Hamdillah I think the streaking gene has skipped a generation with me and my sister. I now know what most of that phrase means. 3yb (ie. ayb but with the 3yn sound) is used all the time in Yemen. You don't pay the taxi driver what he thinks he deserves ... 3yb, a girl or guy is dressed inappropriately by Yemeni standards... 3yb too. 3yb means shame. 3layk means "on you" and 3la is preposition. Incidentally changing the preposition in an Arabic phrase can completely change the meaning. If you say God and the word for blessing and say the preposition for "for you" following it, it means bless you. However if you say God bless 3lak, it actually means God curse you! But back to the shame phrase, the part I don't understand is "shum" or "ashum" .. insha'alla I will one day.

For 'thank you' or maybe for 'good-bye'(??) Lebanese sometimes say "tikrum 3ynak". I don't understand the word by word meaning for that yet either except 3yn means eyes. Finding the meanings of these words isn't usually any harder than consulting the Hans Wehr Arabic-English dictionary. A lot of times Arab speakers and students will tell you - that word is laHja only, meaning dialect only. But almost always this words that are supposed to dialect only words are identical or really closely to real foS7a (formal) Arabic and so a dictionary is often all you need to find the meaning.

Those are about all of the Lebanese phrases I've recently learnt the meaning of. You might be thinking how miserably little Arabic I learnt from home and I agree with you, and that's why I'm here.