خاطِرة#
I haven’t made a video in a while, so yesterday I kicked off my pivot to Shami (Levantine) with a breakdown of some of the differences I kept running into between Levantine Arabic and the Tunisian Arabic I’ve been speaking so far.
فيديو#
كلام#
| English | Tunisian | Levantine | Explanation |
|---|---|---|---|
| a lot / many / very | برشة | كتير | Different high-frequency quantifier. |
| work / job | خِدمة | شُغل | Same meaning, different root. |
| what | شنوّا | شو | Basic interrogative difference. |
| now | تَوّا | هلّق | Same timing, different adverb. |
| nice / pleasant | مزيّن | حلو | Used for “looks good / feels nice.” |
| good / OK | باهي | تمام / منيح | General approval / status check. |
| go / walk | نمشي | بروح / بمشي | Tunisian collapses “go” and “walk”; Levantine splits them. |
| fish / whale | حوت = fish | حوت = whale / سمك = fish | Same word, different animal by dialect. |
| sentence packing | شنبّيك / شنحوّلك | شو بدّك / شو بدّي أحوّلك | Tunisian compresses full sentences into one word. |
| want vs love | نحبّ | بدي (want) / بحبّ (love) | Tunisian uses one verb for both; Levantine separates them. |