Levantine-Arabic

Why يوم is יום but لحم isn’t לחם: shared Semitic roots, the Canaanite shift, س/ש swaps, and Hebrew–Arabic false friends like مكتب and מכתב.

In Shami, blood is either light or heavy: دمّه خفيف is someone fun to sit with, دمّه تقيل is someone you want to escape. Meaning and examples.

«القرد بعين أمّه غزال»: the Shami way to say love is blind, especially a parent’s. Meaning, tone and examples.

«روح بلّط البحر»: the Levantine way to say «do whatever you want, it won’t change anything». Meaning, tone and examples.

The delivery came without the drink and the food was only okay. A short Shami diary entry that ends with a proverb about bad luck.

The phrases I used to write about holiday guilt — أشيل هم، أحس بالذنب، خيّب أمل — pulled out into one place, with short examples.

A Shami Arabic reflection on holiday guilt: learning to ease up on pleasing family out of obligation, and why people who love you want you happy.

A quick Levantine note on Ziad Rahbani’s “بصراحة” and why it became my current favorite.

A lightweight, city-by-city game for drilling real Levantine Arabic with audio and dialect toggles.

ChatGPT + Spotify made it too easy to spin up fresh playlists for my walks.