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Studies on Arabic Dialectology and Sociolinguistics

 | 
Catherine Miller
, 
Alexandrine Barontini
, 
Marie-Aimée Germanos
, 
et al.

Issues in Sociolinguistics: Contact and Change, Discourse Analysis, Cultural Practises, Mixed Styles and Written Sources

Linguistic Analysis of Puns and Common Sayings in Texts of Bilād aš-Šām

Emanuela De Blasio

Abstract

This paper analyses puns and idioms in humorous cartoons produced in dialectal variants of the Syrian-Lebanese-Palestinian area. Colloquial expressions and puns play a predominant role in these artistic productions.

In order to give impetus to a text or a concept, the author makes use of puns based on double meanings or on words that sound alike but which are distant in meaning. The aim is to create irony, to arouse other feelings in the reader in order to reawaken the consciousness.

The use of colloquial expressions is necessary to engage with and transport the reader to the reality that the author wishes to communicate: it is interesting to examine the various expressions used in everyday life in the Arab world. Idiomatic expressions play a very important role: they are part of ʼadab “being well brought-up” or “good manners”, and they are numerous (greetings, requests, thanks, various exclamations). The collection of such expressions constitutes a rich source for linguistics, sociology and folklore.

Full text

1. Introduction

1In some artistic expressions the main aim is to transmit serious messages through irony or sarcasm. The choice of language and of stylistic means is fundamental in order to give a humoristic effect. This work is based on the analysis of word play and common sayings in text cartoons produced in Arabic varieties of the Syrian-Lebanese-Palestinian area. Colloquial expressions and puns play a predominant role in these artistic productions, in which the form is as important as the content.

2The term “pun” is a common literary device that can be defined as a play on words. So in order to make a pun it is necessary to use words in an amusing and ingenious manner. The linguist Crystal (2004: 408) asserts that a pun focuses on the double meaning of a word or phrase and on the play of different words that sound alike.

3Speech plays, such as puns, tongue twisters, riddles, jokes and proverbs mainly belong to the realm of the spoken language. These forms in Arabic language have not yet been thoroughly investigated. Prochazká (2008) in his paper has examined tongue twisters in Arabic dialects, dealing also with puns. He claims that tongue twisters are yet another aspect of the linguistic creativity of the Arabs and belong almost exclusively to the domain of the dialects, which are the variant of Arabic where ordinary people can reveal and express their creativity.

4Plays on words are often used to transmit a thought or a message: these are prevalent in cartoons, songs, especially rap songs, commercials, slogans, literary forms, and so on.

5In cartoons, in order to give impetus to a text or a concept, the author makes use of puns based on double meanings or on words that sound alike but which are distant in meaning. The aim is to provoke irony or arouse other feelings, thus reawakening the consciousness.

6In the texts of cartoons colloquial expressions are also often to be found: they are used to engage the reader in the reality that the author wishes to communicate, provoking a smile. Idiomatic expressions used in everyday life in the Arab world play a very important role: they are part of ʼadab “good manners” (greetings, requests, thanks, various exclamations).

7Cartoons are mostly in Arabic varieties, so they can be a rich source for improving the study and the knowledge of Arabic dialects; for example, Zack (2014) analyses the use of the Egyptian dialect in the satirical newspaper Abu Naḍḍāra Zarqa.

8The aim of cartoons is to speak sometimes about serious problems or topical issues while provoking in the reader a sense of irony or humour, and that occurs through word plays in the form of puns, common sayings, and double meanings.

2. Material and methodology

9I have examined approximately one hundred cartoons, but the corpus selected in this paper comprises fifteen cartoons.

10The authors of the cartoons are some of most representative contemporary cartoonists from the Syrian-Lebanese-Palestinian area. The majority of the selected texts are part of a cartoon collection from the year 2000 up to 2010. Thus, some cartoons refer to past political and historical events.

11As regards the Palestinian texts, the authors taken into consideration are Baha Bukhari and Omayya Geha; the author of the Lebanese texts is Stavro Jabra. The Syrian cartoons are taken from the Syrian press and from websites (in the footnotes I have specified the author and the source).

12The main content of the selected material is political and social. In this context I am not dealing with a study regarding the socio-political content or message of the texts, but only the linguistic and stylistic aspects.

13I have divided the corpus into two parts: in the first I analyse puns (9 texts) and in the second I examine sayings, idioms and proverbs (6 texts). Sometimes puns and common sayings are together in the same text.

14As regards the textual transcription methodology, I have referred to the system of Durand (2009).

3. General remarks about the texts

15The selected cartoons (in Arabic kārīkātūr or kārīkatīr from French “caricature”) are all in Colloquial Arabic: the choice of the dialect enables the message to be understood by the majority of people and at the same time the reader feels close to that way of speaking, because they find expressions and common sayings that are in daily use. Whereas the text outside the cartoon bubbles is mostly in Standard Arabic.

16These cartoons reflect the linguistic reality of the Arab world; in the texts the language level varies in relation to many factors: the situation, the speaker, and the subject dealt with. The linguistic phenomenon of code-switching in the cartoons can be observed: so if the speaker is in a formal situation, that is, at a political meeting, on television, or in the case of a newspaper article, the author adopts a high register that tends to use Standard Arabic, in all other informal situations Spoken Arabic is employed.

17As regards phonetics and phonology, I have reproduced some typical features of urban dialects of Palestine, Lebanon and Syria, specifically the varieties of Jerusalem, Beirut and Damascus: so the phenomenon of imāla (palatalization of /a/ to /i/ with an intermediate degree /e/); the uvular phoneme /q/ realized as laringal occlusive [ʔ], the realization in [Ӡ] of the palatal affricate phoneme /ǧ/; and the substitution of interdental consonants // and // with dentals /t/ and /d/. The interdental enphatic /ḏ̣/ realized as [dˁ] or more rarely [] (ḏ̣ > ḍ, ).

18As regards the morphology, an analytic tendency can be noted, such as the use of a noun to mark the dual, and a variety of preverbs for the different aspects of a verb.

19In the syntax a simplification of structures can be seen. The verb usually agrees in gender and number with its subject and the adjectives are often put in the plural to agree with inanimate plural nouns.

20As regards the lexicon, there are variations linked to the different contexts of the cartoons. Although foreign words (English or French) are sometimes used for ironic purposes, there is a tendency towards a total Arabization of the texts.

21Due to the absence of formal recognition, the Arabic dialects are affected by a lack of orthographic conventions: this factor is also shown in the texts of the cartoons, in which each author invents a graphematical expression. Graphematical aspects depend on the phonetics of the dialect.

22In the case of interdentals, they are sometimes realized as occlusives. For example, the demonstrative: hāda ﻫﺍﺩﺍ is written with the phoneme /d/ in place of hāḏa ﻫﺍﺫﺍ with the phoneme /ḏ/ or ktīr ﻜﺘﻳﺮ with /t/ instead of kṯir ﻜﺛﻴﺮ with /ṯ/.

23The phoneme /h/ of the suffixed pronouns of the third singular person is sometimes (but not always) omitted, revealing the effective phonetic realization: قلو qal-lo, ﻗﻄﻌﻮ qaṭṭaʽ-o ﻣﻌﻨﺎﺗﺎ maʽnāt-(h)a.

24In other cases, on the contrary, Standard Arabic interferes in the written texts: the interdental consonants are sometimes found, for example tzakkar تذكر; the phoneme /q/ graphematically is always given: ﻭﻘﺖ waqt, ﻘﺍﻞ qāl, قتل qatәl.

25All these factors demonstrate that there is not a normalization regarding the graphematic aspect.

26The authors of cartoons use different ways of foregrounding: this term refers to the various techniques with which it is possible to cause linguistic deviation; among them, one of the most immediate is the violation or break of a linguistic rule (Douthwaite, 2000). So the cartoons have peculiarities that sometimes make them indecipherable: language deformations, metaphorical language, and cultural references.

27The humorous mechanisms of the examined texts are realized on different levels: phonological, lexical and semantic, grammatical and syntactic, and cultural.

3.1. Puns

28In on-line dictionaries, the term “pun” is translated luʽbat al-kalimāt. Many of my informants gave me kalām malġūm “mined speech” as translation; this definition can also be found on the web. In the al-Manhal dictionary (2000: 687), under the term jeu de mots we find جناس ǧinās. In his paper, Munthir (2011) asserts that the Arabic equivalents for the English term “pun” are both ǧinās ʼiḍmār maʽnawiyy or توریة tawriya and ǧinās lafẓiyy tāmm.

29As regards the term توریة tawriya, its root is derived from the verb ورى warrā “pretend, conceal, allude”, it means to hide something and show another.

30The expression ǧinās lafẓiyy tāmm the similarity of certain words or sentences in particular formal aspects with differences in meaning.

31As regards the phonetic and morphological peculiarities of puns in the analysed texts, the following can be found:
* Phonetic and morphological peculiarities
- Alliteration: a figure of speech which consists in the repetition of certain phonemes in consecutive words.
- Consonance and assonance: the repetition of consonants and sequences of consonants or
vowels in words in close proximity.
- Metathesis: the juxtaposition of words showing metathesis of the root consonants.
-
Juxtaposition of similar consonants.
- Juxtaposition of two words similar in sound but different in meaning.
- Also rhyme as the repetition of final sounds constitutes a means to creating a humorous effect. Final rhymes, for their position, represent an end focus (Douthwaite 2000: 314), that is words characterized by a high informative and communicative content. The rhymes, in this case, are used in order to give a special emphasis to information.
*
Lexical peculiarities
Puns are based on ambiguity through polysemy, homonymy, and literal meaning against metaphoric meaning. Neologisms, or sometimes resemantization, that is giving a new meaning to an existing lexical element, can be observed.

32Some cases of transglossia can also be noted: the authors sometimes resort to foreign words or loan words in order to arouse humour.

3.2. Common sayings

33Common sayings, or more technically idiomatic expressions, generally refer to conventional expressions, characterized by the combination of a fixed signifier to a meaning which is not predictable from the meaning of its components (Casadei 1995: 335; Cacciari & Glucksberg 1995: 43). These kinds of expressions would mean nothing if you considered them just as the sum of the meanings of their components (Cacciari & Glucksberg 1991: 217); if taken as a block, they refer to a figurative meaning, sometimes resulting from metaphorical procedures, and shared by the entire linguistic community. Expressions, such as “to be broke” or “to kick the bucket” do not mean anything if you consider their literal meanings.

34Generally in Arabic the translation of common sayings or idioms is ʽibāra iṣṭilāḥiyya.

35In the selected texts, the proverbs, idioms, sayings, often used with a double meaning, make the language familiar to the reader, provoking laughter. The use of some sayings which regard oral traditions can be explained by their location, and thus they can vary from region to region; in other cases, some sayings are known to people of diverse dialectal backgrounds.

4. Texts

4.1. Analysis of puns

4.1.1. Palestinian cartoons1

  • 1 Fig. 1, Fig. 2, Fig. 3: Baha Bukhari; Fig. 4, Fig. 5, Fig. 6, Fig. 7: Omayya Geha.

(At the bottom there are the names of the Palestinian refugee camps scattered around the Arab world)
-
iḥna lli ḫtaraʽna kilmet… muḫayyamāt!
Translation
- “We are the people who invented the word 'camping'!”.

36Analysis: The author has based the word play on polysemy in which the different meanings associated with the same signifier/lexeme are related to each other. In fact, the term muḫayyamāt means both “refugee camps” and “camping” (we notice that the children are equipped with backpacks and caps to go camping).

- rafaʽna l-ayād-i w-qulna ʽand-na… DREAM aʽṭū-na āys-krīm!
Translation
- “We raised our hands and said: we have a DREAM… give us ICE-CREAM”.

37Analysis: This cartoon plays on the first words of a famous speech by Martin Luther King that began with the phrase “I have a dream”. Here the irony comes from the assonance and rhyme in English between DREAM and ICE-CREAM. Probably the author ironically wants to say that people are happy with little things or treats.

(on the blackboard): al-ḥisāb
- iṣ-ṣarāḥa… iṣ-ṣarāḥa… wlād-ek šaṭrīn fi-ḍ-ḍarb… lakin-hom… tyūs... fi-ṭ-ṭariḥ... w-iž-žamʽ w-it-taqsīm kamān!
Translation
(on the blackboard): “maths”
- “Really, really your sons are good at multiplication… but they are ignorant as goats in subtraction, addition and division!”

38Analysis: Here the pun is based on the homonymy of the term ḍarb which means both “thump” and “multiplication”. The lexemes are formally equal, but have different meanings.

- nās tirkab siyyāra bi-ʽarēše w-nās miš lāqye titġaṭṭa bi-ḫēše.
Translation
- “There are people who drive cars with detachable covers and people who can’t even cover themselves with sacks”.

39Analysis: In Arabic the pun foregrounded through the rhyme ēše can be observed between the words ʽarēše and ēše.

- šāreb il-murr min senet it-tamāniye w-’arbʽīn w-biqūl-li ʽand-ak sukkari qaṭṭaʽ-o, w-qaṭṭaʽ illi daktar-o.

Translation
- “Iʼve been drinking bitter since '48 and he tells me you have diabetes, damn him and damn whoever made him a doctor”.

40Analysis: Here the irony arises from the contrast between the meanings of the terms murr “bitter” and sukkari “diabetes” (literally: “sweetened”) and the concept that the person who has diabetes has consumed a lot of sweet substances in his life, but the man in question says he has consumed only bitterness.

41illi daktar-o: “whoever made him a doctor”. Here we notice a neologism: the author creates jokingly the quadriconsonantal verb daktar taken from a foreign word (en. doctor or fr. docteur).

42Moreover, we find the idiomatic expression qaṭṭaʽ-o, it literally means “God cut it” and it is used to curse someone.

- ḅāḅa… aʽṭī-ni kilme uḫra bi-maʽna salām?!
- āzūq.
Translation
- “Daddy... give me a synonym of peace?!”.
- “Scam”.

43Analysis: The author uses the device of polysemy to make sarcastic remarks: the term ḫāzūq (pl. ḫawāzīq) means “pointed pole”, (derived from a torture instrument) but in colloquial language it takes the meaning of “scam”.

- ayyām Netanyāhū kān maʽ-o ḍ-ḍaġṭ w-min yōm Bārāk ṭabb ʽalē-(h) kamān is-sukkari w-il-mūrātīzm…
Translation
- “In the time of Netanyahu he had pressure problems but since Barak he has also had diabetes and 'muratism'...”.

44Analysis: mūrātīzm: from French rhumatisme, but being a foreign word the woman does not know how to pronounce it well and distorts it. In Arabic rūmātism should be correct: here here is a consonant metathesis rūmātism and mūrātīzm.

4.1.2. Lebanese cartoons2

  • 2 Fig. 8: Stavro Jabra.

(in the newspaper): ṭālibān warā’ l-ʽamaliyyāt
- iza ṭalibān w-ʽəmlu ha-l-kārisi kīf iza l-madrasi kəll-ha!!
Translation
(in the newspaper): “the Taliban behind the operations”
- “If two students carried out this disaster, think what a whole school could do!”

45Analysis: The author plays with the morphological aspect of word ṭalibān: in Arabic -ān is the suffix of the dual (grammatically in Persian the suffix -ān is for the plural).

46The man, pictured on the left, interprets the term as dual and with its literal meaning, that is “two students”.

4.1.3. Syrian cartoons3

(on the door): al-ʽiyāda
(on the sign): aḫ-i l-marīḍ əl-karīm… ənte raššeḥ… w-ʽilāž-ak mažžānan.. w-Aļļa ma btədfaʽ…d-duktūr…
- akīd əz-zalame mraššeḥ ḥāl-o lə-l-intiḫābāt…
Translation
(On the door): “Clinic”
(On the sign): “Dear patient, cool down and I will take care of you for free, I swear you won’t have to pay ... the doctor...”
- “This guy must be standing for election...”

47Analysis: There is a clear pun based on the homonymy: the verb raššaḥ means both “to cool down” and “to stand for election”.

4.2. Analysis of common sayings

4.2.1. Palestinian cartoons4

  • 4 Fig. 10: Baha Bukhari; Fig. 11, Fig. 12: Omayya Geha.

(on the plaque): kabīr al-mufāwaḍīn
-
īd-i ʽala rās-ak… taržem-li afkār-ak!!
Translation
(on the plaque): “the chief delegate”
- “I beg you, tell me what you’re thinking!”

48Analysis: The expression īd-i ʽala rās-ak, literally “my hand is on your head”, is a common saying in Colloquial Arabic. And the gesture of the character underlines the literary meaning. It is used as a petition or request for something.

- illi biqūl ʽan-na ṣarāīr w-illi biqūl afāʽi w-āḫret-ha Bārāk
šar
īk is-salām biqūl ʽan-na tamāsīḥ!
- by
āklu tamir-na w-birammū-na bi-n-nuwa!
Translation
- “Some people say we are cockroaches, others say we are vipers and finally Barak, the peace co-worker, says we are crocodiles!”.
- “They eat our dates and throw the kernels back to us!”.

49Analysis: The expression byāklu tamir-na w-birammū-na bi-n-nuwa is a common saying or a kind of proverb. It refers to those who get the best and give back the scraps.

- … w-ḥall is-salām… w-ṣār il-arnab yitnaqqal bēn il-ḥuqūl w-b-āḫer in-nahār yiržaʽ la-awlād-o bi-ma lazz w-ṭāb min iṭṭaʽām… w-tūte tūte… farġat il-ḥadūte!
Translation
- “… And peace came ... and the rabbit began to wander among the fields and at the end of the day it came back to its children with good and tasty things to eat ... and so they all lived happily ever after!”

50Analysis: tūte tūtefarġat il-ḥadūte it is the typical formula that is used at the end of a fairy tale, story; Literally it means: “blackberry, blackberry, the story is finished”. The formula tūte tūte ḫalšet il- ḥattūte is more frequent.

51ār yitnaqqal “began to wander”: the verb ār, lit. “to become”, followed by a imperfect verb, indicates the beginning of an action in the past and which gives it inchoative value.

4.2.2. Lebanese cartoons5

  • 5 Fig. 13: Stavro Jabra.

(on the right): Ǧunblāṭ yuhāğimu r-ra’īs Laḥḥūd
(on the jacket): qumāša ḥarīriyya
- bətfaržī-ni ʽarḍ əktāf-ak?...
Translation
(on the right): “Jounblatt attacks President Lahoud”
(on the jacket): “silk fabric”
- “Would you show me the width of your shoulders?”

52Analysis: In the cartoon, caricatures of Walid Jounblatt, leader of the Druze Community and of Émile Lahoud, the former President of Lebanon are represented.
The sarcasm comes from the colloquial expression
bətfaržī-ni ʽarḍ əktāf-ak, literally “show me the width of your shoulders”, but the real meaning is “get out of the way”.
It is also a pun: the noun
ḥarīr means “silk” and the adjective ḥarīriyya “silky”; but in this case there is a double meaning with the name of the Lebanese Prime Minister Hariri.

4.2.3. Syrian cartoons6

  • 6 Fig. 14: Šallāḥ, from the newspaper al-Baʽṯ; Fig. 15: Muhannad Farzat (son of the famous cartoonist (...)

(on the table): ’ittifāqāt as-salām
- naṣaḥ
ū-ni… əbəll-ha w-əšrab mayyet-ha…
Translation
(on the table): “peace agreements”
- “They advised me to keep them hydrated and drink water...”

53Analysis: əbəll-ha w-əšrab mayyet-ha: is a common saying for something that has no value (in this case it refers to the peace agreements). It corresponds to “to throw them away”.

- āṃa šū maʽnāt-ha “l-ḥəbb aʽma”?
- iza bəṭṭalleʽ bə-wəžəh abū-k əbtaʽref šū maʽnāt-ha!!
Translation
- “Mom, what does it mean 'love is blind'?”.
- “If you look at your father's face, you will understand what that means!”

54Analysis: l-ḥəbb aʽma “love is blind”, is a common saying. This kind of expression would mean nothing if you consider it just as sum of the meanings of its components. It refers to a figurative meaning, resulting from metaphorical procedures. This expression means that a person in love does not see the flaws of the other person. This expression exists in different languages.

5. Conclusion

55In the cartoons selected here, in order to express the message, the authors have chosen Spoken Arabic of their areas. The language employed in the texts of the analysed cartoons reflects the reality of the linguistic situation of the Arab world. So the collection of these texts can also be a rich source of morphological, syntactic and lexical information about Arabic dialects.

56Beyond the visual aspect, the linguistic and stylistic means chosen by the author to transmit the message to the reader is fundamental.

57In order to give an impetus to the cartoons, the authors employ puns. They are a way of taking advantage of the double meanings inherent in language. In the analysed cartoons, irony comes from puns based on different stylistic devices, such as polysemy, homonymy, neologisms, consonant metatheses, assonance or consonance, and rhyme.

58Another technique used by the authors to arouse humour is to take colloquial expressions or common sayings used in everyday life and to alter them slightly for comic or ironic effect.

59The collection of humorous cartoons, as well as jokes, proverbs and other texts, is a rich source for sociology, folklore and linguistics. Through these texts it is possible to shed light on some areas of shadow or more inaccessible aspects of a culture: mentality, public opinion, sensitivity, taboos, transgressions.

60Cartoons often refer to current events, political facts that the reader is aware of; so in order for humour to be effective, the reader must understand the context to which it refers. The reader must have a set of linguistic and extra-linguistic information with which to interpret the text.

61Through the communication of a message to the reader, the cartoonist aims to surprise, shock, or cause a reaction, thus making him/her smile.

62In societies where there is often censorship, humour is a way of transmitting a message that otherwise could not be formulated. One of the roles of humour is to produce a liberating effect in the reader, who, by laughter, unloads his anxiety. Another role is to give the opportunity to see defects or mistakes, and generate a constructive critique, which can become the motivation for positive transformation.

63Beyond the visual aspect of the cartoon, the linguistic medium chosen by the author is essential to convey the message to the reader and, at the same time, to provoke laughter and arouse humour.

Bibliography

al-Manhal, 2000, Dictionnaire Français-Arabe, Beirut: Dār al-Adāb.

Cacciari, C. & Glucksberg, S. 1991. “Understanding Idiomatic Expressions: The Contribution of Word Meanings”. Advances in psychology 77. 217-240.

Cacciari C., & Glucksberg, S. 1995.Understanding Idioms: Do Visual Images Reflect Figurative Meanings?”, European Journal of Cognitive Psychology 7 (3). 283-305.

Casadei, F. 1995. “Flessibilità delle espressioni idiomatiche” Casadei, F., Fiorentino, G., & Samek-Lodovici, V. (eds.), L' italiano che parliamo. Santarcangelo di Romagna: Fara Editore. 11-33.

Crystal, D. 2004. The Language Revolution. Malden, MA: Polity Press.

Douthwaite, J. 2000. Towards a Linguistic Theory of Foregrounding, Alessandria: Edizioni dell'Orso.

Durand, O. 2009. Dialettologia araba. Roma: Carocci Editore.

Munthir, M. 2011. “Glottal Stop in R.P English and Standard Arabic with Reference to Some Other Varieties”, Al-Adab 109 (109). Baghdad: University of Baghdad. 52-82.

Procházka, S. 2008. “Let’s Twist Again! Tongue Twisters in Arabic Dialects”. Procházka, S., & Ritt-Benmimoun, V. (eds), Between the Atlantic and Indian Oceans: Studies on Contemporary Arabic Dialects. Proceedings of the 7th AIDA Conference, held in Vienna from 5-9 September 2006. Wien-Münster: Lit. 349-362.

Zack, L. 2014. “The Use of the Egyptian Dialect in the Satirical Newspaper Abu Naḍḍāra Zarʼa”. Durand, O., Langone, A. D. & Mion, G. (eds.), Alf lahǧa wa lahǧa: Proceedings of the 9th Aida Conference. Wien: Lit. 465-478.

www.teshreen.com/daily/2002/care.asp

www.omayya.com/pod.htm

www.baha-cartoon.net

www.stavrotoons.com

Notes

1 Fig. 1, Fig. 2, Fig. 3: Baha Bukhari; Fig. 4, Fig. 5, Fig. 6, Fig. 7: Omayya Geha.

2 Fig. 8: Stavro Jabra.

3 Fig. 9: www.teshreen.com/daily/2002/care.asp

4 Fig. 10: Baha Bukhari; Fig. 11, Fig. 12: Omayya Geha.

5 Fig. 13: Stavro Jabra.

6 Fig. 14: Šallāḥ, from the newspaper al-Baʽṯ; Fig. 15: Muhannad Farzat (son of the famous cartoonist Ali Farzat).

List of illustrations

Caption (At the bottom there are the names of the Palestinian refugee camps scattered around the Arab world)- iḥna lli ḫtaraʽna kilmet… muḫayyamāt!Translation- “We are the people who invented the word 'camping'!”.
URL http://books.openedition.org/iremam/docannexe/image/4329/img-1.jpg
File image/jpeg, 380k
Caption - rafaʽna l-ayād-i w-qulna ʽand-na… DREAM aʽṭū-na āys-krīm! Translation- “We raised our hands and said: we have a DREAM… give us ICE-CREAM”.
URL http://books.openedition.org/iremam/docannexe/image/4329/img-2.jpg
File image/jpeg, 72k
Caption (on the blackboard): al-ḥisāb- iṣ-ṣarāḥa… iṣ-ṣarāḥa… wlād-ek šaṭrīn fi-ḍ-ḍarb… lakin-hom… tyūs... fi-ṭ-ṭariḥ... w-iž-žamʽ w-it-taqsīm kamān! Translation(on the blackboard): “maths”- “Really, really your sons are good at multiplication… but they are ignorant as goats in subtraction, addition and division!”
URL http://books.openedition.org/iremam/docannexe/image/4329/img-3.jpg
File image/jpeg, 68k
Caption - nās tirkab siyyāra bi-ʽarēše w-nās miš lāqye titġaṭṭa bi-ḫēše. Translation - “There are people who drive cars with detachable covers and people who can’t even cover themselves with sacks”.
URL http://books.openedition.org/iremam/docannexe/image/4329/img-4.jpg
File image/jpeg, 72k
Caption - šāreb il-murr min senet it-tamāniye w-’arbʽīn w-biqūl-li ʽand-ak sukkari qaṭṭaʽ-o, w-qaṭṭaʽ illi daktar-o.
URL http://books.openedition.org/iremam/docannexe/image/4329/img-5.jpg
File image/jpeg, 64k
Caption - ḅāḅa… aʽṭī-ni kilme uḫra bi-maʽna salām?!- āzūq. Translation- “Daddy... give me a synonym of peace?!”.- “Scam”.
URL http://books.openedition.org/iremam/docannexe/image/4329/img-6.jpg
File image/jpeg, 60k
Caption - ayyām Netanyāhū kān maʽ-o ḍ-ḍaġṭ w-min yōm Bārāk ṭabb ʽalē-(h) kamān is-sukkari w-il-mūrātīzm…Translation- “In the time of Netanyahu he had pressure problems but since Barak he has also had diabetes and 'muratism'...”.
URL http://books.openedition.org/iremam/docannexe/image/4329/img-7.jpg
File image/jpeg, 76k
Caption (in the newspaper): ṭālibān warā’ l-ʽamaliyyāt- iza ṭalibān w-ʽəmlu ha-l-kārisi kīf iza l-madrasi kəll-ha!! Translation(in the newspaper): “the Taliban behind the operations”- “If two students carried out this disaster, think what a whole school could do!”
URL http://books.openedition.org/iremam/docannexe/image/4329/img-8.jpg
File image/jpeg, 72k
Caption (on the door): al-ʽiyāda(on the sign): aḫ-i l-marīḍ əl-karīm… ənte raššeḥ… w-ʽilāž-ak mažžānan.. w-Aļļa ma btədfaʽ…d-duktūr…- akīd əz-zalame mraššeḥ ḥāl-o lə-l-intiḫābāt…Translation(On the door): “Clinic”(On the sign): “Dear patient, cool down and I will take care of you for free, I swear you won’t have to pay ... the doctor...”- “This guy must be standing for election...”
URL http://books.openedition.org/iremam/docannexe/image/4329/img-9.jpg
File image/jpeg, 48k
Caption (on the plaque): kabīr al-mufāwaḍīn- īd-i ʽala rās-ak… taržem-li afkār-ak!! Translation (on the plaque): “the chief delegate”- “I beg you, tell me what you’re thinking!”
URL http://books.openedition.org/iremam/docannexe/image/4329/img-10.jpg
File image/jpeg, 64k
Caption - illi biqūl ʽan-na ṣarāṣīr w-illi biqūl afāʽi w-āḫret-ha Bārākšarīk is-salām biqūl ʽan-na tamāsīḥ!- byāklu tamir-na w-birammū-na bi-n-nuwa! Translation- “Some people say we are cockroaches, others say we are vipers and finally Barak, the peace co-worker, says we are crocodiles!”.- “They eat our dates and throw the kernels back to us!”.
URL http://books.openedition.org/iremam/docannexe/image/4329/img-11.jpg
File image/jpeg, 76k
Caption - … w-ḥall is-salām… w-ṣār il-arnab yitnaqqal bēn il-ḥuqūl w-b-āḫer in-nahār yiržaʽ la-awlād-o bi-ma lazz w-ṭāb min iṭṭaʽām… w-tūte tūte… farġat il-ḥadūte!Translation- “… And peace came ... and the rabbit began to wander among the fields and at the end of the day it came back to its children with good and tasty things to eat ... and so they all lived happily ever after!”
URL http://books.openedition.org/iremam/docannexe/image/4329/img-12.jpg
File image/jpeg, 80k
Caption (on the right): Ǧunblāṭ yuhāğimu r-ra’īs Laḥḥūd(on the jacket): qumāša ḥarīriyya- bətfaržī-ni ʽarḍ əktāf-ak?... Translation(on the right): “Jounblatt attacks President Lahoud”(on the jacket): “silk fabric”- “Would you show me the width of your shoulders?”
URL http://books.openedition.org/iremam/docannexe/image/4329/img-13.jpg
File image/jpeg, 76k
Caption (on the table): ’ittifāqāt as-salām- naṣaḥū-ni… əbəll-ha w-əšrab mayyet-ha…Translation (on the table): “peace agreements”- “They advised me to keep them hydrated and drink water...”
URL http://books.openedition.org/iremam/docannexe/image/4329/img-14.jpg
File image/jpeg, 64k
Caption - ṃāṃa šū maʽnāt-ha “l-ḥəbb aʽma”?- iza bəṭṭalleʽ bə-wəžəh abū-k əbtaʽref šū maʽnāt-ha!! Translation- “Mom, what does it mean 'love is blind'?”. - “If you look at your father's face, you will understand what that means!”
URL http://books.openedition.org/iremam/docannexe/image/4329/img-15.jpg
File image/jpeg, 44k

Author

University of Tuscia, Viterbo, Italy, emanueladeblasio@gmail.com

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