Arabic-L:LING:bosta responses

[Dilworth B. Parkinson]

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Arabic-L: Tue 21 Nov 2000
Moderator: Dilworth Parkinson <dilworth_parkinson at byu.edu>
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1) Subject: bosta response
2) Subject: bosta response
3) Subject: bosta response
4) Subject: bosta response
5) Subject: bosta response
6) Subject: bosta response
7) Subject: bosta response
8) Subject: bosta response

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1)
Date: 21 Nov 2000
From: "Chouairi, R. MR           DFL" <GR6548 at exmail.usma.army.mil>
Subject: bosta response

Dear Bosta Friends
This song was first written and composed by Ziad al-Rahbani not for his
mother Fayrouz but for the late Joseph Saqr in the late seventies.  Fayrouz
sang this song first at the Olympia in Paris in 1978.  Bosta is the way the
Beiruties pronounce Bousta or Boosta the word for bus in dialect.  A similar
words are Fasoolia (beans) in the rest of Lebanon, Fasolia in Beirut...
Sorry I am hungry now.
Rajaa Chouairi

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2)
Date: 21 Nov 2000
From: Salim Khaldieh <aa3984 at wayne.edu>
Subject: bosta response

"Bosta" means "Bus" in Lebanese.  It's the main theme of Fayrouz song "9ala
Hadiir al-Bosta".  Alos, "Bosta" is still used by many people especially in
offices and banks to mean "mail".

Salim Khaldieh, Ph.D.

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3)
Date: 21 Nov 2000
From: Waheed Samy <wasamy at umich.edu>
Subject: bosta response

Dil, I can confirm that bosta does mean a bus.  I went to school for a
couple of years
when I was a kid (57-59) in Beirut Lebanon, and used to ride the school bus.
It is
called bosta.
I don't think the Lebanese call the post bosta.  I don't have a memory of
that though.

Waheed

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4)
Date: 21 Nov 2000
From: Srpko Lestaric <srpkole at EUnet.yu>
Subject: bosta response

Dear Dil,
This was quite an amusing story. Yes, it is a bus, you can be positive. You
see, during the middle of this century buses were called "bosta" (or, in
Serbo-Croat, "poshta", etc.) in many underdeveloped countries as they use to
BRING the post from towns to villages once or twice a week. So it was in
Lebanon. I can personally confirm this for:

1-Lebanon
2-Serbia and almost all the lands of the former Yugoslavia.

Cordially,
Srpko

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5)
Date: 21 Nov 2000
From: Sami Boudelaa <sami.boudelaa at mrc-cbu.cam.ac.uk>
Subject: bosta response

	Hi Dil,
	In my native dialect, Southern Tunisian Arabic the word "bosta"
means both
"post office" and "bus". I don't have a clue why it has come to mean "bus"
or indeed "coach". When if first heard Fairuz's lyric "Aa hadiir il-bosta",
it was the vehicle meaning which came to my mind. I would not be surprised
that the word should have the two meanings in the Lebanese dialect and
probably in other dialects as well.
regards
Sami Boudelaa

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6)
Date: 21 Nov 2000
From: MOHAMMED M JIYAD <mmjiyad at unix.amherst.edu>
Subject: bosta response

In Iraq we use the word  "Bariid" for the bus that carries mail as well as
passengers to areas that are not served by train. I believe that it is the
same concept that is used in Fairuuz' song.
Mohammed Jiyad

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7)
Date: 21 Nov 2000
From: Yaser Al-Onaizan <yaser at ISI.EDU>
Subject: bosta response

Hi Dil,

I'm not a Lebanese so I'm not a 100% sure. But I believe that bosta in the
context of this song refers to train and particularly postal train and
hence the
word bosta.

Yaser

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8)
Date: 21 Nov 2000
From: GnhBos at aol.com
Subject: bosta response

Isn't Arabic a great language?
"Bosta" is more of a Palestinian dialect, the Lebanese
is more like "Boosta". Mailman is "Bostaji", "Bareed"/
"Mail" is also known as "Bosta".

George

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End of Arabic-L: 21 Nov 2000