Arabic-L:TRANS:'Needs Translations' Responses

[Dilworth B. Parkinson]

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Arabic-L: Mon 15 Oct 2001
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1) Subject: 'Needs Translations' Response
2) Subject: 'Needs Translations' Response

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1)
Date:  15 Oct 2001
From: GnhBos at aol.com
Subject: 'Needs Translations' Response

Salaam Mischa,

An Nakel, Machine Translation software, provides an online
free service. For more information: Contact AramediA.

Dictionary online:
http://www.cimos.com/DictNet.htm

Translation online:
http://www.cimos.com/TradNet.htm

Best Regards,

George N. Hallak
http://www.aramedia.com
mailto:info at aramedia.com
T 617-825-3044 F 617-265-9648

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2)
Date:  15 Oct 2001
From: dwilmsen <dwilmsen at aucegypt.edu>
Subject: 'Needs Translations' Response

Hello,

One thing you should take into account is that translation is usually carried
out into the so-called "modern standard Arabic", which is a variety that
no-one speaks.  So if you are looking to pepper your text with realistic terms
from dialogue, you had better not just rely upon any translation (there is an
entry on Arabic-L about an on-line English to Arabic translator, have you seen
it?).

That is one thing.  The other is that the colloquial terms for everyday
concepts will vary from place to place, usually falling out into broad dialect
areas (eg. Egyptian, Levantine, Penninsular and Gulf, Yemeni, North African)
with many sub-dialects within those broad areas.

Lastly, the transaltion of any individual terms often depends upon context
(this is true, of course, with any language).

That being said, the Egyptian Arabic for your terms are as follows:



(1) life

el-hayaa

(2) activity

nashaat Pl. anshita

(3) active

do you mean an active person?

if so  nashiit, fem nashita

(4) busy person

do you mena he or she is busy right now or very often busy?

then he is mashghuul, she is mashghula


(5) curious

do you mean he or she is curious, in the sense of wondering about things?

then he is faduul, she is fadula

(6) meeting place

There is no particular name for this in Egyptian, if by that you mean a
regular hangout for the gang.  There are some such words in highly classical
Arabic, which someone might use humoroulsy - and perhpas not be understood.
The word for "place" is "makaan".

i'll ask my wife if there is any particularly Egyptian word for hangout.

(7) party

hafla

(8) society

mugtama

(9) going out

I suppose you mean this as it migh be used in "I am going out tonight?"

the actual event is called khuruga, I coould say "ana (I) khaarig" i.e., "I am
going out"  You would say "ana kharga".  The two of us would say "ihna
khargiin"

(10)gregarious

igtima'i  (ther is an Arabic sound represented here by the apostrophe.  this
is not to accurate since there is another sound also represented in
transliteration by the apostrophe.  The sound in igtima'i is also somtimes
represented as an a superscript c or a backwards questiopnmark or sometimes a
9.  In smoothly flowing English writing none of these, excpet perhaps the
superscript, are terribly appealing.  What are you writing, BTW?)

Good luck

David Wilmsen
Director, Arabic and Translation Studies
The American University in Cairo
28 Falaki Street
Bab El-Louk
Cairo, Egypt
tel:  2 02 7976872
fax:  2 02 7957565

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End of Arabic-L:  15 Oct 2001