Lebnene
Language and culture
Langue et culture
Leɤɤa w'ħađāra
Every known human society has had a language. Most people think of a language as primarily written but what set modern linguistics apart was the realization that the opposite is true: language is primarily spoken and written language is an imperfect reflection of spoken language, conveyed through a fairly new and imperfect technology, writing. The main evidence behind this conclusion is the fact that every human society has a fully functioning spoken language while, until a century ago, only a very few societies had a written language and even then, literacy was, again until recently, confined only to a small class of people.
Toutes les sociétés humaines connues ont eu une langue. La plupart des gens pensent qu'une langue est avant tout écrite, mais la linguistique moderne a constaté que c'est le contraire qui est vrai : la langue est avant tout parlée et la langue écrite est un reflet imparfait de la langue parlée, transmise par une technologie relativement nouvelle et imparfaite, l'écriture. La principale preuve de cette conclusion est le fait que chaque société humaine possède une langue parlée pleinement fonctionnelle, alors que, jusqu'à il y a un siècle, seules quelques sociétés avaient une langue écrite et même alors, l'alphabétisation était, encore jusqu'à récemment, limitée à une petite classe de personnes.
Kell mujtamaþ bԑcԑre kēn elo leɤɤa. Ԑɤlԑb l'nēs betfԑkker enno l'leɤɤa lēzem tkūn mԑktūbe, bԑs l'leɤawiyin lāħazo enno l'þaks huwwe l'maƶbūţ: l'leɤɤa meħkiyye bel'maqām l'ԑwwԑl, wel'leɤɤa l'mԑktūbe hiyye enþikēs mec kēmel lԑl'leɤɤa l'meħkiyye, btennԑqԑl b'teknolōjya jdīde nesbiyyԑn, l'kԑtībe. L'dԑlīl l'ԑsēse lԑ hԑl estentēj huwwe enno kel mujtԑmaþ þendo leɤɤa meħkiyye kēmle, bԑs men ħawēle aren, bԑs þadԑd alil mnl'mujtԑmaþēt ken þendon leɤɤa mԑktūbe, w'kēnet maħşūra bi ţabaqa ƶɤīre mnl'þālam.
It is impossible to separate language from culture, or politics, and thus, in practice, the difference between language and dialect is not linguistics but society. Two countries may have each its language even though any two persons from these countries may understand each other. They have two languages because they have different cultures, different religions, or different alphabets. On the opposite of the spectrum, we can have two people from two countries having the same official language but they have much trouble understanding each other. They insist that they are speaking different dialects of the same language. For example hindi and urdu are two different languages even though an urdu speaker can understand hindi easily and vice-versa. That's because Delhi and Islamabad are two different cultures having different religions. On the other hand a person from Jamaica and another from Scotland will have much trouble understanding each other even though they are speaking two dialect of English.
Il est impossible de séparer la langue de la culture ou de la politique. En pratique, la différence entre langue et dialecte n’est pas d’ordre linguistique mais social. Deux pays peuvent avoir chacun leur propre langue, même si deux personnes de ces pays peuvent se comprendre. Ils ont deux langues parce qu’ils ont des cultures différentes, des religions différentes ou des alphabets différents. À l’opposé, deux personnes de deux pays peuvent avoir la même langue officielle, mais avoir beaucoup de mal à se comprendre. Ils insistent sur le fait qu’ils parlent des dialectes différents de la même langue. Par exemple, l’hindi et l’ourdou sont deux langues différentes, même si un locuteur d’ourdou peut comprendre facilement l’hindi et vice-versa. C’est parce que Delhi et Islamabad sont deux cultures différentes ayant des religions différentes. D’un autre côté, une personne de la Jamaïque et une autre d’Écosse auront beaucoup de mal à se comprendre, même si elles parlent deux dialectes de l’anglais.
Mnl'mustԑħī faşel l'leɤɤa þan l'ħađāra w'þan l'siyēse, w'lԑhēk l'fԑreq bēn l'leɤɤa wl'lԑhje mec bԑs leɤawiyye. Momken bԑlԑdēn ykūn kel waħad þendo leɤto, reɤem enno ԑyyԑ caxşēn menon byefhԑmo þa baþđ. Þendon leɤtēn lԑqenno ħađarāton mextelfe, aw dīnon mextelef, aw ԑbjԑdiyyeton mextelfe. Bel'muqēbel mumken caxşēn men bԑlԑdēn þendōn nԑfs l'leɤɤa bԑs mԑ byefhamo þa baþđon ; w'bişorro ennon byeħko lԑhjtēn men nԑfs l'leɤɤa. Mԑtԑlԑn, l'hende wl'urde henne leɤtēn mextelfīn reɤem enno li byeħke hende byefham urde, wbl'þaks. Hayda lԑqenno Dԑlhi w'Eslēm Ԑbēd ħađartēn mextelfīn w'dinon mextelef. Bl'muqēbel, caxş men Jamāyka w'caxeş men Skōtlԑndԑ ma raħ yefhamo þa baþđon b'shūle reɤem ennon byeħko lԑhjtēn mnl'inglīze.
The Lebanese language
Lebanese is descended from many languages: syriac, arabic, french, turkish, english, etc. This isn't a surprise considering that the country had been occupied by the ottomans and then by the syrians, was under a french mandate for many years, was conquered by the arabs, etc. The English influence is mostly throughout technology (TVs, magazines, web, computers).
The dominant written language in neighbouring countries is arabic (sometimes called "modern stantard arabic"), but it isn't a spoken language, it isn't the native language of any people nowadays. Arabic was the native language of a group of bedouins (nomadic tribes in the desert) longtime ago. The earliest documented use of the word "arab" appears in the Kurkh Monoliths written in the ancient Akkadian language around 2900 years ago. The arab empires (Rashidun, Umayyad, Abbasid, etc.) were conquering region after region by the power of the sword; hence the arabic language was forced upon the conquered people including Lebanese, Coptics, and Berbers. That's why nowadays most people called arabs are in fact arabized and aren't necessarily related to the arabs. Who's arab and who's not arab is a complicating question because "arab" has a cultural and historical meaning (the original arabs of the desert), a linguistic meaning (who can speak arabic?), and an ideological and polical meaning (arabism. a type of socialism proomoted by the likes of Abdel Naser).
Leaving this artificial complexity aside, let's concentrate on the language only. Arabic is written from right to left, in contrast to Lebanese and most modern languages that are written from left to right. Most arabic letters change shapes depending on their position in a word and depending of the letters preceding them; for example ههه ه is the exact same letter written 4 times, and each time it changes shape. Each letter can be pronounced in multiple ways depending on the (often omitted) signs, so the reader has to guess how to read a word using his memory. Even worse the exact same word is pronounced differently depending on its position in a sentence, so to speak an arabic sentence correctly one must analyze its grammar beforehand. That's why most people fail to speak arabic correctly even after decades of practice, and that's why Turkey changed its alphabet from the arabic one to the modern Latin alphabet.
Some arabic letters don't have an equivalent in Lebanese, and vice versa. For example, the Lebanese letters g, p, v, pronounced just like in English, don't exist in arabic at all. g and p existed in the phoenician language, the language spoken in Lebanon and neighbouring countries thousands of yeard ago. The previously mentioned complexities of the arabic language don't exist in Lebanese. Being a non-european language, Lebanese has a few letters rarely encountered in Europe. The letters đ, ħ, ƶ (which are written like d, h, z but with a small bar) and ɤ, þ, ş, ţ don't have an equivalent in English, so an English speaker should take his time practicing them if he wish to learn Lebanese. However, don't be discouraged, they aren't very difficult; for example, ş is pronounced like s but you use your throat more.
The alphabet
Our alphabet is composed of 34 letters:
| a | ԑ | b | c | d | đ | e | |||
| f | g | ɤ | h | ħ | i | j | k | ||
| l | m | n | o | p | þ | q | r | s | |
| ş | t | ţ | u | v | w | x | y | z | ƶ |
26 of these letters are present in the English alphabet. However, not all of them are pronounced as in English; for example, "c" in Lebanese is pronouced like "ch" in English, so "sushi" (the japanese food) is written "sūci" in Lebanese (the bar over "u" is to emphasize it). To learn how to pronounce these 34 Lebanese letters, you can watch this video.