ahlan wa-sahlan

My tongue has been struggling with Arabic and Hebrew sounds this week... The pronounciation of the Arabic "h" seems to require more capacity and coordination than my lungs and tongue can muster. I practice on my favourite phrase: "Ahlan wa-sahlan!" - welcome! Our Arabic teacher explained to us that the expression comes from "ahel", meaning family, and "sahel", meaning flat land or ground. Altogether, "ahlan wa-sahlan" then encompasses something like: "You are with family now, and the way ahead of you is flat, there are no obstacles in front of your feet". The European "well come" suddenly sounded quite flat...

Other favourite expressions that are supplied in my little book of spoken Arabic: "That's the way it goes", "You have a sense of humour", "The number is wrong", "Show me the width of your shoulders" (meaning: turn around and go away - quite useful), "Go jump in the lake", and "Wow!!!" (apparently transcribes as "yaa-baa-yyee-ee!"). I shall try to put these into practice soon.

The little book also gives a translation of "There is no hope", but seems to have forgotten the ever useful "Insh'allah!" - God willing! I suspect it was left out because it is so obvious you can't avoid learning it. You can throw it in at any appropriate or inappropriate moment to express a purpose or a longing for something. Sometimes it becomes a sarcastic comment to the disillusionment many feel at the situation here. Mostly it captures a sense of hope. Tomorrow will bring flat ground and no obstacles at our feet. Insh'allah.