Lebanese Arabic

invented by Saiid Akl

Lebanese is a dialect of Arabic, or a language descended from Arabic (depending on perspective), spoken in modern-day Lebanon, and around the world by a large Lebanese diaspora. It contains influences from Aramaic, and possibly Phoenician, as well as more recently introduced Turkish and (to a lesser extent) French vocabulary. It is the colloquial language of the Lebanese but is not used officially, classical Arabic being the official language of the country, as mandated by the constitution. It is quite different to classical Arabic in that it incorporates many different words, sounds and grammatical functions that are not found in the Arabic language. For example, the expression "look inside" is translated in Arabic to:

• "Onzorr Fid-Dakhel"

while in Lebanese it becomes:

• "Shuf Jouwwa"

or in the female command form

• "Shufi Jouwwa"

The issue of the Lebanese language is a contentious point in Lebanon as many among the local Maronite communities consider it a separate and distinct language, while others, mostly from the Shi'a community, prefer to view it as dialect of Arabic. In addition, the identification of Lebanese as a language is pushed for by the radical right-wing group Guardians of the Cedars. This again reflects the confessionally divided nature of the Lebanese self-image.

Attempts to replace the Arabic alphabet (alphabet set) with a customised Latin alphabet for use in transcribing Lebanese were introduced in previous years by some Lebanese intellectuals, most famous amongst them is the poet Saïd Akl. Some works were published using Latin-based Lebanese, however, this again played on confessional sensibilities and the substitution project failed quite miserably.

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