The term yen3al/yel3an deeno

Submitted by dhimmi no more (United States), Feb 15, 2011 at 07:44

Hi Motke

>You mentioned "Deen Om el-Bolees". I have a little question. In Hebrew's slang (borrowed from Arabic) we say "il'an deeno" to curse somebody.

In Egyptian Arabic it could be yel3an deeno or yen3al deeno (which could very well be a metathesis) and you have to be careful as Egyptian Arabic is really a language and it can be very different from let us say Palestinian Arabic

If you are interested in a reference then check Badawi and Hinds dictionary of Egyptian Arabic and for this see page 792A and the word is L3N and yel3an or he curses and yil3an deen ummak means I curse the religion of your mother

>(We actually switch the letters in "il'an" to be "in'al", to avoid this negative word.)

No I suspect that it is a case of metathesis as you have the same words in Egyptian Arabic and they mean the same thing

>Does "il'an deeno", in Arabic, really mean "curse upon his religion"?

If you would say yel3an deeno then it will be the same words or may his religion be cursed

>But isn't (virtually) every Arab's religion Islam?

Not true as in the case of Egypt 10% of Egyptians are Copts but the beauty of such curse is it has nothing to do with religion! You are insulting a person where it hurts the most

>Surely they don't curse their own religion.

Oh they do

>Could somebody please explain "il'an deeno" to me?

It means may his religion be cursed. and no it is not seen as an insult to "religion" but as an insult to the person that you are cursing and in this case another more potent insult to his mother so by adding yen3al deen ummak or I curse the religion of your mother which makes it more insulting

I hope I helped

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