Syrian Arabic

Submitted by dhimmi no more (United States), Jun 3, 2013 at 14:14

Dr. Pipes you wrote

Mishan Allah ("God have mercy" in Syrian dialect

I was not really familiar with this word but I did have a very interesting chat about this word with a Syrian priest who knows his Syrian Arabic as well as Syriac very well and the word مشان or mishan means li-ajl or لأجل or for the sake of so the above mishan Allah really means "For the sake of Allah."

But this is not the end of the story as the word mishan can also mean "sharp tongue" and here is the reference from elmaany http://www.almaany.com/home.php?language=arabic&lang_name=%D8%B9%D8%B1%D8%A8%D9%8A&word=%D9%85%D8%B4%D8%A7%D9%86

1. المِشَانُ - مِشَانُ :

   المِشَانُ : المرأَةُ السَّليطةُ المشاتِمةُ .
   و المِشَانُ الذِّئبةُ العادِيَةُ .

   المعجم: المعجم الوسيط

2. مشان :

   - إمرأة حادة اللسان . ش

   المعجم: الرائد

3. أشانَ يُشين ، أَشِنْ ، إشانةً ، فهو مُشِين ، والمفعول مُشان :

   • أشان موقفَه شانه ، شوَّهه وعابه " فعل مُشين : قبيح

But my friend the Syrian priest also pointed out that the source of the word is from Syriac ܡܫܢܐ which makes sense because it still retains the Syriac letter sheen which becomes Arabic seen

So what a disaster Hizballah members are using what seems to me to be a Syriac word!

For the readers: anyone who knows Syrian-Arabic is more than welcome to comment on this very interesting word

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