# يا حبيبي، يا ليلي



## Forero

I have heard a "Greek" song that mentions smuggling a person out of Arabia and uses words that sound like "akh ya habibi, (y)akh ya leleli (y)akh".  Is this Arabic?  What is "I love you" in Arabic?


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## HKK

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Misirlou

The "Akh" you mention is Greek, meant as "Ah". Better clear that out before more speculative theories arise


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## Forero

I meant to ask, what is "beloved" or "loved one" in Arabic?

And I see some similar words in a poem from around the year 1100 in a language called Mozarabic that seems mostly like Spanish.  But this part is not Spanish:  "l-il-habib".  It is purported to mean "because of the loved one".


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## Abu Rashid

yes habib means loved one or beloved.


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## CarlosPerezMartinez

Habib is beloved.
Habibi is my love.

I don't know if leleli is Arabic but layali (or leyeli in some dialects) means: my nights. Therefore, a possible translation would be: "Oh my love, oh my nights" Referring of course to the nights spent with his/her love.


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## SofiaB

CarlosPerezMartinez said:


> Habib is beloved.
> Habibi is my love.
> 
> I don't know if leleli is Arabic but layali (or leyeli in some dialects) means: my nights. Therefore, a possible translation would be: "Oh my love, oh my nights" Referring of course to the nights spent with his/her love.


Also akh can be brother.


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## Forero

Thank you so much.  I was hoping it was something appropriate.  Would "ya layali" be something a person might really say?

By the way, the person to whom the song is addressed is "Misirlu" or "Mizirlu".  What sort of name would that be?


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## cherine

Forero said:


> Thank you so much. I was hoping it was something appropriate. Would "ya layali" be something a person might really say?


Not in everyday life. 
Ya leil/leili/layali... , ya 3eini (Oh ! my night(s), my eye) is a common expression in many Arabic songs, specially older ones. They don't mean anything in particular, but they mainly help the singers "show" their voice.
I don't think I can explain it very much, but if you listen to some of those Arabic songs maybe you can get it better.

As for the name, I don't think I heard it before.


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## Nikola

Forero said:


> Thank you so much. I was hoping it was something appropriate. Would "ya layali" be something a person might really say?
> 
> By the way, the person to whom the song is addressed is "Misirlu" or "Mizirlu". What sort of name would that be?


The name is the Greek version of Turkish Mısırlı from Egypt
misr/masr so it is Egyptian girl. This is a very old song,I do not know who the singer is.


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## Josh_

I thought 'layaali' was just the plural of leela, not a possessive construction, so it would just be, "Oh nights."


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## cherine

You're right Josh. Layaali is the plural of leela. It's also used in songs, but less frequently than "ya leel".


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## Forero

Could this leleli possibly be Turkish?  Does the old song have Turkish words?

Also, the song I've heard is mostly in Greek with a female singer, so I have always assumed that Misirlu could be her lover and therefore male, but I have heard an English version with a male signer mentioning "naked feet that danced across the floor", which I am thinking would be his lover's (female).

Is the Egyptian name strictly feminine, whether -li or -lu?


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## SofiaB

I just noticed hkk post http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Misirlou
You can see the song.


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## Forero

That's marvelous!  The whole story.  Sorry HKK.  I thought you were referring to a site I saw before that only had a few Romanized lyrics.


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## HKK

That's alright 

It's also just a great song, by the way!


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## seitt

According to Hans Wehr's dictionary, one of the plurals of ليل is لیالٍ. Is that the one which becomes ليالي when you add the suffix –ي (my)?


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## cherine

Hi,

The ي in ليالي is not a suffix, it's a part of the word. It's elided/removed in the indefinite form and replaced with a tanween kasr ليالٍ and we keep it in the definite form: الليالي .


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## seitt

Many thanks, I understand.

But what happens when you add "my" to ليالي ? If ليالي = nights, how do you say "my nights"?


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## Anabta

seitt said:


> Many thanks, I understand.
> 
> But what happens when you add "my" to ليالي ? If ليالي = nights, how do you say "my nights"?



لياليّ


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## seitt

many thanks - please give the pronunciation


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## Anabta

seitt said:


> many thanks - please give the pronunciation



You are so welcome...

Layaleyya


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