# Armenian: baref/paref, bayergun



## MarcB

Hi I can not find these words in any dictionary. I know they are used as greeting especially in north east Beirut.
Bare and bari irigun.


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## Kinan

Can you write them in Arabic?


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## Softmint

doesn't ba3ref mean "I know" ? (not sure)


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## MarcB

Thanks guys. I have only heard them so I am not sure how to spell them. The baref is not with the glottal stop.I heard these words as people entered stores.


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## إسكندراني

where is the stress for each?


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## MarcB

The stress is baref stress on a and bari irigun  bari stress on a and irigum stress on the i s.


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## Kinan

Are you sure they weren't clearing their throat?


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## clevermizo

Are you sure they were speaking Arabic? Or maybe they were code-switching? It looks like Armenian to me (see the Armenian greeting section on this page). There's a large Armenian population in north-east Beirut.


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## Ustaath

Clevermizo is correct Since you mentioned a greeting said walking into the store in North East Beirut, which has a whole community and a network of Armenian stores and Businesses -  this is not Arabic but Armenian though the way you spelled them sounds like a dialect that is not generally spoken in the Levant 

Parev: ( not Baref ) -  Hello, greetings in the dialect most commonly used in Lebanon


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## إسكندراني

I'm glad that's sorted then!
Google Lebanon is even available in Armenian.


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## MarcB

Thanks everybody.I guess it was Armenian and Arabic code switching as most of what they said was Arabic.


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## tyhryk

*Barev*, not baref, is Armenian word which means "Hello!" to Your friends, relatives, etc., and this word is written in Armenian in such way: Բարև:
If You want to say "hello" to unknown or elder people, or to Your chief, etc., You must say "Barev Dzez", in Armenian:
Բարև Ձեզ:

And what "bayergun" means, I don't know. Probably there is some mistake in the writing here. Where did You find this word?


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## Ustaath

in the dialect spoken in the Levant, B becomes a P


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## tyhryk

But it's necessary to say "Barev", Ustaath.


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## Ustaath

In Lebanon it is nesecary to say Parev as a hint that you do not come from Armenia  it's a 'us and them' mentality 
like saying tomayto intstead of tomahto


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## clevermizo

If you look at the page I linked in my post above, there are two greetings that look like "bayergun":

bari yereko: an evening greeting in the Eastern Dialect
pari irigun: an evening greeting in the Western Dialect

So it sounds like it's an evening greeting (à la مساء الخير). Did this conversation take place at nighttime?


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## tyhryk

Oh, I didn't see your link before, clevermizo.  Then a word "bayergun" is really seemed as "good evening". In Armenian is:
Բարի երեկո or Բարի իրիկուն (bari yereko or bari irikun), Բարի - Good, երեկո and իրիկուն are synonyms and mean "evening".
And You say "Eastern dialect", but it isn't just a dialect, but official Armenian language.  And there is a Western Armenian dialect which is used in the USA, Western Europe etc.


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## MarcB

Thanks everybody. I think the pronunciation reflects that they are heritage speakers and that Arabic not Armenian is their first language.


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## DarkChild

tyhryk said:


> Oh, I didn't see your link before, clevermizo.  Then a word "bayergun" is really seemed as "good evening". In Armenian is:
> Բարի երեկո or Բարի իրիկուն (bari yereko or bari irikun), Բարի - Good, երեկո and իրիկուն are synonyms and mean "evening".
> And You say "Eastern dialect", but it isn't just a dialect, but official Armenian language.  And there is a Western Armenian dialect which is used in the USA, Western Europe etc.


Excuse me, but I do not like they way you are minimizing Western Armenian which is spoken by the majority of Armenians in the world. Eastern Armenian is the official dialect in Armenia, and is spoken also in Iran and former Soviet Union. Everywhere else it's Western Armenian and there is no necessity (the way you put it) of speaking Eastern Armenian. 

To answer the question, these greetings are in Armenian.
Parev (Western)/ Barev (Eastern) - Hello
Pari irigun (often shortened to parigun) (W)/ Bari ereko (E) - Good evening



MarcB said:


> Thanks everybody. I think the pronunciation reflects that they are heritage speakers and that Arabic not Armenian is their first language.


Armenians have various accents and vocabulary depending on which country they live in. The ones in the Middle East, for example, say "yalla" all the time.


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