# Tunisian Arabic: halla ya wild 3amti barra rabi m3ak



## ZFigo

Bonjour,

Je cherche la traduction de cette phrase :

*halla ya wild 3amti   barra rabi m3ak*

De l'arabe vers le français !

Merci d'avance !


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## GoldBug

Laissez-moi essayer:

halla = Salut, Bon Jour, Ca va....etc

ya = o (généralement intraduisible)

wild 3mti = fils de ma tante = mon cousin

barra = ?

rabi = mon (ici: notre) Seigneur

m3ak = avec vous

C'est a dire:

*Salut, mon cher cousin ! Comment allez-vous?

(Le problème ici est que nous ne savons pas d'où vient cette phrase patois ... est-il marocain, tunisien, etc? )
*


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## إسكندراني

GoldBug said:


> barra = dehors


A mon avis, c'est pas un salutation.
Est-ce qu'on l'a dit avant de quitter?
As tu des phrases précédentes?


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## GoldBug

إسكندراني said:


> A mon avis, c'est pas un salutation.
> Est-ce qu'on l'a dit avant de quitter?
> As tu des phrases précédentes?



Je reconnais que la deuxième partie de la phrase commençant par BARRA semble être une chose que tu dirais à la sortie ..... mais la première partie de la phrase commençant par HALLA semble être ce que tu dirais à l'arrivée.

Aussi, je me rends que BARRA signifie généralement «dehors», mais j'ai l'impression que cela ici signifie autre chose peut-être parce que nous sommes face à une variation dialectale.


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## إسكندراني

GoldBug said:


> Je reconnais que la deuxième partie de la phrase commençant par BARRA semble être une chose que tu dirais à la sortie ..... mais la première partie de la phrase commençant par HALLA semble être ce que tu dirais à l'arrivée.


pardon
je pense que en maghreb on dit
halla=maintenant

on ne dit jamais 'hala' commes les emiratis!


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## Lark-lover

I wish  would speak French..

It says :"welcome, my aunt's son, may Allah cure your blindness"


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## GoldBug

Let me switch to English for the benefit of our non-French speaking audience:

To: Iskandrani: Halla may mean "maintenant" in Moroccan Arabic, but there is no indication that we are dealing with a western Arabic dialect here. The original poster has been silent so far about the sentence's origin despite my request that he clarify this issue. (Also, Lark-Lover now states that Halla is indeed a greeting !!).

To: Lark-lover: Blindness?  How on earth does "barra rabi m3ak" mean "May God cure your blindness"? Can you give some kind of analysis? Thanks. (For example, what dialect are we dealing with here??)


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## إسكندراني

GoldBug said:


> To: Lark-lover: Blindness?  How on earth does "barra rabi m3ak" mean "May God cure your blindness"? Can you give some kind of analysis? Thanks. (For example, what dialect are we dealing with here??)


برا is cure from blindness in some dialects.
We won't get anywhere if we don't know the dialect so let's leave it here. 'Wild 3amti' sounds very western...


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## GoldBug

إسكندراني said:


> برا is cure from blindness in some dialects.
> We won't get anywhere if we don't know the dialect so let's leave it here. 'Wild 3amti' sounds very western...



Ok, I got no problem leaving it here until we're sure of the dialect.....but I was just looking at Wehr and I had a sort of epiphany or revelation so I thought i'd mention it now before I forget it....

برا  and its varities has several meanings, one of which is to "be clear of an illness" or to be in good health.  Therefore, "barra rabi m3ak" good easily mean "MAY GOD KEEP YOU IN GOOD HEALTH" (may God's health be with you).

Since we don't say this type of thing (at least in English), I would have to translate it as I originally did which is "HOW ARE YOU?" or in French "COMMENT ALLEZ-VOUS?"  Which leaves the problem with HALLA....is it a Greeting or is it Moroccan "Now".  I still favor a greeting.    À   bientôt.


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## Abu Talha

I don't know either French or the dialects so this may be completely irrelevant.
I've heard barra used with yalla at the end of a conversation. Is it possibly rude/familiar? Like shooing some one away?

yalla, barra. rabbi m3ak!
Off with you then! may the Lord be with you!


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## إسكندراني

daee said:


> I don't know either French or the dialects so this may be completely irrelevant.
> I've heard barra used with yalla at the end of a conversation. Is it possibly rude/familiar? Like shooing some one away?
> 
> yalla, barra. rabbi m3ak!
> Off with you then! may the Lord be with you!


Yeah this is exactly what I suggested but we need a specific dialect to pin down the intended meaning because it can means lots of things.


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## ZFigo

sureMerci pour vos réponses !

A 99%, c'est du tunisien, pour ceux qui demandaient !

En résumé, ça donnerai : "Salut cousin, comment ça va ? Dieu soit avec toi"


Thanks for your answers!

A 99%, it's tunisian!


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## djara

Je suis tunisien. Toute la phrase est de l'arabe tunisien excepté le premier mot, _halla_, qui pourrait être levantin (libanais, syrien, palestinien) pour dire "maintenant'.
"_barra_" est un verbe tunisien à l'impératif et veut dire "vas!"
La phrase donnerait donc: Maintenant (?), cousin, vas! que le bon Dieu soit avec toi. (Now, cousin, off you go, May God be with you)
rabi m3ak s'utilise souvent comme une formule d'encouragement.
A noter: 3amti, c'est tante du côté paternel, alors que khalti, c'est tante du côté maternel.


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## إسكندراني

djara said:


> Je suis tunisien. Toute la phrase est de l'arabe tunisien excepté le premier mot, _halla_, qui pourrait être levantin (libanais, syrien, palestinien) pour dire "maintenant'.


Est-ce que c'est normale qu'on trouve des mots levantines en Tunisie? C'est bizarre pour moi!
In any case guys that's confirmation that it's a goodbye (now, cousin.  Be gone, God be with you!). And the 'God be with you' is an encouragement just as in lots of dialects.


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## GoldBug

Not to beat a dead horse.......but sorry, I'm still not convinced that this is a FAREWELL.

1. There's the problem with HALLA. Our Tunisian contributor states this is not a Tunisian word. He says it may be "Levantine" for "Maintenant". But that's as strange (as stated by Iskandrani) as (my) saying that it means "Salut" a la Khaleeji. Why would a Tunisian use a Levantine/Khaleeji term? Perhaps he lived in one of those areas (or is still living there) and has picked up this phrase and now uses it normally. There are still too many unanswered questions which is to say, we still don't have enough information to come to a definitive conclusion. I still maintain that HALLA (here) = SALUT simply because it makes more sense that a message of this sort would have HELLO as the first word rather than NOW.

Unfortunately, in my opinion, HALLA is the KEY word in the phrase - once we know what it REALLY means here, everything else will clear up. 

2. I see problems with BARRA, RABI and M3AK. Assuming this phrase has a "religious" background of sorts, I find it odd that it's a mixture of (supposedly) dialect (BARRA) and fusHa (M3AK.....insted of "beek" or some such). Why is it RABI? What's the "I" doing here and why isn't it RABB? There are other questions in this regard, but I won't tackle them here.

3. It's also possible, I suppose, that what ZFIGO wrote down in his post is incorrect. Did he HEAR this message over the phone and wrote down what he thinks he heard......was it sent to him in a letter? Was it sent to him via email with its notorious spelling shorthands etc etc. ? Again, we don't know.

4. But most important, ZFIGO, in his latest posting, writes: *En résumé, ça donnerai : "Salut cousin, comment ça va ? Dieu soit avec toi"
*AND *he appears completely satisfied that that is what the message is indeed conveying to him. In other words, that he is being GREETED, not being bid goodbye. 
*

*Seems to me if in reality he was being bid FAREWELL, he wouldn't have accepted my rendition so easily. If GOODBYE was what was intended, he would have immediately let us know. But he didn't. He was happy with being GREETED. He says so himself. He's satisfied that that's what the message was conveying to him. 

So I have to conclude that he is indeed being greeted with this phrase and not being bid farewell.

It's also possible that he is being greeted (1st part of phrase) AND being bid farewell (2nd part of phrase) all at the same time.....short email msgs sometimes do this.
*


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## djara

إسكندراني said:


> Est-ce que c'est normale qu'on trouve des mots levantines en Tunisie?


 Non, ce n'est pas normal. Parfois, des mots égyptiens sont inclus (influence des feuilletons TV). Ou alors, celui qui dit ces mots est en contact avec des levantins.

Peut-être aussi que la transcription de "halla" n'est pas correcte. Il s'agit probablement de 7aala حالة Dans ce cas, la phrase voudrait dire:
C'st terrible, cousin  Que Dieu te vienne en aide.
En effet, 7aala (parfois suivi de 7liila) peut être traduit par: "Quelle affaire! J' n'en reviens pas; c'est terrible" en commentant une histoire terrible qu'on vient d'entendre.


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## clevermizo

GoldBug said:


> 2. I see problems with BARRA, RABI and M3AK. Assuming this phrase has a "religious" background of sorts, I find it odd that it's a mixture of (supposedly) dialect (BARRA) and fusHa (M3AK.....insted of "beek" or some such). Why is it RABI? What's the "I" doing here and why isn't it RABB? There are other questions in this regard, but I won't tackle them here.



Rabbi means "My Lord" and is common for meaning "God" in numerous dialects. Barra has already been explained by Djara above. And it is most certainly dialect and not FuS7a. Did you not read Djara's post?:



> "_barra_" est un verbe tunisien à l'impératif et veut dire "vas!"
> ...
> rabi m3ak s'utilise souvent comme une formule d'encouragement.


Also now we have the information from the OP that the speaker was Tunisian.



> 3. It's also possible, I suppose, that what ZFIGO wrote down in his post is incorrect. Did he HEAR this message over the phone and wrote down what he thinks he heard......was it sent to him in a letter? Was it sent to him via email with its notorious spelling shorthands etc etc. ? Again, we don't know.



It must have been written because it contains an emoticon which is something people don't use in speech  .




djara said:


> Non, ce n'est pas normal. Parfois, des mots égyptiens sont inclus (influence des feuilletons TV). Ou alors, celui qui dit ces mots est en contact avec des levantins.
> 
> Peut-être aussi que la transcription de "halla" n'est pas correcte. Il s'agit probablement de 7aala حالة Dans ce cas, la phrase voudrait dire:
> C'st terrible, cousin  Que Dieu te vienne en aide.
> En effet, 7aala (parfois suivi de 7liila) peut être traduit par: "Quelle affaire! J' n'en reviens pas; c'est terrible" en commentant une histoire terrible qu'on vient d'entendre.



In Tunisia do they ever say هلا as an informal greeting? This is fairly normal in the Levant. Pronounced [hala] that is, without تشديد on the لام.


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## djara

clevermizo said:


> In Tunisia do they ever say هلا as an informal greeting?


 Definitely not Tunisian. However, it could be said jocularly, mimicking mashreq talk.


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## Abu Talha

clevermizo said:


> GoldBug said:
> 
> 
> 
> 3. It's also possible, I suppose, that what ZFIGO wrote down in his post is incorrect. Did he HEAR this message over the phone and wrote down what he thinks he heard......was it sent to him in a letter? Was it sent to him via email with its notorious spelling shorthands etc etc. ? Again, we don't know.
> 
> 
> 
> It must have been written because it contains an emoticon which is something people don't use in speech  .
Click to expand...

I think the author of this puzzling statement would be quite tickled to read this thread!
It seems like we're trying to decode an ancient codex here..
Anyway, could it be a typo, due to the proximity of "h" and "y" on the keyboard?


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## clevermizo

daee said:


> I think the author of this puzzling statement would be quite tickled to read this thread!
> It seems like we're trying to decode an ancient codex here..



Quite! But often this is the case with Arabic chat spelling because of the lack of uniformity sometimes. This is why more context is always important  .


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## إسكندراني

I agree that the key is this 'hala' but I guarantee that nobody anywhere in North Africa - including Egypt & Sudan - uses it as 'hello'. It could be حالة that would make sense too. More clues would be nice though


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## Lark-lover

Sorry, I thought it was"3mak".


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## rayloom

daee said:


> Anyway, could it be a typo, due to the proximity of "h" and "y" on the keyboard?



Halla being a typo from yalla (allez, vas-y, on y va...etc), fits well actually with the meaning.


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## GoldBug

إسكندراني said:


> I agree that the key is this 'hala' but I guarantee that nobody anywhere in North Africa - including Egypt & Sudan - uses it as 'hello'. It could be حالة that would make sense too. More clues would be nice though



Yes, too much of the "context" remains a mystery.  I just thought right now, for example....isn't it odd that the original poster received a message in Arabic from someone - presumably a relative - who must know he doesn't speak Arabic?  What "context" would lead him to do that?


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## rayloom

GoldBug said:


> Yes, too much of the "context" remains a mystery.  I just thought right now, for example....isn't it odd that the original poster received a message in Arabic from someone - presumably a relative - who must know he doesn't speak Arabic?  What "context" would lead him to do that?



Not to steer too much off-topic, but not necessarily.
It could be in a facebook (or internet) group or something.
I have a Turkish friend on facebook who only writes to me and comments in Turkish. It's easy though using google translate to understand most of it. Unfortunately when it comes to Arabic chatsprache or dialectal Arabic, google fails ever so miserably!


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## ZFigo

TO answer, yes it's from Facebook


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## GoldBug

ZFigo said:


> TO answer, yes it's from Facebook



Peut-être que vous pouvez demander à votre ami sur Facebook ce que *Halla *signifique en francais et depuis, vous pouvez nous le dire. C'est possible?


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## chanelines

salem chui tunisienne alors je peux t'apporter la bonne reponse mem si c un peu tard
au fait "halla" s'écrit plus exactement "7alla" pour la bien prononcer en arabe tunisien et c'est pas "maintenant" ou "salut"
comme les jeunes français ont developpé une variante de langue propre à eux qu'est le verlan les jeunes tunisiens ont leur propre lexique et 7alla= la vie te traite bien ou bien t'as de la chance
barra rabi m3ak est une phrase qu'on dit tt le temps c com un virgule ou un point c'est com inchallah. ici, littéralement c'est =que dieu soit avec toi, contexte= j’espère que ça sera tjs le cas 
et le tt ca fait : la vie de traite bien cousin, j’espère que ça sera tjs le cas.

j’espère que ça va aider


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