# Egyptian Arabic: بتبقى مخلفة



## bwac14

Hi,

I was wondering what the meaning of مخلفة was in this sentence:

البنات معظمها بتبقى متجوزة ومخلفة وبتشتغل فليه مش عايزينها تتعلم تعليم كويس يخليها تطلع شخص واعي...

Thank you


----------



## analeeh

I believe it's '(having)' given birth/had children'.


----------



## Finland

Underdeveloped, behind others, underachieving, lagging behind...


----------



## Finland

analeeh said:


> I believe it's '(having)' given birth/had children'.



Wow, I didn't even come to think of that possibility, although it's possible to interpret it mukhallifa as well as mukhallafa as I did. I just automatically interpreted it as mukhallafa, since the context pointed in that direction. I'm very curious to hear what natives say!


----------



## analeeh

Well, generally speaking the word used for 'backward' is متخلف, not مخلف. Plus it's paired with متجوز.

I think it would be pronounced _mikhallef_, although this might be one of the verbs that has an _a _in the last syllable.


----------



## elroy

Finland said:


> I'm very curious to hear what natives say!


 I agree with analeeh (but I’m not a native speaker of Egyptian Arabic).


----------



## Finland

Yes, absolutely! The "having children" interpretation makes much more sense, I don't know how my mind got so set on the other interpretation. I'm convinced analeeh understood it the right way, but I would still be curious to know from native EA speakers if it's possible to understand it the other way (I don't think so).


----------



## cherine

Finland said:


> Underdeveloped, behind others, underachieving, lagging behind...


The word for these is motakhaleff(a). Mekhallefa means have given birth, have children.
The expression متجوزة ومخلفة metgawweza wemkhalkefa can only be understood as: married and have kids.


----------



## Tilmeedh

How would one translate the sentence as a whole?

(البنات معظمها بتبقى متجوزة ومخلفة وبتشتغل فليه مش عايزينها تتعلم تعليم كويس يخليها تطلع شخص واعي...)

'Most girls stay married, keep having (raising?) children, and work outside the home, so why don't people want them to have a good education that makes them into well-rounded citizens?'


----------



## ayed

Tilmeedh said:


> How would one translate the sentence as a whole?
> 
> (البنات معظمها بتبقى متجوزة ومخلفة وبتشتغل فليه مش عايزينها تتعلم تعليم كويس يخليها تطلع شخص واعي...)
> 
> 'Most girls *are *married, *have *children, and work outside the home, so why don't people want them to have a good education that makes them into well-rounded citizens?'


Notice in red


----------



## Tilmeedh

Could you modify my translation or suggest a new one? I use special technology that doesn't distinguish colours.


----------



## ayed

Tilmeedh said:


> Could you modify my translation or suggest a new one? I use special technology that doesn't distinguish colours.


Most girls *are *married, *have *children, and work outside the home, so why don't people want them to have a good education that makes them into well-rounded citizens


----------



## Tilmeedh

(بيبقى/بتبقى) can mean 'to be' in Egyptian? I thought this verb was equivalent to the English 'to stay/to remain'. Is there a way to know which sense is intended?


----------



## Ghabi

Tilmeedh said:


> (بيبقى/بتبقى) can mean 'to be' in Egyptian?


Yeah ... "to be" or "to become". For "to remain/stay" I would expect بتفضل.


----------



## Hemza

Tilmeedh said:


> (بيبقى/بتبقى) can mean 'to be' in Egyptian? I thought this verb was equivalent to the English 'to stay/to remain'. Is there a way to know which sense is intended?


I cannot say it for sure but I think this meaning (to become) is only found in Egypt and Sudan (may be Chad as well?) whereas elsewhere else it means "to stay/to remain/to keep doing". I guess you've been tricked by Lebanese here .


----------



## cherine

ayed said:


> Most girls *are *married, *have *children, and work outside the home, so why don't people want them to have a good education that makes them into well-rounded citizens


Just to add a little modification: most girls are married, with children and (still) work outside the home; so why people don't want them to have a good education that would make them bring up well-rounded persons.
I read and understand تطلع as teTalla3: to bring up, to raise a child, not teTla3: to grow into.

The idea of the sentence as I understand it is that it's a criticism of people not encouraging women education, even though many women already work (and raise their children at the same time), so why not give those working mothers a good education that would allow them to better raise their children into enlightened/learned persons?


----------



## Tilmeedh

Hemza--haha 

I suspect I was being influenced more by MSA, actually: (يبقى) can mean 'to stay' as in the WordReference example (يبقى مستيقظا) = 'to stay awake'.

In fact, isn't it more common to say (بيضلّ) in Lebanese?

Cherine--it would be helpful if you could look at the sentence in its original context to confirm what the author was trying to say. This learner of Arabic wishes the 'shadda' was always mandatory, to avoid situations like this.


----------



## cherine

Good suggestion, Tilmeedh. And it turns out your reading is the correct one. The sentence is taken from a book written in colloquial Egyptian Arabic, called دش ساقع (cold shower) (I found it on Google). Here's the paragraph:

البنات معظمها بتبقى متجوزة ومخلفة وبتشتغل... فليه مش عايزينها تتعلم تعليم كويس يخليها تطلع شخص واعي متطور تشتغل وتفيد مجتمعها وتفيد نفسها؟
طب نفرض إنها مشتغلتش وقررت تقعد في البيت.
ليه مبتقاش متعلمة تعليم كويس وبرضو متطورة ومثقفة عشان تربي جيل محترم واعي يفيد مجتمعه؟

So, yes, the writer says:
leh mesh/mosh 3ayzenha tet3allem ta3lim kowayyes yekhalliha teTla3 shakhS wa3i meTTawwar/motaTawwer teshtaghal wetfid mogtama3ha wetfid nafsaha
Which means: why don't you want her to receive good education that would make her be(come) an aware and developed person who would work and be useful to her society and herself?


----------

