# مع السلامة



## talmid

240110  1705


G'Day!

I would like to know, please:

a. The meaning of  the greeting ma-salaam
and
b. On which occasions this greeting is used

I am not able to speak or write Arabic, so would appreciate information in English, please

Thank you


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## cherine

Hi Talmid,

The greeting is "ma3a 's-salaama" مع السلامة
a. It literally means "in/with safety", or: may you be accompanied by safety/may safety accompany you.
b. We say it to a person who is leaving, either for a short or long period.


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## Ramblurr

Cherine about summed it up. 

Addtionally, it is a pretty generic goodbye, that is, it is not too formal. Shopkeepers, taxi drivers, etc in Egypt would say it to me as I was leaving.

Not sure about other Arab countries though.


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## Mahaodeh

As far as I'm aware, it's used in Iraq, the Levant and the UAE (at least). As Ramblurr mentioned, it's not too formal, but it's also not too "unformal", so it's acceptable to use it in a formal context.

By the way, it can also be said by a person leaving to the person staying.


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## talmid

260110    0011

Hi !

My thanks for the helpful responses

I  have one small follow-up query


Cherine's reply quotes :

 "ma3a 's-salaama"-which I do not know how to pronounce


Could you please kindly spell out the greeting 
in a format  which uses only latin characters 
& without the phonetic symbol 
to give the nearest possible indication of the correct pronunciation

Thank you


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## Faylasoof

In ma3a 's-salaama, the 3a represents an essential guttural sound (letter 3ayn) which is much deeper than the glottal stop (represented by <'>), although here we don't need it, making it ma3as-salaama.

Now, without the 3a phonetic symbol ( the one which I think is a problem for you) it'll be: 
ma'assalaama(h) / ma'as-salaama(h) - you need to pronounce at least a glottal stop (<'>) if you can't yet pronounce the strong guttural <3a>. Otherwise it’ll sound even more strange.

The <ss / s-s> means the <s> is stressed.  

The ending (h) is not pronounced but I’ve included it just to be “accurate” about the ending of the original. So you can ignore it.


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## Timmy123

Mahaodeh said:


> As far as I'm aware, it's used in Iraq, the Levant and the UAE (at least). As Ramblurr mentioned, it's not too formal, but it's also not too "unformal", so it's acceptable to use it in a formal context.
> 
> By the way, it can also be said by a person leaving to the person staying.



Thanks for letting us know this; when I first started learning Arabic I was told it can only be said to a person who is leaving and never by the person who is leaving.

What is the correct reply to someone who tells you مع السلامة?


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## Mahaodeh

Maybe in some regions they find it unusual to say to someone staying. But one can still stay and be safe, right?

Anyway, the reply would be الله يسلمك = Alla ysalmak / ysalmik / ysallimkum.


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## cherine

Good point, Maha  But in Egypt, we only say ma3assalama to the person who is leaving not the one staying. 
And the reply used in Egypt is Allah ysallemak/yesallemek.


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## Bruss04

Does the good-bye greeting "Bislemma" mean the same thing?


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## talmid

280110  0600

Hi !

Thanks for the further explanation, Faylasoof

I was also most interested to read the other additional responses

Best wishes


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## cherine

Bruss04 said:


> Does the good-bye greeting "Bislemma" mean the same thing?


Yes, to my knowledge it is the same. But it is not used in all Arab countries, and not pronounced the same way everywhere.
In Egypt we say bessalaama.


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## Xence

In Algeria, it's _besslaama_.

And, by the way, the ideal greeting scenario would be the person leaving says: "_ebqaa(w) 3la khiir_" and the person staying replies: "_besslaama_"

Of course, many variants do exist.


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## pipasdegirasol

As far as I have been taught, we can say *مع السلامة* when we leave the classroom and the teacher answers the same. I can even read that in texts. So it would be like saying good-bye and being answered good-bye. Anything wrong with that?


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## cherine

It is not wrong.
But as far as I know, in Egypt, we say Salaam when we're leaving, not ma3assalaama, which we say to the person leaving (the class, the house, the country...).
I guess it's a matter of regional differences.


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## pipasdegirasol

Yes, so many differences between countries. Thanks.


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## L.2

Bruss04 said:


> Does the good-bye greeting "Bislemma" mean the same thing?



In Tunisian dialect bislamma means  goodbye while 3islamma means Hi


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## Razin'

L.2 said:


> In Tunisian dialect bislamma means  goodbye while *3islamma* means Hi



It's rather "3*a*sslama".


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## WannaBFluent

[Moderator's Note: Merged with a previous thread. Please remember to search the forum before opening a new thread. Thank you.]
Hello,

I have a quick question about how we can say مع السلامة ma3 es-salaame.
I already know it means something like goodbye/go with peace and I know we can use this word if I stay in some place and someone is leaving it.
For example, if I am a shopkeeper, and I see one of my client leaving my shop, I can say : مع السلامة
Then the client can answer with : الله يسلمك Allah ysallmak 

My question is the following :
Can I say مع السلامة first if I am the client (so the one leaving)?

I don't know if I'm clear. In fact, I read somewhere that we could NOT use مع السلامة if we are the person leaving; and that we have to use خاطرك khaatrak instead.
But recently, I've heard someone use مع السلامة while she was the one leaving the place, so I am confused.

Thank you.


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## analeeh

It is generally considered proper Syrian (specifically Syrian, not Levantine in general) to say خاطرك or بخاطرك when you are the one leaving, but this doesn't apply in other Levantine dialects (and possibly not even in all Syrian dialects) so you will hear people saying مع السلامة in contexts you might expect خاطرك.


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## salutatout

talmid said:


> a. The meaning of  the greeting ma-salaam


Simply: Stay safe! Or Take care!
Remember one important thing when translating: you are translating to the audience.


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