# Saudi Arabic: وش الطاري wsh el Taari



## Anitta

Could anyone tell me what "wsh el 6ari?" mean??
Thank you!!


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## Saleh Al-Qammaari

Hello, Anitta!

*wsh *means face

*el 6ari *means the soft

With respect to the two words together, they are nonsense for me. So,could you put this phrase in context or what was the occasion of saying it. I will be so dutiful if you can specify the country of the person who said so since colloquial dialects differ from a country to another.

Clear?


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## ayed

Anitta said:


> Could anyone tell me what "wsh el 6ari?" mean??
> Thank you!!


 
What is " the trigger".

When you are talking to a freind , then you shift to an irrelevant topic,he/she may say"What *thing* that triggered you to shift your speech"(Wish el-Tari).
What is the thing that caused you to shift to this"new topic"?.Something poped up in your mind , then you said it to your peer.He/she may say"wish el-Tari".
Something you mention which is irrelevant to the current topic WITHOUT saying(by the way)to your listener.
To avoid the phrase"wish el-Tari", we say :
*By the way*
*----------*
In long Badawi conversations, when we end our speeches, one of us may wonder or ask:
Wish illi Tarrah 'aliana(What thing triggered this conversation)وش اللي طراه علينا


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## Anitta

Thank you  I think ayed's answer is the right one, it makes total sense in the context I read that sentence.
Thanks a lot to both of you


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## Saleh Al-Qammaari

Thank you very much Ayed. I benefited so much from your answer.


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## ayed

Anitta and Crystal clear *لاشكر على واجب*


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## WadiH

I can confirm Ayed's explanation.  This is a Central Arabian expression.  The word is طاري not طري, by the way.


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## Hemza

I wonder if it is linked to the Moroccan/Mauritanian greetings ايش حالك ايش طاري?


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## WadiH

It's the same word/root, even though the expression is slightly different in purpose ("what's new" as opposed to "what's the happened? why is this coming up").


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## Hemza

Thank you . I guess a semantic shift occured in the Maghreb or may be أصلا the word had a different meaning according to the area/tribe?


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## malmerri

In the gulf, وش الطاري، means what brings this topic up. وش means what, الطاري، من طرء. 
orوش طاري عليك.


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## Mahaodeh

Can I ask a relevant question here? What are the meanings of the word طاري by itself, not the whole expression? Can it mean in other contexts something else?

I'm asking because this word is used Iraqi Arabic in a very particular context and I don't recall it ever being used in another context or even any derivations of it. You would say something like جبنا طاري فلان = we mentioned fulan. Or على طاري كذا = since we mentioned so and so,...etc. However, it's not used to mean 'mention' in general, only in cases like this.


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## malmerri

Mahaodeh, I believe every dialect has its own particular meaning for words. However, I am sure there are many similarities. For example, على طاري كذا, in the Gulf, it has the exact same meaning, that goes as well with جبنا طاري فلان.  I am not sure what is the root for طاري or the exact meaning of it, as it depends on the context. طاري means I believe ذكرى which may explain وش الطاري i.e what reminded you or what brought that up.

I hope this explains it better.


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## Hemza

^In the Maghreb, it (approximatively) means "what's new?".


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## cherine

Mahaodeh said:


> Can I ask a relevant question here? What are the meanings of the word طاري by itself, not the whole expression? Can it mean in other contexts something else?
> 
> I'm asking because this word is used Iraqi Arabic in a very particular context and I don't recall it ever being used in another context or even any derivations of it. You would say something like جبنا طاري فلان = we mentioned fulan. Or على طاري كذا = since we mentioned so and so,...etc. However, it's not used to mean 'mention' in general, only in cases like this.


I thought الطاري is the dialectal pronunciation of الطارئ from the verb طرأ happened/occured. But the example you mention جبنا طاري فلان means that either I'm misunderstanding الطاري or that it is a different word.


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## Mahaodeh

malmerri said:


> Mahaodeh, I believe every dialect has its own particular meaning for words.



I understand that, but they usually develop through time and while Arabic dialects diverged from Classical Arabic, they hardy diverged separately from each other - at least not in regions close to each other. That's why you find dialects in a continuum. Also, they did not necessarily diverge at the same point in time, nor did they necessarily stop affecting one another after the divergence.

Hence, I do think that understanding how the word is used in Saudi Arabia does help in understanding how it developed in Iraqi Arabic. The regions are too close to each other not affect one another and migrations between Iraq and Saudi Arabia are as recent as the late 19th and early 20th centuries. 



cherine said:


> I thought الطاري is the dialectal pronunciation of الطارئ from the verb طرأ happened/occured. But the example you mention جبنا طاري فلان means that either I'm misunderstanding الطاري or that it is a different word.



I'm making some guesses here: I don't believe it's a different word, but I do believe that the meaning - at least in Iraqi Arabic - has changed and become sort of stuck with only one of the meanings of the word. I'm trying to find out how it came to be. Frankly, I never thought about this word before nor did I link it with the fus7a طاريء until I saw this thread.


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## I.K.S.

Hemza said:


> ^In the Maghreb, it (approximatively) means "what's new?".



آش طاري without ال is used here as; What's happening!

We also use it interrogatively ; '' آش طرى لك / what made you change your attitude? '' as a way to express disapproval usually with a tone of reproach, 
In a similar way ناس الغيوان used it in one of their folk poems entitled عَــلِّــي وُخَــلِّــي: 

 مــالــك آوا مـالـك *آش طرى* وجرى لك    ظنيتي راسك خالد وانـــت لــلــزوالـــة
مــادامـت لْ عـَــادْ ولا ورثــهــا شـَـدَّادْ     أخـــرها لــقــبــــر وُحـَـــرّْ السُّــوَّالّــــة


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## elroy

This is so interesting!

I recently came across this word in a Saudi poem.  The line was ولا المطر ما جاب لي طاري ابد and I had no idea what it meant.  I asked @rayloom for help, and he explained it thus:


> Like in Egyptian ما جابليش خبر or in Hijazi Arabic ما جاب خبري
> لم يدرِ بي


 That was clear enough, but @Mahaodeh's comments on the usage in Iraqi made it click for me: 





> You would say something like جبنا طاري فلان = we mentioned fulan. Or على طاري كذا = since we mentioned so and so,...etc.


 In Palestinian Arabic, we would use the word سيرة in _exactly_ the same way!

جبنا سيرة فلان = We brought up/mentioned X
على سيرة كذا = speaking of X
المطر ما جاب لي سيرة = The rain didn't say anything to me (about the topic)

Another use would be أنا طول نهار بسيرتك, which means "I talk about you all day."

If I extend this to the the phrase in the title, the Palestinian equivalent is شو السيرة؟, which is used in reaction to something that is striking/puzzling/baffling.  It's kind of like "What's the deal?" or "What gives?" in English. 

An example would be if you've called someone five times and they haven't picked up the phone.  Or if you're stuck in traffic and haven't moved an inch for an hour.  It's kind of like saying "This is an extreme situation.  Is this really happening?  What's going on?  What could have possibly caused this?".

Is that how the Saudi expression is used?


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## malmerri

Elroy, I would say it is a bit different. Let me give you other examples how this expression is used;
 Oh hey friend do you remember when we were young and used to ......, ohوش  طاري عليك، قديم.
Hey sister, do you remember fulana, وش الطاري، الله يذكرها بالخير.


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## Mahaodeh

elroy said:


> In Palestinian Arabic, we would use the word سيرة in _exactly_ the same way!





malmerri said:


> Elroy, I would say it is a bit different.



I have to say, in Iraqi Arabic it is used exactly as سيرة is used in Palestinian Arabic - I do believe there is a difference in use between IA and Gulf Arabic, at least based on this thread. The word سيرة is also used in IA and is interchangeable with طاري but the latter is much more common. There is one exception:


elroy said:


> If I extend this to the the phrase in the title, the Palestinian equivalent is شو السيرة؟,



I've never heard the expression شنو الطاري in IA. On the other hand, I'm mostly familiar with dialects common in Baghdad so I can't be sure that it's not used in this way in other regions.


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