# All dialects: I don't speak Arabic



## linguist786

I would like to know how to say "I don't speak Arabic" in all dialects

أودّ منكم أن تكتبوا لي الجملة "لا أتكلم العربية" بكل اللهجات العربية التي تعرفوها​ 
I'll start with Moroccan:​ 
_makan3refsh l'3arabiya_​


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## ayed

*Najdi :*
*أنا* *ما اتكلم عربي*
*أو*
*ما اتكلم عربي*


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## elroy

Palestinian: بحكيش عربي (_ba7kiish 3arabi_)

Alternative versions:
ما بحكي عربي (_maa ba7ki 3arabi_)
ما بحكيش عربي (_maba7kiish 3arabi_)


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## cherine

Egyptian:
ما بتكلمش عربي ma-batkallemsh(e) 3arabi
مش بتكلم عربي mesh/mosh batkallem 3arabi


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## missjiji

Tunisian:
ما نتكلّمش بالعربي (ma nitkallamsh bil3arbi)


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## linguist786

Does anyone know what the Iraqi version would be?
Would it be similar to Palestinian?


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## elroy

I don't speak Iraqi Arabic, but I found this online:

آني ما أَحچي عَرَبي
Transliterated _aani maa ahchi 9rabi_.

Where I assume h stands for ح and 9 stands for ع.

Something tells me that _9rabi_ should be _9arabi_, because the former is difficult to pronounce and because there's a fat7a in the Arabic text.  But this is just a suspicion mostly based on my own dialect and it could very well be the case that the fat7a is indeed not pronounced.  After all, in Morocco they drop many vowels that we Palestinians would never do away with!


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## kegs20

Hi, I'm new to the forum. I was born in Iraq, but my Arabic isn't great. Anyway, I believe maa ahchi 9rabi is used in parts of Iraq (such as Baghdad and Basrah), and in the rest of Iraq it would be maa ahki 9rabi:

ما احكي عربي

In fact the chi sound is often used to replace the ki sound in those places. So shlonki (how are you, to a woman) becomes shlonich.


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## elroy

Welcome to the forum, Kegs20!  

So it _is_ "9rabi," then, with no vowel after the 9?


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## kegs20

There is a fat7a, I'm sorry I didn't understand your transliteration in English, so I guess its 9arabi


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## linguist786

kegs20 said:


> In fact the chi sound is often used to replace the ki sound in those places. So shlonki (how are you, to a woman) becomes shlonich.


What does the "ch" sound like? (Like "ch" in _chocolate_, "ch" in French _chérie_, or "ch" in German _machen_?)


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## Josh_

Like the 'ch' in chocolate.


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## Hemza

linguist786 said:


> I'll start with Moroccan:​
> _makan3refsh l'3arabiya_​



I found this thread randomly and although it might be a dead one, I couldn't not leave what has been written in Moroccan... We do not say like this, what you wrote means "I don't know Arabic" and of course, no one would say this in Arabic xD. We say:

ما (ك)نتكلمش بالعربية
ما (ك)نهدرش بالعربية
ما (ك)ندويش بالعربية
ما نتكلم بالعربية


The second and the third ones are more Northern rural while the first one is more Northern urban (although the second one might be the most used nowadays). The last is typical from the South. And not everyone in Morocco use the ك


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## Ectab

Iraqi:
ما احجي عربي
maa aHchi 3arabi
but it sounds like "I don't (want to) speak Arabic"
so instead we would say:
ما اعرف احجي عربي
maa a3ruf aHchi 3arabi
lit: I don't know (how to speak) Arabic.


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## Jamal31

Would it be احچي, or pronounced as Jeem as you have it?


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## elroy

Jamal31 said:


> Would it be احچي, or pronounced as Jeem as you have it?


 It's a "ch" sound, as indicated in the transliteration.  In Arabic we don't use چ to represent that sound.


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## apricots

elroy said:


> It's a "ch" sound, as indicated in the transliteration.  In Arabic we don't use چ to represent that sound.



Well, Iraqis use it. In Israel/Palestine the چ is used for g but in Iraq گ is used for g and چ for ch. Someone correct me if I'm wrong.


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