# All dialects: cards



## elroy

Hi all,

My family and I are big card players.  I'd love to know what different aspects of cards and card-playing are called in different dialects.  I'll start with Palestinian:

cards (the game): شدّة (shadde)
card: كرت/ورقة (kart/wara2a)
deck: شدّة (shadde)
suit: لون (loon)
hearts: كبة (kubba)
spades: بستوني (bastooni)
clubs: سباتي (sbaati)
diamonds: ديناري (dinaari)
2: دو (duu)
3: تريس (trees)
Jack: ولد/إعرج (walad/i3raj)
Queen: بنت/إكوة/إكول (binet/ikwa/ikwal)
King: شيخ/ريّة (sheekh/riyya)
Ace: أص (aSS)
Joker: جوكر (jookar)
to shuffle: يخلط (yikhleT)
to deal: يفت (yfitt)
to cut the deck: يقطع (الشدّة) (yi2Ta3 [ish-shadde])
to draw (a card): يسحب (yis7ab)

Notes:

The words for the different suits come from Spanish: _copa _(cup), _bastón _(club), _espada _(sword), _dinero_ (money).  These are the images found on traditional Spanish playing cards.  Interestingly enough, though, these aren't the terms actually used in Spanish.  (I think this is just fascinating etymologically!)

The alternatives in red are Galilean.


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## Masjeen

kuwait
cards (the game): جنجفه (janjefa)
الباقي كلفس وديمن وسبيت وحاس وا*لغلام* - الميم - الباش - الخال


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## zooz

Haha I find the (second) terms used for the Jack,Queen & King are very amusing, and interesting, Elroy. Same goes for your notes.

Not that big variation from the Syrian ones except for a few.

cards (the game): شدّة (shadde) / ورق (wara2)
suit: لون (loon) / نقشة (na2shi)
clubs: سباتي (sbaati) / مزَهر (mzzahar)
2: جويزي (jwaizi)
3: تريسي (traisi)
Jack: شب (shab)
Queen: بنت (bint)
King: ختيار (khityar)

On a separate note, I found out recently that _bint_ is a sexist word that means woman/girl in BE. Is it the same in AE? I'd assume the word comes from Arabic.


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## WadiH

I'm not much into card playing, so I don't know all the local equivalents, but I'll give you what I know:

cards (the game): ورقة (wrigah)
card: ورقة (wrigah)
hearts: هاص (haaS) (from English "hearts")
spades: سبيت (sibiit) (from English "spade")
clubs: شري (shari)
diamonds: ديمن (deeman) (from English "diamond")
Jack: ولد (walad)
Queen: بنت (bint)
King: شايب (shaayib)
Ace: إكّة (ikkah)
Joker: جوكر (jookar)
to shuffle: يخبص (yi5bi9/ya5bi9)
to draw (a card): يسحب (yis7ab/yas7ab)


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## elroy

Masjeen said:


> الباقي كلفس وديمن وسبيت وحاس وا*لغلام* - الميم - الباش - الخال


 I've actually heard غلام in Palestinian as well, but it's not very common. 





zooz said:


> 2: جويزي (jwaizi)
> King: ختيار (khityar)


 Actually, these 2 are used in Palestinian as well (except that we say "jweeze" and not "jwaizi"). 





> On a separate note, I found out recently that _bint_ is a sexist word that means woman/girl in BE. Is it the same in AE? I'd assume the word comes from Arabic.


 I've never heard that word in American English (or in British English, for that matter).  It probably does come from Arabic.



Wadi Hanifa said:


> spades: سبيت (sibiit) (from English "spade")


 I would be confused if I played cards with someone from Saudi Arabia (or Kuwait) because سبيت sounds so much like سباتي, which is "clubs" in Palestinian.


> clubs: شري (shari)


 I wonder what the etymology of this one is.


> to shuffle: يخبص (yi5bi9/ya5bi9)


 Wow.  In Palestinian Arabic يخبّص ("y5abbeS") is a very negative verb that would not be used to just mean "shuffle."  If you خبّص something you totally screw it up.


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## djara

elroy said:


> *Tunisian*:
> 
> cards (the game): كارطة (caarTa)
> card: ورقة (war9a)
> deck: ؟؟
> suit: ؟؟
> hearts: كب (kub)
> spades: بسطون (basToon)
> clubs: سباطة (sbaaTa)
> diamonds: ديناري (dinaari)
> 2: دوس(duus)
> 3: تريس (trees)
> Jack: كوال (kawwaal)
> Queen: مجيرة (mujiira) [Spanish 'mujer'?]
> King: ري (ray)
> Ace: لص (laSS)
> Joker: جوكر (jokeer)
> to shuffle: يمشكي (yimashkii)
> to deal: يسربي (ysarbii)
> to cut the deck: يقص) (y9oSS)
> to draw (a card): يختار (yikhtaar)
> 
> Note: In some games (Belote, poker, Ramy), French words are mostly used


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## Ghabi

Egyptian

cards: كتشينة kotshiina
king: شايب shaayeb
queen: بنت bent
jack: ولد walad
hearts:  قلب  alb
spades: سبادس sebaads
clubs: وردة warda
diamonds: سنبوكسة samboksa
to deal: يفرق yefre2
to shuffle: يفنّط yefannaT
to cut: يقطع ye2Ta3
to draw: يسحب yes7ab


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## WadiH

elroy said:


> Wow.  In Palestinian Arabic يخبّص ("y5abbeS") is a very negative verb that would not be used to just mean "shuffle."  If you خبّص something you totally screw it up.



I said yi5biS not y5abbiS.


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## elroy

Djara, do you not know what "deck" and "suit" mean, or do you just not know how to say them in Tunisian?  In case it's the former, "a deck of cards" is a complete set of cards (52 cards + jokers, if needed), and "suit" refers to the four categories of cards (hearts, diamonds, clubs, spades).





Wadi Hanifa said:


> I said yi5biS not y5abbiS.


 I know but the two sound so similar that yours reminds me of the one I know.  Are you saying that both are used in Saudi, with different meanings?


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## djara

elroy said:


> Djara, do you not know what "deck" and "suit" mean, or do you just not know how to say them in Tunisian?



I don't think we have specific Tunisian words for the two concepts. We tend to use the French words "jeu" and "couleur" respectively.


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## elroy

Well, then those are the Tunisian words.   You can see from this thread that all dialects use at least some foreign words for card terms.

So "jeu" means "deck"?  So that's what you would use if you wanted to say, "We need two decks of cards for this game" or "I just bought a new deck of cards"?


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## djara

Actually, in the examples you give, I'd personally use the name of the game because the number of cards varies:
shriit shkobba (I bought a deck of 40 cards for shkobba)
shriit belote (I bought a deck of 32 cards for belote)
shriit ramy (I bought a deck of 52 cards for ramy and other games)
I wouldn't use the French word 'jeu'
Yes, couleur would be used for suit; I can't think of any other word.


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## Bântuit

The Tunisian word for deck would be *كف*


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## djara

Sorry, but كف refers to the cards you currently hold in your hand, not the full deck.


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## elroy

So how would you say "We need two decks of cards for this game"?


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## djara

I frankly don't know. If I were forced to express it, I'd say: _yalzamnaa zuuz baakuwaat (kaarTa)_ or _yalzamnaa ramii kaamla_

baakuwaat plural of baaku (packet), probably from the French "paquet". The word is also for packets of cigarettes


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## elroy

What does "ramii kaamla" mean?


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## djara

literally "a full rummy" 
rami, or rummy, is a game of cards you play with two 52-card decks. 

Le Rami, en Europe, ou son équivalent anglo-saxon Rum (ou Rummy) sont des jeux de combinaisons, à l'opposée du bridge ou de la belote, qui sont des jeux de levées. http://www.jeuxdecartes.net/jeux-cartes/Rami


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## squeezed90

I'm Palestinian and I say 
malek for King and 
sanak for clubs.
I also use y5arbi6 to say shuffle, e.g. dorak tkharbe6


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## elroy

Does anyone know the etymology of شدّة?  I can't see a connection with the Arabic root ش-د-د.  Could it be a borrowing from another language?


squeezed90 said:


> I also use y5arbi6 to say shuffle, e.g. dorak tkharbe6


 Yes, this is used too.  I've never heard "malek" or "sanak."


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## Circunflejo

elroy said:


> The words for the different suits come from Spanish: _copa _(cup), _bastón _(club), _espada _(sword), _dinero_ (money). These are the images found on traditional Spanish playing cards. Interestingly enough, though, these aren't the terms actually used in Spanish.


Copas and espadas are indeed the terms actually used in Spanish for cups and swords. Clubs are bastos. What you call money it's said oros and would translate back as gold coins (literally, it would be golds).


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## lukebeadgcf

This is a fascinating topic!



elroy said:


> Does anyone know the etymology of شدّة? I can't see a connection with the Arabic root ش-د-د. Could it be a borrowing from another language?



This sense (i.e., شدة as "a deck of cards") is not mentioned at all in تاج العروس, which sometimes speculates on the origin of non-Arabic words. I also checked أنيس فريحة's Lebanese-MSA dictionary, which very often gives etymological origins, but I just found:





In Hava, I found a considerably expanded semantic range:





However, I found this in Barthélémy's Syrian-French dictionary:





According to the legend in the introduction, the brackets [ ] indicate that the word is a "dialectical variant." More interestingly, though, the legend says that *the || symbol indicates the etymology*. In other words, a شَدّه as "a deck of cards" comes from the verb شَدّ with the meaning of "to fasten" or "to tighten." شده could be then be considered "a single instance of fastening or tightening," which became "a thing that was fastened or tightened," which became "a bundle," which became, by ellipsis for شدة ورق, "a bundle of cards/deck," which also becomes just "cards (the game)."

For reference, I've included the second sense of شدّ referred to by Barthélémy below:





What I'm getting from this is that Barthélémy expects شده (deck of cards) to be so called because it is literally a _bundle_ (of cards) fastened together. Perhaps, before there were these handy cardboard packages that decks are sold in, the cards were fastened together some other way, like with a string?

In my search, I also came across the word دست as "pack of cards" in Hava.





In Barthélémy, I also spotted the following, which I don't think have been mentioned yet:

For "jack":

مفرشِح (Barthélémy says the verb فَرْشَح means _écarter les jambes_ or "to have one's legs apart.")​​أَفْشَخ (Barthélémy says the verb فَشَخ means _faire une enjambée_ or _écarter les jambes_ or "to take a stride" or "to have one's legs apart.")​​أَعْرَج (instead of إِعْرَج)​​بَجَق (Barthélémy says the verb بَجَق means _baliverner_ or "to talk nonsense.")​​فِنْطي (from Italian)​​بَنْدوق specifically "jack of spades"​
بِخْش/بُخْش for "ace"

رايا for "king"

Also, numbered cards can be referred to with special numerical forms:

تنتاويه and جْوَيزه for "a two"​تلاتويه and دَيكه for "a three"​أرْبْعاويه​خمساويه​ستاويه​سبعاويه​تماناويه/تمانياويه​تسعاويه​عشراويه​
There's also this text at the end of Barthélémy's dictionary that maybe someone more talented than me at French can translate:


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## Mahaodeh

I don't play a lot of cards, but I do know the names of them in PA and IA. This is the Iraqi Arabic version:

cards (the game): ورق (waraq)
card: ورقة (waraqa)
deck: ؟ 
suit: ؟ 
hearts: كبة (kubba)
spades: بستوني (bastooni)
clubs: سباتي (sbaati)
diamonds: ديناري (dinaari)
2: ثنين (thnein)
3: تلاثة (tlatha)
Jack: ولد (walad)
Queen: بنية (bnayya)
King: شايب (shayib)
Ace: آآس (aas)
Joker: جوكر (jookar)
to shuffle: يخلط (yikhluT)
to deal: يوزع (iwazzi3)
to cut the deck: يقطع (yigTa3)
to draw (a card): يسحب (yis7ab)




zooz said:


> On a separate note, I found out recently that _bint_ is a sexist word that means woman/girl in BE. Is it the same in AE? I'd assume the word comes from Arabic.


I've never heard it in British English! Are sure?


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## apricots

Mahaodeh said:


> I've never heard it in British English! Are sure?



It's definitely a feature of British English but might be a bit dated now. It's usually derisive similar to tart. You can hear it in Monty Python and the Holy Grail where a peasant describes the Lady of the Lake as a "moistened bint." According to Wiktionary it entered English in the 19th century during the occupation of Egypt.


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## wriight

Asked my mom what she remembers:

cards, the game: (ورق (شدّة _wara2 (shadde)_ -- not _shadde_ alone, though
card: ورقة _war2a_
deck: ?
suit: "نقشة (_na2she_, mentioned earlier in this thread) sounds right"
heart: كبا _kubba_
spade: بستونة _bestawne_ (I got this wrong here)
club: سبَيتة _sbayte_
diamond: ديناري _dinēre_
Jack: شب _shabb_
Queen: بنت _bent_? صبية _ṣabiyye_?
King: خوري _khūre_
Ace: أص _2aṣṣ_
Joker: _(identical to English)_
to shuffle: خلط يخلط _xalaṭ-yokhloṭ_
to deal: فت يفت _fatt-yfett_
to cut the deck: قطع يقطع _2__aṭa3-yo2ṭa3?_ *قصم يقصم _2__aṣam-yo2ṣom_?
to draw a card: سحب يسحب _sa7ab-yes7ab_

* (deliberate 'mis'-spelling)

She doesn't recall any unusual numbers, although I do know that oddly corrupted Farsi numbers are used when playing backgammon (طاولة). So that _may_ carry over to cards as well.


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## Schem

wriight said:


> King: خوري _khūre_



Isn't xūri a religious/Christian appellation of some kind?


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## fenakhay

In Morocco,

cards (the game): كرطة/روندا (karTa/ronda)
card: كرطة (karTa)
deck: ضمسة (Damsa)
hearts: كوباص/كاس (kobbaS/kas)
spades: شبادا/سيوفة (shbada/syufa)
clubs: باسدوس/عصا (basdos/3Sa)
diamonds: أورس/دهب (oros/dhab)
Jack: صوطا (SoTa)
Queen: كابال (kabal)
King: الري (er-rey)
Ace: لاص (laS)
Joker: جوكر (joker)
to shuffle: يضمس (yeDmas)
to deal: يفرق (yfarreq)
to cut the deck: يقطع (yaqTa3)
to draw (a card): ياخد (yakhud)


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## elroy

Schem said:


> Isn't xūri a religious/Christian appellation of some kind?


 It means “priest” in Levantine.  It makes sense that خوري would be the Lebanese equivalent of شيخ.


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## lukebeadgcf

lukebeadgcf said:


> تلاتويه and دَيكه for "a three"



Sorry, should be تلاتاويه and not تلاتويه


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## Aliph

lukebeadgcf said:


> There's also this text at the end of Barthélémy's dictionary that maybe someone more talented than me at French can translate:
> 
> View attachment 35308




I am not a card player so I might lack vocabulary in English. The text says the cards came originally from Persia and they were inspired by chess. There was a first game of cards called “Persian” in French which had 8 colors. From Persia it traveled to Syria, Egypt and North Africa. The Arabs (old denomination in French Sarrasins) brought the cards to Spain where both Muslim and Christians changed the names of the colors. From Spain the game traveled to France and Germany. Another road to Europe was from North Africa to Italy.

And then follow the names of the cards in Halabi dialect (dialect spoken in Aleppo?) . The names are mostly of Persian origin.


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