# muhabbet-mahabbet



## llunita

Hi!
In a serie that I'm subtitling, a woman who is on holiday in Turkey calls her boyfriend and sais "mohabak" (i love you) in Arabic. Does anyone know how to write that correctly? 

Tanks a lot!!


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## cherine

I'm not sure about mohabak محبك.
"I love you" is "Uhibuk(a)" أحبك 
Muhibbuk(a) = the one who love you (to a male), muhibbuk(i) to a female. Both forms are written like this: محبك (Yes, same writing as the first one, but pronounciation is different).


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## llunita

Thanks a lot! 
And what 's the difference between Muhibbuk and Muhibbuka?
And, do you pronounce "Muhibbuk" a bit like [mohabak] ?


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## cherine

You're welcome 


llunita said:


> And what 's the difference between Muhibbuk and Muhibbuka?


To put it simply: the pronounciation of the last vowel in Arabic is not a strict rule, we often drop them.


> And, do you pronounce "Muhibbuk" a bit like [mohabak] ?


Not that I know of.
But maybe my understanding of your transliteration is not clear, so... yes, maybe they sound similar.


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## llunita

Ok. Thanks for your help


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## Spectre scolaire

Hi _llunita_,

There seems to be something wrong here. Is “mohabak” what you think you hear, or do you also have a text following the film (in which “mohabak” is written)? Is the person saying this an Arab or a Turk?

Any suitable Arabic interpretation of this uttering being subject to doubt, I wonder if this person actually says muhabbet which _in Turkish_ means “love, affection”. The same word in Arabic would probably be _mahabbet_. 

As the context is not clear, this is just a suggestion.
 ​


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## llunita

Oh... well, first I thought it was Turkish (since she is in Turkey). In fact she sais 2 things in Turkish to her boyfriend, who is at home (in Spain). 
1. She is buying a carpet (while she is calling to her boyfriend) and sais to the seller "Antikadir". 
2. She sais that she has to hang up, to say goodbye she sais: "Un beso. _Muhabbet_" (un beso: a kiss). 

I already thought it was weird that she said an Arabic word while she is in Turkey, but I don't know a lot about Arabic or Turkish.... So I don't know how to interprete this..

What do you think?


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## cherine

llunita said:


> What do you think?


I think I'll move this to the OL forum, to get the opinion of our Turkish foreros


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## Chazzwozzer

No, there's no such word as _*mohabak *_in Turkish.


llunita said:


> 1. She is buying a carpet (while she is calling to her boyfriend) and sais to the seller "Antikadir".


*Antikadır: *It is an antique.


llunita said:


> 2. She sais that she has to hang up, to say goodbye she sais: "Un beso. _Muhabbet_" (un beso: a kiss).


*Muhabbet *means two different things: affection and chitchat. To me, it makes no sense in the given context.



llunita said:


> I already thought it was weird that she said an Arabic word while she is in Turkey, but I don't know a lot about Arabic or Turkish.... So I don't know how to interprete this..
> 
> What do you think?


Since the language of the movie is not Turkish, I suggest that you should leave it in its original language.


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## panjabigator

Mohabbat for us means love, but not familiar love.  It's romantic.  It's not used very often either (and not in the equal sense that one doesn't talk about love everyday, but just as a term, it's infrequently used).  Is it common over there?


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## Chazzwozzer

panjabigator said:


> Mohabbat for us means love, but not familiar love.  It's romantic.  It's not used very often either (and not in the equal sense that one doesn't talk about love everyday, but just as a term, it's infrequently used).  Is it common over there?


Yes, it's a pretty rare usage. Young people would never use it unless they try to sound funny.


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## cherine

Chazzwozzer said:


> No, there's no such word as _*mohabak *_in Turkish.


Thanks. I'll change the thread's title then 


> *Muhabbet *means two different things: affection and chitchat. To me, it makes no sense in the given context.


You mean it doesn't make sense to say "love, besos" ?! Why do you think it doesn't make sense in this context?


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## Chazzwozzer

cherine said:


> Thanks. I'll change the thread's title then
> 
> You mean it doesn't make sense to say "love, besos" ?! Why do you think it doesn't make sense in this context?


We would never use _muhabbet _in such context. It appears in some certain phrases, which are rarely used by people and never by the young, and this is not one of them. You don't say anything like* "love"* when hanging up the phone. *"Öptüm" *(lit. I've kissed.) or* "Seni seviyorum." *(I love you.) maybe, but no such thing as _*"love". *_This would sound extremely odd.


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## cherine

Chazzwozzer said:


> We would never use _muhabbet _in such context. It appears in some certain phrases, which are rarely used by people and never by the young, and this is not one of them. You don't say anything like* "love"* when hanging up the phone. *"Öptüm" *(lit. I've kissed.) or* "Seni seviyorum." *(I love you.) maybe, but no such thing as _*"love". *_This would sound extremely odd.


Now I understand what you mean. Thanks 
It would sound strange in Arabic too.


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## llunita

I see. But the woman who sais it doesn't speak Turkish, she just knows 2 words. That 'll be the reason why she sais it though it sounds weird...


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## Spectre scolaire

Chazzwozzer said:
			
		

> Yes, it's a pretty rare usage. Young people would never use it unless they try to sound funny.


 In a context like _ne muhabbet_ – ironic or not! – this word can hardly be said to be rare! But in the context supplied by _llunita_ the word doesn’t really fit - you are definitely right about that! – unless...

Unless we are talking about a pimp. There are several words for “pimp” in Turkish, one of them being muhabbet tellâlı, literally: “a broker of love”. The deletion of the _qualified noun_ of the izafet construction leaving the _qualifying noun_ as a sort of ‘stranded adjective’, would not be very unusual. It is not a common word, I’ll be the first to admit, but I am thinking of a non-Turkish team making a film in Turkey - or making the film elsewhere pretending the location is in Turkey. Shooting scenes for the infamous « Midnight Express » there was a lot of “strange Turkish” - to say the least. Most probably, diaspora Armenians were being used for these scenes and their Turkish was definitely not that of Armenians living in Istanbul and whose Turkish is generally impeccable. 

Another word for pimp in Turkish – I don’t know whether I should elaborate on this part of the vocabulary  – doesn’t only mean “pimp”, but also “scoundrel, rascal”! See my point? Really bad words can also be ‘Kosenamen’ in Turkish – all depending on context.

Perhaps this sounds a bit farfetched, but if there really is a muhabbet to be heard in that film, I am just searching for an explanation.
 ​


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## Binapesi

Maybe it was just "*muhabbetle*" that comes from "*muhabbet ile*" means "*with love*" ..
And we can't deny it's used. Maybe it isn't heard much but especially aged people use it to say goodbye and I sometimes see it just above signatures on the posts in Turkish forums ..


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