The Shalabiya Girl
linneamadsen| 1. | أنا لحبيبي (Ana La Habibi) |
| 2. | البنت الشلبية (El Bint El Shalabiya) |
| 3. | لبيروت (Li Beirut) |
Houda El-Lebnaniye
Thu, 23/11/2017 - 00:11
بتطل pronounced bit-Tull (btTull), in Lebanese Arabic means peer, "pop in", check in, or check on. For example: inta ma -bitul- 3layeh. Meaning, you do not -check up/in- (pop in) on me.
Bitloo7 بتلوح means sway or waver. (لوح)
بتطل BitTul طل (root: tul/taleh means your presence, height, stature)
In this case بتطل means "pop in". In this song she is saying "you pop in my life (بتطل), and your presence is fickle/wavering (inconsistent/بتلوح), and the (my) heart is wounded/hurt.
I wouldn't necessarily call them idioms at this stage because they are not idioms in the obvious sense with English idioms today, and this way of speech is common and heavily integrated into Levantine Arabic. Both the words you asked about have literal or root meanings. The current understanding of all Levantine Arabic words derive from Semitic: Aramaic/Phoenician/Arabic root words. The word meanings have begun to alter themselves so that they are no longer idiomatic. An example of this in English is the phrase "a lot" (as in "a lot of cookies"). Many people today would not consider the phrase "a lot" idiomatic, however it technically is. So at this stage they are not idioms because of the way Lebanese Arabic is structured. A lot of its structure derives from Phoenician and Aramaic, therefore essentially the rules of Lebanese Arabic (or even Palestinian, Jordanian, Syrian, etc Arabic) are different than standard Arabic, which was standardized by non native Arabic speakers.
This is more akin to conjugation. The conjugation in Levantine Arabic will have the verb itself, which will include itself and the subject, and the masculine or feminine object.
Regarding t (t= ت, and T= ط) used that way, it is common in Lebanon and the rest of the Levant. In this case when you see the t in that way it usually means "you" (plural and singular) or "it" + whatever word is followed. More conjugation:
بت+ ط+ ت+ م
bt (بت)+ T, or M, or L, etc
So "you eat"= btaakul.
"You love"= bt-hib.
"You joke"= btmzah
The closeness of the b and t (ت) in speech signifies that the speaker is Lebanese. Other (non Lebanese) Arab Arabic speakers identify that the speaker is Lebanese based on this style. In most other parts of the Levant the B and t (ت) are also used but are not pronounced the same, they do not so close, but are written the same way. In Palestine "you love" would be prounounced: bat-hib, vs the Lebanese bt-hib (pronounced bit-hib). Other places such as Syria it would be baat-hib, and etc.
Linnea, Jordanian responder, used the example "tiTawal (you take a long time, she takes a long time)"
In Lebanese this would be:
You're taking long (masculine)= btTawill/itTawill
You're taking long (feminine)= btTawleh
It is taking long (masculine & feminine): btTawill.
She takes a long time: btTawill
Takes long: itTawill
Hope this helps!
I speak Jordanian Arabic, and this is Lebanese, so I'm not sure if this is an idiom, but بتطل is like you are peering, looking, etc and بتلوح is you are waving, so I think you can say it's something like "you are looking at me and waving and the heart is wounded" for a more literal translation of that line. I'll ask around and see if I can get more info about this :) In terms of ت (lowercase t from now on) and ط (uppercase t), this pattern is not uncommon. For example, you have
- tiTla3 (you go out, she goes out) / tiTala3 (you look at, she looks at)
- tiTawal (you take a long time, she takes a long time)
- taTbiq (application)
- taTaw3 (volunteer)
Does this help your question? I'm not sure exactly what you mean by why, but if you mean because they're both T sounds in English, in Arabic it isn't heard as the same letter so it's not weird that they would be next to each other. If you meant something else please let me know :)