Levantine Arabic: Perhaps it would be better for my schedule to meet every other week.

[yerus]

[Levantine Arabic: Perhaps it would be better for my schedule to meet every other week.]

Or, also in Levantine Arabic:

I was thinking we could meet every other week instead.

My try for the one mentioned right above:
Kent afakir fina na2bal kil usbu3 akher.

Few questions:
- Is to meet, قابل?
- As I understand "fik" "fina" "fini" etc are used in Lebanese, but how about Palestinian or Syrian? I'm not specific about which Levantine dialect.
- Is it afakir or bfakir?

TIA

 

[wriight]

Good attempt! The core of it is correct.

My attempt at something South Levantine: kunt 3am (b)afakkir 2inno balke mni2dar nilti2i kull 2usbū3ēn / 2usbū3 ā 2usbū3 la2.

My dialect: kint 3am(ma b)fakkir 2inno barke fīna nilt2e kill 2isbū3ēn / 2isbū3 ē 2isbū3 la2.

(EDIT: I noted below that I'd rather cut out the first four words to make it a bit more natural. Also, just fixed the transcription of the words for "yes")

Your questions:

1. قابل is common in Fus7a, but it means "to meet someone". If it's used in Levantine dialects, its "we" conjugation is "n2ābil" (نقابل). However, for "to meet each other", you'd need تقابل, conjugated "net2ābal" (نتقابل). Personally I'm not familiar with it being used in Levantine, so I went with the synonym التقى instead.
2. Most North Levantine (Lebanese and Syrian) dialects use fī- like English "can" and 2idir like English "to be able" (as a workable rule of thumb). On the other hand, most South Levantine dialects only use the latter, variously pronounced 2idir/gidir/ghidir in South Levantine.
3. They don't differ in meaning after 3am ("-ing"), but I think 3am b- is just more common. They do differ a lot without 3am, though. To me, kent afakkir means "I used to think" and kent bafakkir means "I would think (but...)".

Other notes:

1. I think technically it works without 2inno as in "I was thinking that...", but it doesn't sound great to me without it in Arabic. Not sure.
2. I don't get the same feeling from "I was thinking we could..." as "kent 3am fakkir fīna...". In Arabic it feels like it's literally talking about our ability, while in English it's just a polite way of suggesting something. Adding balke for "perhaps" helps convey that politeness IMO.
3. I think "every other" meaning "every second" is peculiar to Germanic languages. In Arabic the easiest way to say it is "every two weeks", but another way to express "every other X" is "one X yes, one X no", which is the second option I gave.

Please correct my transcription or any other differences I missed between my dialect and the one desired here. (Should it be kent or kont?)

 

[Mahaodeh]

Is to meet, قابل?

In Levantine it’s mostly used for an interview, but I suppose you can use it if it’s a business meeting, although I don’t really recall hearing it used in that context.
If it’s a business meeting you could use نجتمع. This can also be used for a social meetings but it generally implies a lot of people.
The most common is نلتقي, it could be used for business or social meetings. I’ve heard نتشاوف in Jordan but that’s probably a borrowing from Iraqis.
For social meetings you could also use نشوف بعض. I wouldn’t use it for business meetings as it implies intimacy.

 

[elroy]

My suggestions in Palestinian Arabic:

[Levantine Arabic: Perhaps it would be better for my schedule to meet every other week.]

يمكن أنسبلي نلتقي كل أسبوعين / أسبوع آه أسبوع لأ

I was thinking we could meet every other week instead.

أنا بقول بدال هيك نلتقي كل أسبوعين / أسبوع آه أسبوع لأ

 

[yerus]

أنا بقول بدال هيك نلتقي كل أسبوعين / أسبوع آه أسبوع لأ

What does بدال mean in this sentence? Is this sentence more like "I propose that we ...." ?

 

[elroy]

بدال هيك = instead (of that)

Yes, it's more or less "I propose that we..." It's more or less a pragmatic equivalent of "I was thinking we could..."

If you want to give the other person more leeway in giving their input, you could say شو رأيك نلتقي...؟

 

[yerus]

My dialect: kint 3am(ma b)fakkir 2inno barke fīna nilt2e kill 2isbū3ēn / 2isbū3 ēh 2isbū3 la2.

Thank you very much for the detailed response! Just to clarify, are you saying saying 3amma bfakkir could also be used? In that case, what is the extra "ma" at the end of 3am? Sorry if I misunderstood 😅

 

[elroy]

are you saying saying 3amma bfakkir could also be used?

To me personally, "kint 3am(ma b)fakkir 2inno barke fīna" sounds like a translation from English. I don't think a monolingual native speaker is likely to put it that way.

what is the extra "ma" at the end of 3am?

"3amma" is just a variant of "3am." There's no difference in meaning.

 

[elroy]

My attempt at something South Levantine: kunt 3am (b)afakkir 2inno balke mni2dar nilti2i kull 2usbū3ēn / 2usbū3 āh 2usbū3 la2.

Nice South-Levantine-ing!

"balke" is used by some speakers. I say "balki."
I would say "balki ni2dar," subjunctive.
I say "usbu3ēn," with a short vowel in the second syllable.
It's just "ā," not "āh."

 

[wriight]

Thank you, I didn't know about the subjunctive! I'm going to make a new thread about this. The h in both sentences there was a total lapse (I wrote everything in loose 3arabizi first and then missed that when I updated it), thanks for catching it.

I agree that كنت عم فكر إنو بركي فينا is تخبيص, and on further thought, if I were producing this sentence from scratch I think I'd just start it at بركي فينا. That makes it come out feeling like "maybe we could...?"

And I'm sorry for being confusing with the 3amma. I didn't mean to make the -ma look like a separate element.

 

[elroy]

Thank you, I didn't know about the subjunctive! I'm going to make a new thread about this.

In a nutshell, the subjunctive refers to the future, and the indicative refers to the present.

balki yuTbox = He might cook.
balki buTbox = He might be cooking. / Maybe he cooks.

 

[yerus]

balki yuTbox = He might cook.
balki buTbox = He might be cooking. / Maybe he cooks.

For "he might be cooking" could one also say "balki 3am yuTbox"?