Ya3ni and Me

I felt pretty darn good yesterday. I managed to use one of the few idioms I know in Arabic, appropriately and to full effect. Essentially, I made some people – strangers I’d only just met – laugh. A real, hearty laugh. And you know what they say? Once a class clown, always a class clown. So ya3ni, I was feeling reasonably pleased with myself.

Now don’t think for a moment that my Arabic language skills are even close to presentable. I’m truly ashamed of how crap they are. It’s bare-bones stuff, purely elementary and merely good enough for the important things like asking directions, buying groceries and polite, inane chit-chat. Hence, being able to use something a little more complex yesterday, made me feel all “grown-up” and yes, slightly chuffed. Upon writing this however, I realise that I don’t actually possess enough of the language to properly assess whether the laughter resulted from my mesmerising comic timing or utterly atrocious pronunciation. Ya3ni, it’s probably just as well I don’t know.

For those of you reading this wondering why I insist on inserting the word, “ya3ni” into things, I guess you could say that this is just one of the Arabic terms that I now use…in English. I’ve gotten into the habit of joyfully invoking certain Arabic words into everyday English-language conversation. “Ya3ni,” which literally means, “to mean” or “I mean,” is such a wonderfully versatile term that I have decided – goddammit – I’m just not prepared to give it up!

In colloquial Palestinian Arabic, ya3ni is quite frankly where it’s at. You can use it to buy yourself time when gasping for a word, you can use it to emphasise an idea or conversely, make something less specific and more approximate. You can use it sarcastically and – most importantly – you can use it to get out of having to give a proper answer about something contentious. Too good be true? Trust me, ya3ni is really that good. Here’s an example; if someone asks you how you feel about a certain individual you’ve recently fallen out with, you can pause, take a moment to collect yourself and then demurely deliver the word “ya3ni” – taking care of course to spread the word out so that its two syllables hang in the dialogue for as long as possible.

Having road-tested this little beauty over the past six months, I’m pleased to report that this splendiferous word works just as well in English in all its glorious guises. So, as I mentioned above, I’m simply not going to stop using it irrespective of the fact that I’m heading back to Australia next month. Yes, I’m aware that most people will not have a clue what I’m trying to say, but I also believe it’s possible that if I utter it convincingly enough (especially before an audience of 17 or 18 year old cool kids) perhaps this little gem will catch on and in no time at all become a dinkum part of the Ozzie vernacular.

P.s. For those of you curious as to why the number 3 appears in the English transliteration of this beloved word, read this.