A friend of mine at work insists that my use of the word “na3sana” (my daily condition) is baladi and fala7i geddan. Am not sure what he thinks the alternative should be. He actually suggested “naymana”! So tell me: how many of you use na3san for sleepy? And if so are you baladi?
Posted in: Egypt
forsoothsayer
Unnecessary and not very diverting musings 
The Sandmonkey
February 2, 2007
Tell ur friend ast work to go fuck him/herself. There is nothing baladi about it.eih el qarnanah dih 3ala el sob7?
Cairene
February 2, 2007
It’s not baladi, it’s just a different accent/dialect whatever. My father uses na3san/na3sana (he lived all his life in cairo but his parents come from a different governate), while my mother says naymana. The thing is, most of cairenes are origianlly from somewhere else, there’s no such thing as baladi. I can’t remember how many times I was in a conversation when I asked someone what this word means, or they asked me because we have different words sometimes even though we’re both cairene. Ask him where he originally comes from and tell him that his dialect is less appropriate (and less Cairene) just to bug him 😛
Tarek
February 2, 2007
I use “kaslan” instead, anyway as Sand Monkey said, there is nothing baladi about it.By the way, congratulations on the new template.
Zainab
February 2, 2007
whatever a person deems as baladi is social conditioning and depends on the way he/she was raised. i don’t see anything baladi about saying na3sana but for example, my dad thought the word a7a was really baladi along with a host of other words. it just depends on your family.
Ravine85
February 2, 2007
balady, schmalady…it’s all the same until you get a cup of coffee.Silly of him to get hung up on something like this.
hebe
February 2, 2007
baladi? eeer why? sleepy is sleepy w khalas love the new template btw
GC
February 2, 2007
I think yo probably picked up the use of the word na3sana in Kuwait from Lebanese or Palestinian friends (I personally don’t use it, but having grown up in Kuwait, I know that it’s common there). I think in Egypt, its use is more common outside Cairo.
Forsoothsayer
February 2, 2007
no i didn’t…both my parents use it, and they grew up in cairo, although are from el minya and alex respectively. everyone i know uses it too. eh naymana di!
"The Evolutionary"
February 3, 2007
I’m an American born and bred. I learned some Arabic from my Egyptian husband and my co-workers, but mostly from the movies. Oftentimes I am told my Arabic is “balady awy”. My husband says I am “Amreekia min Bab al Shariyah”–haha! I think he’s just jealous I can talk more “shaaby” than he can.
Rambling Hal
February 4, 2007
Baladi how?? I am Na3sana (or in my accent, na3saneh) ALWAYS, and I can safely say I’m Baladi never.But then again, what’s wrong with Baladi?Personally, the wrong here lies in this idiot person who’s on your case. As SM very eloquently put it, tell him to go fuck himself.:) PS…..I’ve been dying to talk to you about this, and it’s so irrelevant right now, but I don’t really care, and I’m going to hope you don’t either. I have been having serious pooping problems for quite some time now, which naturally makes me think of you (sorry, but can you blame me?) and I’ve started taking a great laxative that has given me my life back. I know asking you if you’ve tried laxatives might result in me getting slapped – I’m sure you’ve tried pretty much everything – but seriously, don’t laxatives work? Eventually? At least make you go every 2 days? That’s what mine is doing!Oh, and now that I think about it, it’s not really THAT irrelevant for me to relate poop to your colleague at work who has ‘baladi’ issues, no? 😉
Forsoothsayer
February 4, 2007
i haven’t tried laxatives cos the drs told me that my problem was psycological! bas neshoof.
Mona
February 5, 2007
Belady? NO! I say Ta3’bana but I think that’s probably not correct after reading this! People think I’m saying that I’m a snake! Or sick.