Dear Madeleine,
When I first read your email, I was planning to respond it; but then I read
Yacine's email next and found that he made the exact same remarks I was
about to make. So, I too, agree with his response.
Regards,
Aziz Erraziqi
P.S. 1. I am from Morocco. 2. I also concur with M. Mahmoud re how to say
the three words in FusHa, otherwise known as MSA (Modern Standard Arabic).
-----Original Message-----
From: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
[mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]]On Behalf Of benachenhou
Sent: Thursday, April 08, 1999 05:42 PM
To: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Subject: Re: Three Arabic words
>Hallo again, and thanks for the three answers (one private) to my question
>about the three Arabic words *nif*, *ifum/oufum* and *farit*.
>
>>>"nif" can mean "honour" or "nose". It depends on the country
>>>nose would be *anf*
>>>nose = anf
>>>mouth *fam*
>>>mouth = famm
>
>Now I am more confused than ever! Some background details: The scene is set
>in Morocco. The film is Finnish, and the script is of course in Finnish
>(nothing written in Arabic). Two Finns are having a holiday in Morocco and
>have a very short language lesson. The man says "nif" (not "anf"?), the
>woman translates (into Finnish): "nose", the man says "ifum" (or
>ufum/oufum, beginning with a vowel, not fam/famm?), and the woman says
>"mouth" in Finnish. End of language lesson. The man says (clearly) "farit"
>to his servant and points at a (Finnish) newspaper, and the servant gives
>it to him without a word. End of Morocco scene. (All the three words are
>thus spoken by a Finn.) I just assumed that "farit" meant newspaper (it is
>not in the script) - can it be the name of the servant, or does it mean
>"give that to me", or something like that?
>
>Grateful for your help again!
>Madeleine
Hi Madeleine,
I can tell you this :
"Nif" is the dialectal version of "anf" in a lot of arabic countries.
"Foum" is the dialectal version of "fem" while ""ifum", "ufum" or "oufum"
do NOT exist in arabic countries (as far as I know)
As far as "farit" is concerned, I am quite sure it is NOT a proper name.
The closest name I know is "farid". It does NOT mean "give that to me" or
"something like that".
This is all I can say to you today.
I hope it gives you clearer ideas.
PS : if you want to have ever clearer ideas, just wait the answers/replies
of the two other arabic translators and compare the different answers.
Good luck.
Yacine.
