|
|
The people of Egypt's Siwa speak
a Berber Afro-Asiatic language called Siwi. This language of
Egypt is spoken by almost 20.000 of people from the oasis of
Siwa but also from the Siwa's surroundings close to the border
with Libyan such as Gara in the Egypt's West. 15.000 was the
initial estimated number of the Siwi speakers but it seems that
the right number is 20.000. There are also Siwi speakers in
other regions of Egypt as well as some parts of Libya. This is
because of the emigration of Siwa` s people who are searching
for jobs. In Egypt, the official language is Arabic but the Siwa
children` s first spoken language is Siwi. Although this
language has some words that were loaned from Egyptian Arabic,
the Siwi language remains a Berber language variety that looks
very much alike with the Eastern Libya` s Berber language
variety. As regarding the dialects, there are no published data
that would indicate a dialectal variation inside Siwi. Siwah is
the arabic name of the principal oasis where the Siwi language
is spoken and from where the Arabic adjective Siwi comes from.
If you intend to travel to Siwa and want to know some Siwi words
that will help you in your conversation with the Siwa's people,
here are some examples: “keem” means “Come in”, “Azul” means
“Hello”, “Baba” - is an word to respect an older person. If you
want to salute somebody you may say: “Azul felawen” which means:
“Hello to you!”. You may be invited to: “Anen!” meaning to sit
down. “Oma” is the Siwi equivalent for “Mother”, “Aba” for
“Father”, “Omama” for “Grandmother”, “Ababa” for “Grandfather”.
If you want to caress your girlfriend/boyfriend in Siwi, you can
call her/him “Memi” which means “Babe”. |
|
