An Arabic Term of Endearment

Hello, welcome to A Way with Words.

Hi, this is Lacey from Virginia Beach.

Hi, Lacey, welcome to the show. What can we do for you?

I just wanted to share a phrase that my in-laws use a lot. My husband and his family are from Lebanon, so in their home, Arabic is their first language. And a phrase that is used a lot that I wanted to share is, it means literally the translation is may you bury me, which is interesting, but it’s used in the same instance that we might say something like maybe to a child that’s like really, really cute. You would say like, oh, I could just eat you up or, you know, you’re so cute. You just kill me. It’s that same kind of idea of that sentiment of just like a baby or a child is really adorable and you just can’t stand it. And it sounds maybe a little morbid, may you bury me, but it’s really kind of a blessing of long life. Like, may you outlive me, may you have a long life, may you bury me.

So that’s yep, Borne. Well, that’s lovely. And is that just a parent to a child or could you say that to any cute little child?

Any cute little child. And it’s not necessarily children, you know, but it’s definitely that term of endearment. It’s kind of just adorable, you know, it’s kind of synonymous with just almost you just can’t stand it. It’s just so cute is kind of when you would use that. And so your husband uses this with you?

Sometimes with me, but we have been hearing it a lot more often because we had a son about nine months ago, the first grandbaby for my husband’s family. So definitely the baby hears it a lot from his grandparents and from my husband and myself sometimes as well. And your husband’s family, they’re from?

They’re from Lebanon. Lebanon. Okay, right. Gotcha. And is this used in other parts of the Middle East, perhaps nearby countries like Syria?

You know, it may be. There are, you know, in a lot of different places where Arabic is the primary language spoken, a lot of times the language may be considered the same, but the dialect may be a little bit different. So I imagine there are other, you know, areas, maybe Egypt that have a very similar, if not, you know, the same kind of sentiment shared.

But, yeah. Say it one more time for us, will you?

Yakburni.

Yakburni. Something like that.

Is there kind of a glottal thing happening at the first syllable?

Yeah, after the yut, there’s kind of, there’s a little symbol if you see it written, and it kind of means a kind of a harsh stop.

It catches in your throat kind of?

Yeah, a little bit.

So like, yep, burne, like a B-O-R-N-E is maybe how I would spell it phonetically. Like Y-A and then kind of a little apostrophe, like a stop, and then B-O-R-N-E, like yep, burne.

It’s such a beautiful phrase, sort of the circle of life right there in just a couple of words. It reminds me of a phrase from Arabic that translates as, may my last day dawn before yours.

Oh, nice.

Oh, that’s lovely.

Yeah. Thank you for sharing that, Lacey.

My pleasure.

Thank you for having me.

All right. Take care. Call us again sometime.

Thank you.

Bye-bye.

Bye-bye.

I first saw this phrase with a different transliteration into English in a book by Tim Lomas, L-O-M-A-S. It’s called Translating Happiness, a Cross-Cultural Lexicon of Well-Being.

Ooh.

And it’s not really a dictionary so much as an exploration of these positive words and positive kind of expressions used in languages around the world. And he’s really looking for this kind of language that can demonstrate to you a little bit of hope, right? The language that you can use that suggests that the relationships that you have with people are bound by love more than they’re bound by conflict.

And I really enjoyed that perspective. It’s Translating Happiness by Tim Lomas.

What are the expressions that your family uses to express something really powerful? Let us know.

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