August » 2010 » ginger beirut

First languages – part I

modern love in ancient Tyre

The peculiarity of the family title role-reversal habit (where a father or mother calls their child ‘dad’ or ‘mum’ respectively) is compounded by the variety of parental titles in currency on the street.

Apart from the traditional mama and baba and the very common papy, many families adopt titles from their preferred foreign influence, a fruit of their own particular cocktail of schooling at the Grand Lycée Franco-Libanais, a diploma from the AUB, and/or a spell working in Washington, Montreal or Paris.

This means you also have little Lebanese kids being called “mommy” with a true Yankee drawl while the rest of the sentence may be in English, Lebanese or even French. Of course the multilingualism of the Lebanese is well documented. But surely something as intimate as what you teach your tots to call you (and therefore, in Lebanon, what you call them) would come more naturally in one’s mother tongue. Then again, one would have to be able to identify one’s mother tongue in the first place.

This declaration of love on a pillar in the huge Roman hippodrome in Tyre epitomises the east meets west phenomenon. Just as ancient Rome left its imprint on the Middle East, so does the modern west, shown in the Latin initials, while “love” itself is expressed in Arabic. From this we could simplistically derive that Read the rest of this entry »

Streets of Beirut VII

telly on the terrace

Sometimes it’s too hot to even watch television inside. But it’s never too hot to drink thick tarry black coffee all day.

Who’s the daddy here?

an education

It was while I was watching West Beyrouth, an indispensable element of any Lebanese-learning attempt, for the second time that I discovered what I will call the family-title role-reversal phenomenon. Young Rami Doueiri was calling his mother (Carmen Lebbos) Mama and there she was calling him Mama back. I was astounded.

In the Levant, it is in fact very common for family members to call others by their own relative title. When a child calls out “Papy?” the father invariably replies “Shou papy?” (‘what’s up daddy?’). In the street it can be comic to overhear the reprimand, “Now daddy, speak nicely,” or, “Stop it mamy, behave!”

A few years later I am still searching for a satisfying explanation for this fascinating habit. Some say it stems from parents addressing their children with “Ya habib mama”, or ‘mummy’s darling’ with this being eventually shortened to mama (or other relative title). Others say it is a way for the relative to highlight their role in the child’s life, thereby teaching the kid to call them by the right name.

Still others say it is a way to Read the rest of this entry »