Flicken's Blog

Ich bin Flicken, ja! Traditional Islam, food, guns, camping, grammar, Canadianna, Arabic, stuff.

Saturday, January 05, 2008

Gender Reversal in the Jordanian Dialect

Over the past month, three men have spoken to me in the feminine when negating: one was from Jerash, another from Salt, and another is originally from Northern Palestine but has lived in Amman all his life. They tell me ma bidkeesh (you don't want), ma shuftkeesh (I didn't see you), ma 3ariftkeesh (I didn't recognize you). So far, I've only noticed this gender reversal in second-person negations. I mentioned this gender reversal to someone from Kerak and he said that he also used to address men in the feminine, as this is a part of the Keraki dialect, until people commented on it and he stopped.

On the other hand, my wife and her female relatives (who are from Bani Hassan) speak about themselves in the masculine: ana wagif (I am standing), ana mudawim (I am at my occupation), etc. I thought wow, "Bani Hassan: Where the men are men, the women are also men, and the sheep are scared." I tried testing the waters by speaking to my wife in the masculine to which she quickly replied, "I'm not a man." So, it appears that this particular form of linguistic gender reversal only works in the first person.

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