An acquaintance clued me in to the existence of this book, The Manual of Egyptian Arabic, an English-Arabic phrasebook from 1926 meant for young men of the Empire who might be touring around Cairo. What you will find within its pages is quite amazing, and it’s well-worth hunting down in a secondhand shop or on Ebay.
I am determined to buy this monkey.
Both of them squint and three of their children are deaf mutes.
As a rule criminals are from the lower classes.
I’m accustomed to smoke opium.
The hypocrisy of these Jews is beyond belief.
They practise female infanticide.
By the way, if you ever need to say the title phrase, “Boy, be off with you!” the Arabic is apparently Ya walad imshi, ijri!
Well, only 3 & 6 were ever likely to be said by a British bureaucrat, prolly in reports. He wouldn’t be likely to cop to using opium just then, when the League of Nations was hotting up hysteria over drugs; 1875, yeah: few would care if a gentleman indulged. All were so the English speaker could understand what the fellahs were babbling about when he or she left the safety of Shepheards…
The iniquity of Jews and honest discussions of crime were ever a staple of the lower classes’ fervid imaginations.