# Does anyone speak Arabic? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [May 22, 2008, 4:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-anyone-speak-arabic/450263 "2008-05-22T16:32:06Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 15\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![twickster](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/ec9cab/32.png) [@twickster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/twickster)\ **Post date:** [May 22, 2008, 4:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-anyone-speak-arabic/450263/1 "2008-05-22T16:32:06Z")
I have a cat named Zebulon, who I usually call Zeb or Zebbie. Someone told me yesterday that “zebbie” is Arabic for penis. Do I need to start watching what I call my cat? ---
**Author:** ![Astroboy14](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/df705f/32.png) [@Astroboy14](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Astroboy14)\ **Post date:** [May 22, 2008, 4:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-anyone-speak-arabic/450263/2 "2008-05-22T16:55:28Z")
[Yep.](http://www.morticom.com/dirtyforeignwordslanguagesarabicpage.htm) ---
**Author:** ![Exapno\_Mapcase](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/exapno_mapcase/32/1051_2.png) [@Exapno\_Mapcase](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Exapno_Mapcase)\ **Post date:** [May 22, 2008, 5:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-anyone-speak-arabic/450263/3 "2008-05-22T17:07:51Z")
This is mostly a so what, since I have to assume you got the name Zebulon from Jacob’s son in the old testament. In Hebrew that name means “dwelling place,” although some sites give it as dwelling of honor, with the connotation of honored or exalted. Zeb, oddly, is more often a shortening of Zebediah instead, father of the apostles James and John, and that comes from the Hebrew for “gift of Jehovah”. I’ve got to assume that the number of people in this country who would make a biblical connection with Zeb or Zebbie is about a million times as large as those who know Arabic street slang. [signed] Dick Johnson ---
**Author:** ![twickster](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/ec9cab/32.png) [@twickster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/twickster)\ **Post date:** [May 22, 2008, 5:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-anyone-speak-arabic/450263/4 "2008-05-22T17:30:47Z")
I’m not truly concerned about it – I just wondered if he was pulling my leg or not. Thanks for the link, **Astroboy** – what with transliteration and all, I didn’t even bother to try to Google. ---
**Author:** ![Revtim](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/revtim/32/1042_2.png) [@Revtim](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Revtim)\ **Post date:** [May 22, 2008, 5:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-anyone-speak-arabic/450263/5 "2008-05-22T17:39:33Z")
Similar situation with my family’s pet Shih-Tzu when I was a kid. My Mom named him Chin-Chin, which I discovered (long after the dog had died) is Japanese slang for penis. ---
**Author:** ![nd\_n8](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/439d5e/32.png) [@nd\_n8](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/nd_n8)\ **Post date:** [May 22, 2008, 6:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-anyone-speak-arabic/450263/6 "2008-05-22T18:00:39Z")
I imagine you pronounce it “Zeh-Bee”, IIRC the Arabic pronounciation is “Zee-Bee” As in: “Tele ha zebee” ---
**Author:** ![cmkeller](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cmkeller/32/118_2.png) [@cmkeller](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/cmkeller)\ **Post date:** [May 22, 2008, 6:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-anyone-speak-arabic/450263/7 "2008-05-22T18:08:49Z")
Revtim: > [@](#): > > My Mom named him Chin-Chin, which I discovered (long after the dog had died) is Japanese slang for penis. I’ll bet the story of the Three Little Pigs was never the same for you after that. ---
**Author:** ![twickster](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/ec9cab/32.png) [@twickster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/twickster)\ **Post date:** [May 22, 2008, 7:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-anyone-speak-arabic/450263/8 "2008-05-22T19:14:40Z")
Isn’t chin-chin a toast in Italian? Must make for some riotous international banquets. ---
**Author:** ![cmyk](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cmyk/32/3353_2.png) [@cmyk](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/cmyk)\ **Post date:** [May 23, 2008, 12:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-anyone-speak-arabic/450263/9 "2008-05-23T00:18:10Z")
This is the best! > [@From Astroboy14's Link](#): > > Elif air ab tizak - **“A thousand dicks in your ass!”** I’m so using that from now on. ---
**Author:** ![Johanna](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/johanna/32/8318_2.png) [@Johanna](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Johanna)\ **Post date:** [May 23, 2008, 11:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-anyone-speak-arabic/450263/10 "2008-05-23T11:03:57Z")
In Modern Standard Arabic, _zubb_ means ‘penis’ and the suffix -_-i_ means ‘my’. So _zubbi_ would mean ‘my penis’. Unfortunately, no one actually speaks Modern Standard Arabic, except in formal situations. The colloquial pronunciations are all over the place. In many dialects there is a shift from /u/ \> /i/, so that it would be pronounced more like “zibbi.” In Arabic, there is no distinction between short i and short e, they tend to hear them as the same vowel. So… yeah. Zebby could come across sounding like ‘my penis’ depending on the dialect of the hearer. ---
**Author:** ![Paul\_in\_Qatar](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/ccd318/32.png) [@Paul\_in\_Qatar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Paul_in_Qatar)\ **Post date:** [May 23, 2008, 11:40am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-anyone-speak-arabic/450263/11 "2008-05-23T11:40:59Z")
No nobody speaks Arabic. They are all faking it. After I leave, they switch from “Arabic” (there is not such thing), back to the natural language of man, English. The problem is that Arabic confuses our difference between “B” and “P.” “Pepsi” becomes “Bebsi” for example. So out word “zipper” has many comic connotations MSA. ---
**Author:** ![twickster](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/ec9cab/32.png) [@twickster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/twickster)\ **Post date:** [May 23, 2008, 12:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-anyone-speak-arabic/450263/12 "2008-05-23T12:16:44Z")
Thanks, **Paul** and **Johanna**. It’s a tossup which of you was more helpful. 😉 ---
**Author:** ![Quercus](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/q/7ab992/32.png) [@Quercus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Quercus)\ **Post date:** [May 23, 2008, 6:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-anyone-speak-arabic/450263/13 "2008-05-23T18:16:38Z")
But is this the primary/only meaning of the word, such that it’s what an Arabic speaker would assume you’re saying? I mean, “Dick”, “Willie” and “Rod” could all be described as English slang for a certain object, but in general English speakers hearing an animal addressed with any of those words would understand it as a valid nickname. ---
**Author:** ![Johanna](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/johanna/32/8318_2.png) [@Johanna](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Johanna)\ **Post date:** [May 24, 2008, 8:35am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-anyone-speak-arabic/450263/14 "2008-05-24T08:35:13Z")
It’s the primary meaning of the word زبّ although my dictionary tells me it’s also a homonym of the plural form of the adjective _azabb_, meaning ‘hairy shaggy, hirsute ones’. Hmm… that does have a certain logic to it, doesn’t it… Also a close relative of the word _zabib_ ‘raisins’. ---
**Author:** ![Cerowyn](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/82dd89/32.png) [@Cerowyn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cerowyn)\ **Post date:** [May 24, 2008, 9:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-anyone-speak-arabic/450263/15 "2008-05-24T09:06:08Z")
[QUOTE=twickster] Isn’t chin-chin a toast in Italian? Must make for some riotous international banquets. [/QUOTE] Never mind banquets, it’s a common enough bar toast here. Someone, a woman no less, chimed in with it last night (in Japan, it’s traditional to toast before you have the first drink, or when someone new joins the table).