Ok, I don’t mean this as a dig, but when the Palestinians were celebrating in the streets yesterday, I heard a woman doing the distinctive “Lalalalalalalala” with a twirl of the tounge.
I’m just wondering exactly what this means, and (if possible) why it originated.
It’s a cheer, done only by women.
My wife is Muslim and the first time I heard some of her parents’ friends do this at a restaurant during a belly dancing act it kind of wigged me out. A woman turned to me and said, “It’s an expression of joy.” As said here, women do it and it is usually done at any celebratory event. I usually hear it just at weddings. Origins are probably lost since it is just a social custom, not of religious significance. Kind of like trying to figure out what individual started the idea of shaking hands.
Shaking hands proves you’re not carrying anything with your “good” (right) hand, like a knife or something dangerous. Hence its connotations as an expression of goodwill and friendliness.
It is a woman’s cheer, common in the Middle East and other areas with heavy Muslim influence. Performing it is somewhat similar to yodelling. As jseigle says, it is often an expression of joy, although I have also heard it at political rallies and demonstrations. I have even heard of women doing it at sad events such as state funerals, although I can’t confirm that. So it may be more fair to call it a sound that expresses intense emotion rather than simply joy.
For anyone who was wondering, this was also the inspiration for Xena’s battle cry. The “Xena yell”, however, involves only an up-and-down motion of the tounge, while the traditional form also involves a side-to-side motion. This was apparently too difficult for actress Lucy Lawless to master, despite her background in the opera.
I’m not sure of the spelling, but it’s called a zagreet or zagereet. Very big with belly dancers. We treat it as kind of a “you go girl,” exclamation. Think of it as “Whooo Whooo,” or “Yeah!” or “Whoopee!”
In context here, it’s very depressing.
I’ve heard the “biddlebiddlebiddle” sound Arab women make referred to as “ululation.”
[aside]Gee, uh, thanks. I think everybody knows the symbolism of shaking hands, but my point was that its actual origin is long lost. It is such a pervasive and widespread customer, we don’t know who was the first person to do it. Same with this tongue wagging stuff.[/aside]
:o custom