Below are some basic conversational phrases whose forms are found in extant Galilean texts. See the transliteration section to understand how to pronounce them.
Hello! / Goodbye!
Sh‘lam!
Sh‘lam lak! (->m)
Sh‘lam lek! (->f)
Sh‘lam l-kon! (->m.pl)
Sh‘lam l-ken! (->f.pl)
Good night.
Leyley tab.
How are you? (formal) 1
Ana ba’ey mishal b-shlamak. (m->m)
Ana ba’ey mishal b-shlamek. (m-f)
Ana ba’yah mishal b-shlamak. (f->m)
Ana ba’yah mishal b-shlamek. (f->f)
How are you? (polite) 2
Ana sha’el b-shlamak. (m->m)
Ana sha’el b-shlamek. (m-f)
Ana sha’lah b-shlamak. (f->m)
Ana sha’lah b-shlamek. (f->f)
How are you? (informal)
Mah lak? (->m)
Mah lek? (->f)
I’m fine.
Ana tab.
What are you up to?
Mah at `abeyd? (->m)
Mah at `abdah? (->f)
Not much.
La saggin.
Thank you. 3
Yishar. 4
Tebu lak/lek. (->m/->f) (possible) 5
Please.
b-Ba’u.
No, thank you.
La b-ba’u.
Notes:
- lit. “I beg to inquire about your peace.” ↩
- Can also be said with ba’ey / ba’yah rather than sha’el / sha’lah. ↩
- Note that the exceedingly common /taude/ or /todah/ (which also appears in other Western dialects like Samaritan and Christian Palestinian Aramaic) is completely absent from the Galilean corpus. ↩
- /Yishar/ is a shortened form of the phrase /yishar hailak/ or lit. “Your strength shall be firm/true” and is the only certain example of “thank you” in the extant corpus. ↩
- lit. “Kindness/goodness to you.” – This is another possibility, but in most extant examples it is ambiguous as to whether or not this word is used as “thank you” as a response in the way /yishar/ is. Regardless, I list it here as an alternative. ↩