Rank who sounds the most authentic when singing in Egyptian dialect and not like they're Lebanese trying to sound Egyptian.
- Carole Samaha
- Nancy Ajram
- Elissa
- Myriam Fares
- Haifa
- Nawal el Zoghbi
* Also when speaking in interviews, who sounds the most Egyptian in your opinion and who sounds the least authentic
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Who sounds more authentic when singing Egyptian dialect
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Originally Posted by just-in-time
As for interviews, I've never heard them speak in anything other than Lebanese except for a word or two in Egyptian (except Haifa once or twice).
As for singing, none of them sound EXACTLY Egyptian, but they're all about the same in my opinion.
Nawal is pretty good because she's been doing it for over 20 years.
Haifa is good because her mother is Egyptian.
Myriam and Elissa are also good...about the same...I'd say they might be the least "authentic" sounding. Elissa just sounds really Lebanese all the time and Myriam...I dunno why.
Nancy is pretty good. Maybe not perfectly Egyptian sounding but pretty good. She is absolutely aweful at Khaleeji though. Seriously :-p
Carole is kinda like Nancy I guess but she's probably better because she does a bit of acting and she's also married to an Egyptian.
I guess MAYBE Nawal, Haifa and Carole are the most authentic sounding...but they're all fairly good. -
I have always assumed that Haifa spoke or sang the most authentically because her Mom is Egyptian, she was married to an Egyptian (and lived in Egypt for a while), and she's been in a few Egyptian movies.
I didn't know that about Nawal, but yeah she's been in the game pretty long.
Is Myriam not good then in the Egyptian dialect? lol
And so they always speak Lebanese dialect in interviews even if they're in Egypt or on Egyptian TV channels? Like when Elissa was on Lamis El Hadidi for the X Factor launch in 2013, she spoke Lebanese or Egyptian? Sorry just curious about dialects and their use. -
No worries :-) Originally Posted by just-in-time
Myriam is good at Egyptian - I guess she grew up with the music and movies too. She just doesn't necessarily sound 100% native.
They're all good I guess. I don't know if you're a native English speaker or not, but think of it like this - we are so used to hearing foreigners speak our language that we don't even realise an accent most of the time unless we listen for it. It's kind of the same with Egyptian - they're just used to everyone singing in Egyptian.
As for interviews, yeah it's HIGHLY unusual for anyone to speak in a foreign dialect on TV (it happens more often outside of TV though). The exceptions are Moroccans/Tunisians/Algerians who often try to "Egyptianise". In this case Lebanese/Khaleeji speakers would often modify their speech to avoid using things very specific to their dialect and try to sound more close to whichever country they're in, but they won't actually be able to speak pure Lebanese/Egyptian/whatever.
As for the Elissa question - can you please share a clip? -
Thank you!! That makes sense about Myriam. Does Haifa sound like she could really be Egyptian in her films and tv series? I read once on twitter someone saying they thought it was weird that she was speaking in Egyptian dialect on Ahla Jalseh (Valentine's 2012) and she replied something sarcastic to them lol
I can't find the link though for Elissa! Sorry, I searched all over YouTube and its not there anymore. -
To be honest about Haifa I've never watched any of her movies or anything lol. I watched a promo of her latest movie Halawet Rouh just to check now and she hardly spoke so I couldn't really tell if it's perfect or not. By the few words I heard she was pretty good. Haifa seems to really focus in the Egyptian market as well so I'm sure she puts in a fair bit of effort into perfecting it. I'm not Egyptian in any case so if any Egyptians can testify about the precision of Haifa's accent that would be great :-) Originally Posted by just-in-time
As for the Eissa X Factor interview, is this the one you mean?
http://youtu.be/z_l7zQ2KHng
If so, I only watched the first five minutes but the interviewer is speaking in the Egyptian dialect (there are some fus7a or Standard Arabic words in the very first introductory sentences before Elissa speaks but the rest is pure Egyptian) and Elissa is speaking in the Lebanese dialect (with a couple of English words lol). There are a few slightly different dialects in Lebanon today but way Elissa is speaking is very typical of the main Lebanese dialect today except I think she is using less English words than she normally does because she is in a "formal" situation. -
YES! That's the interview, I couldn't find it so thank you.
I think its funny when they throw in a bunch of English words or phrases lol... Makes it easier to understand and clear up any confusion.
Thanks again for all the info! -
Haha yeah, it's very common in Lebanon to speak with French and English words. In the past French was more common but it still holds a large place. Today young people speak whole sentences or even conversations in English lol. You won't hear it very often in songs obviously but in general conversation it's super common. Originally Posted by just-in-time
Could you hear the difference between the Lebanese and Egyptian? :-) -
I could tell just a little, but I'm sure that it helped that I now know who is speaking what. lol
But, it does seem like more of a pronunciation difference between them. almost like an accent. Do I make sense?
That is what I was wondering.. Are they considered dialects (with different vocabulary etc.) or are they different accents in reality (different pronunciation, like Australian, British or American English)? -
Originally Posted by just-in-time
Yeah of course you make sense :-)
No no, they are extremely different. They have quite different grammar, different accent and very different vocabulary. The reason that they can understand each other so well is because Egyptian is everywhere and Lebanese is basically everywhere as well today. To them, it's the equivalent of having just a different accent because they're so used to it. The other thing is that within the spectrum of Arabic dialects, Lebanese and Egyptian are quite close compared to, say, Khaleeji or Moroccan. A Lebanese/Egyptian/Saudi/whatever child growing up in a non-Arabic speaking country without exposure to other dialects through media usually has great difficulty understanding any other dialect because everything is just so unique. -
Wow thanks! That makes perfect sense now! Ok so I was thinking one thing when in reality its actually both an accent & dialect. Thanks again!
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Haha, no problem. Originally Posted by just-in-time
A lot of people refer to them as "accents" because in Arabic the word is لهجه (lahja) which means both of these concepts. Also, because Standard Arabic is the official form used in all of these countries, some people tend to view their own mother tongue as "slang" when in fact it is all they speak and they are not proficient in Standard Arabic. Not all people have this view, but this is a very common phenomenon. In this way, dialects are not recognised by governments and aren't regulated or standardised (political reasons). It's quite hard to find good material to learn dialects, but very worthwhile indeed. :-)