How to say “Goodbye” in Tunisian Arabic
There are many ways to say farewell in Tunisian Arabic. Some are directly derived from Standard Arabic (Fos7a / فصحى) and would be common in almost all Arabic-speaking countries (perhaps, with some deviations to pronunciations), others have the clear tone of Arabic but are unique to the Tunisian or the Maghreb region (the northwest and north-central part of Africa) of Arabic speakers, whereas a few others, yet, are derivatives of Indo-European languages such as French, Italian & English.
In this article we will explore the most common ways that people speaking Tunisian Arabic to each other say Goodbye or a related farewell.
The sections in this article
- General goodbyes
- Morning & daytime-related farewells
- Evening-time farewells
- General farewells
- Other farewells
1. General goodbyes
Bislema / بالسلامة
In Tunisian Arabic, the most common way that people say Goodbye is by saying Bislema / بالسلامة. In the word, The bi /بال means with and Salema سلامة means “safety”. To say Bislema is to wish someone safety wherever they are going. The word is thought to be derived from the Fos7a phrase Rafa9atka al salama / رافقتك السلامة which has a translation of something like, “Wherever you’re going, be safe.”
In the recording below IBL contributor Samar H. pronounces Bislema / بالسلامة.
Filamen / في الامان
The word Filamen / في الامان directly comes from Fos7a, and in an elongated way, is Fi Aman Allah, which in English, has a translation of “May you be safe in God’s hands.” The most applicable translation in English for Filamen may simply be Goodbye. Although Filamen isn’t spoken as frequently amongst Tunisian Arabic speakers as Bislema is, if you say Filamen to a speaker of Tunisian Arabic expect to be understood and don’t be surprised if you hear a friendly Filamen back in return.
In the recording below Samar H. pronounces Filamen.
2. Morning & daytime farewells
Nharek zin / نهارك زين
In Tunisian Arabic, Nhar / نهار means day. The suffix -ek (or -k) / ك- puts the word in the You form. And zin / زين comes from the words (m) Meziyen / مزيان & (f) Meziyena / مزيانة which mean beautiful. Taken together, by saying Nharek zin / نهارك زين to someone, you are wishing that their day is good: A reasonable directly translation is, “May your day be beautiful.” Perhaps most cognately, the phrase translates into the colloquial English statements, “Have a good day.” or “Have a wonderful day.”
A tip: If you are making this expression to more than one person, swap the -ek / ك- with -kom / كم–, making the phrase Nharkom zin / نهاركم زين. The -kom / كم– frames the statement in the You plural form.
Below Samar H. pronounces Nharek zin / نهارك زين:
Below Samar H. pronounces Nharkom zin / نهاركم زين:
3. Evening-time farewells
Liltek zina / ليلتك زينة
A very Tunisian way to say “Good night” or “Have a good night” to someone is Liltek zina / ليلتك زينة. In Tunisian Arabic (and derived from Fos7a) Lil / ليل means night. As noted above, the suffix, -ek / ك- puts the word in the You form. Zina / زينة is the feminine-based form of Zin (used above in the phrase Nharek zin), and as such, like the word Zin, means good. You may wonder at this point why masculine-based Zin is used in Nharek zin, whereas, the feminine-based word Zina is used in association with Lil. Like all dialects of Arabic, Tunisian Arabic associates a gender to most singular-form nouns and certain words associated to the noun are used that are consistent with that gender-designation. (To understand this concept more read the IBL article, How nouns function in Tunisian Arabic) In Tunisian Arabic, Nhar is a masculine-based word and Lil is a feminine-based word. That’s the conventional way to say this phrase is Liltek zina / ليلتك زينة. (And above, Nharek zin / نهارك زين)
And like Nharek zin, if you are providing this farewell to more than one person, by adding the -kom / كم- to Lil you’ve framed the word in the You plural form: Liletkom zina / ليلتكم زينة.
Below Samar H. pronounces Liltek zina / ليلتك زينة:
Below Samar H. pronounces Liletkom zina / ليلتكم زينة:
Tesba7 ala 5ir / تصبح على خير
A traditional and conventional way to wish someone a good night in all dialects is Arabic is Tesba7 ala 5ir / تصبح على خير. Amongst Tunisian Arabic speakers, commonly, only Ala 5ir is spoken. Tesba7 ala 5ir / تصبح على خير is based in Fos7a and means in English, “May you wake up to good news.” In regular English farewells, this phrase would be most akin to “Have a good night.” or “Have a good evening.”
Other common versions of this phrase amongst Tunisian Arabic speakers in the Latin script includes Tsba7ala5ir and Ala 5ir.
An interesting observation: If you say the full Tesba7 ala 5ir to someone, commonly, what you’ll hear back is Ala 5ir. (Without the Tesba7)
By this point you may be wondering what the 7 or 5 means or why numbers are used as letters in the Latin-script version of this phrase. To understand this grammatical practice amongst Tunisian Arabic speakers, access the IBL article: Numbers as letters in Tunisian Arabic.
Below Samar H. pronounces Tesba7 ala 5ir / تصبح على خير:
And below Samar H. shortens the statement by simply saying Ala 5ir / على خير:
4. General farewells
Nrak (or Narak) / نراك means “See you”. Mba3d / مبعد means “later”. Merged together this phrase is effectively saying, in English, “See you later.” Nrak mba3d is used more when you’re certain you’re going to see someone again in the time frame stated. (e.g., later, tomorrow, this afternoon, etc.) If you wish to use a phrase that has the flexibility of carrying the certainty of when you will see someone at times but also can be used as a casual farewell then reference Nchoufek mba3d / نشوفك مبع (which also means “See you later”) below.
Below IBL contributor Nada A. pronounces Nrak mba3d / نراك مبعد:
Narak ghodwa (Nrak ghodwa) / نراك غدوة
Like English, instead of expressing the term “See you later”, you may wish to express to a friend, co-worker, or family member the phrase, “See you tomorrow.” To do this you can say Narak ghodwa / نراك غدوة. As covered above, Nrak means see you. And ghodwa (or 8odwa) is a distinctly Tunisian Arabic way to say “tomorrow”. (For your reference, here is how “tomorrow” is spoken and written in Egyptian Arabic and Lebanese Arabic, and in Moroccan Arabic, the word Gheda / غدا is used)
Below Samar H. pronounces Narak ghodwa / نراك غدوة:
As an alternative to Nrak mba3d / نراك مبعد to express “See you later” you can say or write Nchoufek mba3d / نشوفك مبع. In Tunisian Arabic the root word Chouf / شوف means “See”, the prefix n- / -ن puts the word in the speaker’s I form (they are speaking about themselves) and the -ek (or -k) / ك-, as covered a couple times above, puts the direction of the verb towards the interlocutor (what they are going to see is You). The mba3d / مبع is covered above and means “later”. These two words brought together in a statement is another way of saying Nrak mba3d / نراك مبعد and means, in English, “See you later.”
And do you want to say this type of phrase to more than one person? Unsurprisingly, just as is described in a couple spots above, switch the -ek / ك- to -kom / كم-, making the phrase Nchoufkom mba3d / نشوفك مبع and you’ve essentially expressed See you later to a group of people. (The effect of “See you both later”, if to two people, and “See you all later”, if to more than two people)
Below Samar H. pronounces Nchoufek mba3d / نشوفك مبع:
Below Samar H. pronounces Nchoufkom mba3d / نشوفك مبع :
Other farewells
In Tunisian Arabic, the sound and spellings of conventionally Arabic words make up the majority of the lexicon. French has influenced the dialect in a minority but noticeable way (Mostly by way of products and technologies that may have been originally imported from Europe into the country) (A swimming pool is piscine / بيسين, shampoo is shampooing / شمبوان and a computer is Ordinateur / أردينتور) And then there are certain words that are so universal (Such as the Italian way of saying Goodbye, Ciao) that they are known by many Tunisian Arabic speakers.
Bye Bye / باي باي, Yala bye / يلا باي & Bye / باي
All influences of the universality of the English word Goodbye (Bye for short), Bye Bye / باي باي, Yala bye / يلا باي & Bye / باي all show, perhaps not by all speakers, but can be heard a reasonable amount of times in conversations.
À demain / ا دومين
Not in the majority of Tunisian Arabic words, but certainly enough that the influence is clear, is words and phrases that are derived from French. (E.g., The indigenous way of saying “How are you?” in Tunisian Arabic is Chna7welek? / شنحولك؟ but just as common, if not more common amongst speakers, is the phrase Ça va? / سافا؟) Most of French’s influence amongst present-day Tunisian Arabic speakers is in the names for products and technologies, that if traced back, likely were originally sourced from Europe. With that said, a reasonably common farewell amongst Tunisian Arabic speakers is the phrase À demain, which is sourced from French and means “See you tomorrow”.
Ciao / تشاو
And then there is the beloved universal way of saying Goodbye that originally comes from Italy: Ciao / تشاو. It’s not clear how this word came to be amongst the lexicon of many Tunisian Arabic speakers: It could be because of Tunisia’s proximity to Italy, and the popularity of Italian restaurants in many cities in Tunisia.
In Closing
By using the material in this article you have a large swathe of ways you can now say Goodbye, wish someone a good farewell or to indicate that you are looking forward to seeing them again soon. Do you want to improve your skills and knowledge about Tunisian Arabic Greetings & farewells further? Read the IBL article: How to say Hello in Tunisian Arabic. And here is the Ithaca Bound Languages platform list of Greetings & farewells in Tunisian Arabic.
Enjoy speaking Tunisian Arabic.
And as always, we wish you a marvellous journey.
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