Linguistic Observations (Ly-Ar-En) " شرى واشترى"

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(Edited)

Tl;dr: The Arabic word for "Sell" is often used for the opposite of its real meaning in most Arabic Dialects.

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In Libya and most Arabic countries, the word we use for "Sell" is بيع" and from that root, we have "باع" for "Sold" and "يبيع" for "(someone is) Selling."

The word we use for "Buy" is "شراء" and from that root, comes the words "شرى" for Bought, "يشري" for "(someone is) Buying."

The second set of words, however, is all words that originally referred to selling not buying. The word "شراء" means "Sell/Selling" in Classic Arabic & supposedly Modern Standard Arabic too!

I say supposedly because the misconception is so strong that Google Translate also follows the current majority use of the word.

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I think the main reason for that because the true word for buying "اشتراء" (which is still in use today) comes from the same root as "شراء," and it's harder to say. I imagine that people over the years started to shorten it. Since there's already the word "بيع" for selling, people easily understood from context, but now the original meaning has long faded away.

You'll only find the word "شراء" used to refer to Selling instead of Buying in historical text or in Qur'an, but the fact that the word is currently used for its opposite meaning has led to a lot of confusion. (I know I've been confused for a long time before someone explained it to me.)

We don't use the word "اشترى" in Libyan Arabic, but we do use it when we speak to Arabs from other countries. Since most Arabic countries use the word "شرى" for the same meaning in their local tongue, no one considers this distinction between using to refer to buying or selling an issue.

What do you think?

I don't know if this is a problem. There's a trend in all languages for changing things to make them easier over time. (Think of English or your own language and how it compares to 100 or 200 years ago.) Though, the fact that a word can easily be used for its opposite meaning can lead to a lot of confusion when researching/reading about the history...

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Hello @ahmadmanga! So the words 'sell' and 'buy' are interchangeably used in Arabic dialects now?

There's a trend in all languages for changing things to make them easier over time.

You are very right about this. Most languages recently are kind of 'modernized' and shortened. When compared to decades or centuries ago, they are spoken or written differently.

Thanks for this enlightening linguistic piece. 🙂

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That's right... There's another word for sell that I mentioned at the start for article. So tl;dr: one of the words for sell is used interchangable with "buy" in most Arabic dialects these days.

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In the Philippines (and the Philippines alone), the word we use for "Sell" is "benta" and from that root, we have "naibenta" for "Sold" and "nagbebenta" for "(someone is) Selling".

The word we use for "Buy" is "bili" and from that root, comes the words "nabili" for Bought, "bumibili" for "(someone is) Buying."

The second set of words, nonetheless, is all words that originally referred to buying, not selling. The word "bili" means "Buy" in Tagalog & supposedly most Filipino dialects too!

Have some !LOLZ and !PIZZA while reading this parody about your post! 😁

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Haha!! !LOLZ !PIZZA !LUV

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(Edited)

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