بي

North Levantine Arabic

Etymology

From a form like Arabic أُبَيّ (ʔubayy), the diminutive of Arabic أَب (ʔab, “father”). Compare also خي (ḵayy, “brother”) vis-à-vis Arabic أَخ (ʔaḵ, “brother”).

The modern use of بَيّ (bayy, “father”) in Lebanon may have originated in a situation similar to that of the Cilician Arabic varieties Procházka describes, which use the stem بُو (bū-, “father”) with almost all possessive pronouns (as in بُوها (būwa, “her father”)) but the stem بَيّـ (bayy-) only for بَيِّي (bayyi, “my father”). The diminutive in my father seems to serve the purpose of endearment or hypocorism, a sense that must have also existed in certain Lebanese dialects before bleaching and allowing the originally diminutive form to become the default.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /bajj/

Noun

بي • (bayy) m (plural بيات (bayyāt))

1. (Lebanon) father

   Synonym: أب (ʔabb) (Syria)

   Coordinate term: إم (ʔimm, “mother”)