posted by [identity profile] mutabbal.livejournal.com at 07:42am on 09/02/2007
rather unhelpfully all I can think of is the very American "hamburger with ketchup".

In Arabic a number of dishes are named with the linking particle "bi" - which means "with", but in a more immediate sense. hummus bi-tahineh (hummus with tahineh), hummus bi-lehmeh (hummus with shaved meat on top), etc.

BUT you can't say, for example, shai/qahwa bi-haleeb (tea/coffee with milk). You say: shai/aahwa maa haleeb (maa is the "proper" word for "with").

Contemporary Arabic, especially here in the Levant, has grandfathered in a number of terms and grammatical usages from French. I've wondered before whether the use of "bi" in dish names isn't one example of Arabic a la francaise.

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