Interesting facts about the language

Lebanese Arabic is an Arabic dialect that shares common characteristics with both Palestinian and Syriac. All three dialects belong to Levantine Arabic. Similar to Egyptian Arabic, the Lebanese dialect has a large media presence in the Arab world, as Beirut is the second most important center of the Arab entertainment industry after Cairo. The Lebanese dialect is heavily influenced by foreign words from Western languages, especially English and French. Many of the Arabic neologisms that have largely replaced Western terms in standard Arabic have not been able to establish themselves in Lebanese. This also applies to most other Arabic dialects. Another typically Lebanese feature is the frequent use of French or English words where a genuinely Arabic equivalent would actually be available, or the insertion of entire word groups. For example, the most common greeting is “bon jour”, the most common farewell is “bye bye”, and to thank someone you can say “merci”, “thank you” or “šukran”.