Mishan is not Mishan

Submitted by Sentinel (Saudi Arabia), Aug 23, 2013 at 05:05

Briefly - MISHAN meaning Sharp tongue and MISHAN meaning ..for the sake of.....are UNRELATED..

I assume MISHAN (sharp tongue) is a literary classicism. I've never heard of it.

===============================================================

MISHAN (for the sake of) is simply the very common MIN SHA"AN (literally: FROM THIS MATTER) and is found in one form or another in nearly all dialects. It's very common for the dialects to abbreviate certain words, especially prepositions such as MIN and 3LA (على ) when in initial position.

Thus in Egyptian, you get 3SHAANEE = for me - which is abbreviated 3LA SHA'AN EE

Or also in Egyptian, the very common phrase: 3SHAAN KEDA = that's the way it is, etc.... in its full form 3LA SHAAN KEDA.

Both the short and full form are commonly used in spoken Egyptian.

I don't think the phrase in question MISHAN ALLAH [FROM the sake of God = God have Mercy) is used in Egyptian or other dialects I'm familiar with. It might be purely Syrian. But it certainly would be understood by any native speaker of Arabic.

Note: Opinions expressed in comments are those of the authors alone and not necessarily those of Daniel Pipes. Original writing only, please. Comments are screened and in some cases edited before posting. Reasoned disagreement is welcome but not comments that are scurrilous, off-topic, commercial, disparaging religions, or otherwise inappropriate. For complete regulations, see the "Guidelines for Reader Comments".