Algeria’s Mauritania Strategy & Egypt’s “People of Determination” | Media Arabic Booster 02/24

February 2024 was a month of strategic moves and careful messaging in the Arab world.

In this Media Arabic Booster, we’ll first look at an Egyptian newspaper headline celebrating an initiative for “people of determination,” which gives us a perfect chance to explore the grammar behind this important social term.

Then, we shift to North Africa to analyze a report from al-Arab on Algeria’s diplomatic push to strengthen ties with Mauritania as a way to counter regional isolation and compete with Morocco.

This post will give you the Arabic vocabulary to discuss geopolitical strategy and the evolving language of social issues.

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A close look at a headline

Headlines in Arabic media are generally easy to understand – but there are also some tricky words.

al-Akhbar (Egypt): people with disabilities

On Thursday, February 29, the Egyptian daily newspaper al-Akhbar had the following headline on its front page.

We want to focus here on the terms that journalists use for people with disabilities.

Above the headline

الرَّئِيسُ يَشْهَدُ النُّسْخَةَ الْخامِسَةَ لِاِحْتِفالِيَّةِ ذَوى الهِمَمِ

The president attends the fifth edition of the People with Disabilities Ceremony

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Headline

تَوْجِيهُ الحُكُومَةِ بِتَخْصِيصِ 15 مِلْياراتِ جُنَيْهٍ لِصُنْدُوقٍ قادِرُونَ بِاِخْتِلافٍ

Government directive to allocate EGP 15 billion to the fund “Differently Abled”

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Let’s focus on the word ذَوَى. What does it mean?

It is a form of the word ذُو which literally means owner; possessor of (صاحِبة); one who has; one with. In a more abstract way, it simply expresses that a person has certain qualities, for example, power or influence, but also physical things, like a beard or Dhu al-Qarnayn (ذُو الْقَرْنَيْنِ), lit. The Two-Horned One, who appears several times in the Holy Qur’an (most famously, as one who builds a wall to keep away Gog and Magog). So why do we have the letter ى here?

ذُو is one of the so-called five nouns (الْأَسْماءُ الْخَمْسةُ – al-asma’ al-khamsa); some also say six nouns (⁧الْأَسْمَاء السِّتَّة⁩ – al-asma’ al-sitta). The most famous of the five nouns is probably أَبٌ (father).

ذو is an intriguing word in Arabic. It means the owner of, one who has or one with. They are marked in Arabic by long vowels rather than short vowels, so the three cases are ذو (nominative – مرفوع), ذا (accusative – منصوب), and ذي (genitive – مجرور).

Since al-Akhbar is an Egyptian newspaper, the ي is written without dots (ى), so we actually have here: ذَوِي الْهِمَمِ.

Now let’s quickly go through all possible forms of ذُو:

NUMBER & CASE	MASCULINE	FEMININE
singular nominative	ذُو	ذَاتُ
singular accusative	ذا	ذَاتَ
singular genitive	ذِي	ذَاتِ
dual nominative	ذَوَا	ذاتا or ذَواتا
dual accusative/genitive	ذَوَيْ	ذاتَيْ or ذَواتَيْ
plural nominative	ذَوُو⁩ or ⁧أُولُو	ذَواتُ
plural accusative/genitive	⁧ذَوِي⁩ or أُولِي⁩	ذَواتِ

➤ So what we have here is the masculine plural form ذَوُو which turns into ذَوِي in the genitive case.

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Vocabulary list

All the words marked in yellow above are explained here.

ARABIC	EXPLANATION
نُسْخة	copy, but also: edition
هِمّةٌ – plural: هِمَمٌ	ambition; effort; energy
ذَوُو الْهِمَمِ or أَصْحابُ الْهِمَمِ	people with disabilities
احْتِياجات خاصّة	special needs – for example: children with special needs (أَطْفالُ ذُو اِحْتِياجاتٍ خاصَّةٍ)
اِحْتِفاليّةٌ	celebration; ceremony; festival. This is an artificial infinitive noun (مَصْدَرٌ صِناعِيٌّ) of اِحْتِفالٌ
تَوْجِيهٌ	directing/directive; instruction, but also: guidance, as in career guidance (التَّوْجيهُ الْمِهْنيُّ). This is the infinitive noun (مصدر) of II-verb وَجَّهَ – يُوَجِّهُ which means to steer; to send; to turn; to warn/accuse. In Arabic media, you will often encounter the following expression: وَجَّهَ الْكَلامَ إلى شَخْصٍ which means to address someone.
تَخْصِيصٌ	allocation; designation; in economics also: privatization. For example: allocation of a sum of money (تَخْصيص مَبْلَغٍ); privatization of state companies (تَخْصيص شَرِكاتٍ حُكوميّةٍ).
صُنْدُوقٌ	box; fund. For example: The International Monetary Fund – IMF (صُنْدُوقُ النَّقْدِ الدُّوَلِيُّ).
قادِرٌ	capable; able. The word is also used in dialects and occurs in many phrases. For example: to no longer be capable of something (لَمْ يَعُدْ قادِرًا عَلَى شَيْءٍ). The word الْقادِرُ is one of the 99 names of Allah (أسماء الله الحسنى) and means The All-Powerful; The All-Capable; The Omnipotent.

Translation of an article

To really get to the core of Arabic newspapers and magazines, you have to know a bunch of words. Plus, the way they phrase things and put sentences together can sometimes be a real challenge. That’s why I’m all about translating whole sentences, so you can gain more confidence and speed up your Arabic skills.

Let’s focus on certain parts of the text and translate each sentence carefully. The words marked in yellow can be found further down in the vocabulary list.

al-Arab (London): Algeria strengthens ties with Mauritania

On February 11, the newspaper Al-Arab (صحيفة العرب), published in London, featured a front-page story about Algeria’s relationship with Mauritania. Even though Mauritania doesn’t get much attention in the Western media, it plays an important role in the tensions of North Africa. So let’s see what is happening there.

Al-Arab (alarab.co.uk) is the first Arabic daily newspaper in London since 1977. It was launched as a secular pan-Arab daily. The founder and first editor-in-chief, Ahmed el-Houni (أحمد الصالحين الهوني), was a former Libyan minister of information. Until today, the paper has a special focus on the North-African region.

Let’s examine a big section of the article more closely.

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الجزائر تعزز علاقتها بموريتانيا تحسبا للتوترات الإقليمية

Algeria strengthens ties with Mauritania anticipating regional tensions

قام وزير الخارجية الجزائري أحمد عطاف بزيارة إلى موريتانيا، أين التقى وزير الخارجية الموريتاني محمد سالم ولد مرزوك، واُسْتُقْبِلَ من طرف الرئيس محمد ولد الشيخ الغزواني، وسلمه رسالة خطية من الرئيس عبدالمجيد تبون.

Algerian Foreign Minister Ahmed Attaf visited Mauritania, where he met with Mauritanian Foreign Minister Mohammad Salem Ould Marzouk. The [Mauretanian] president, Mohamed Ould Ghazouani, also received Attaf and the latter handed him a written letter from [the Algerian] president Abdelmajid Tebboune. (Lit.: He was received by Mohamed Ould Ghazouani…)

وتأتي هذه الزيارة في سياق حركية لافتة بين البلدين، حيث سبق لوزير خارجية ورئيس مجلس النواب الموريتانيين زيارة الجزائر منذ أيام. كما تندرج الزيارة في إطار جولة إقليمية لرئيس الدبلوماسية الجزائرية هادفة إلى تحسين العلاقات مع دول الجوار وكسر ما بدا أنه مسار للعزلة تعيشه الجزائر بسبب توتر علاقاتها الإقليمية.

The visit falls in the context of a noteworthy movement between the two countries, as the Mauritanian foreign minister and speaker of the parliament paid a several-day-long visit to Algiers a view days ago. The visit also falls in the context of a regional tour by the head of the Algerian diplomatic corps aimed at improving the relations with the neighboring countries and breaking what seems to be an isolation that Algeria is experiencing due to its tense regional relations.

وجاءت زيارة رئيس الدبلوماسية الجزائرية إلى موريتانيا في إطار جولة إقليمية لعدة عواصم إقليمية على غرار تونس وطرابلس، أين نقل رسائل خطية من طرف الرئيس تبون، مما يترجم رغبة الجزائر في تحريك محاور الجوار لبلورة مقاربة مشتركة بغية مواجهة التحديات القائمة، لاسيما دخول قوى إقليمية على خط النفوذ في المنطقة.

The head of the Algerian foreign minister to Mauritania is one of many visits to several regional capitals, such as/including Tunis and Tripoli, where he conveyed written letters from President Tebboune, which explains Algiers’ desire to stir the neighboring axes into establishing a common approach to deal with the present/existing challenges, especially since regional powers have stepped into the line of influence in the region.

ويبدو أن الجزائر المنزعجة من حملة مناهضة لها، بقيادة المجلس العسكري الحاكم في مالي، خاصة بعد إعلان المجلس إنهاء العمل باتفاق السلم والمصالحة، واتهام الجزائر بـ “رعاية الإرهاب والتدخل في شؤون بلدهم الداخلية”، تريد تطويق الأزمة في إطار محدود، وبلورة مقاربة بين دول الجوار، قياسا بما تراه “مغامرة تهدد أمن مالي ووحدتها والمنطقة عموما”.

It appears that Algiers is upset over a campaign against it led by the ruling Military Council in Mali, especially since the Council announced the termination of the Peace and Reconciliation Treaty and accused Algeria of “sponsoring terrorism and interfering in the country’s internal affairs”. Thus, Algiers is seeking to contain this crisis by coming up with a joint approach between the neighboring countries to address the “adventure” threatening Mali’s security and unity, and the region in general.

ويقول مراقبون إن رهان الجزائر على موريتانيا هدفه تأمين الطريق إلى غرب أفريقيا ومنافسة المغرب، وهو ما يفسر حرص الجزائر على الاستمرار في إنجاز طريق برية بمسافة تقارب 800 كيلومتر، ويهدف إلى تقليص التباسات حركة الأفراد والمركبات التي كانت تُضْطَرُّ إلى قطع جزء من رحلاتها في إقليم الصحراء.

Observers believe that Algeria’s bet on Mauritania aims at securing a way into West Africa and competing with Morocco. This explains Algiers’ keenness on building a land road of around 800 kilometers to improve the movement of individuals and vehicles that were forced into crossing the desert when traveling.

ولم يستبعد مراقبون في المنطقة أن تكون الزيارة قد حملت ردا للرئيس الموريتاني على رسائله التي وجهها في وقت سابق لكل مِن قادة تونس والجزائر والمغرب وليبيا والسودان ومصر، ويُرَجَّحُ أن تكون قد تَمَحْوَرَتْ حول الوضع في الشرق الأوسط والحرب الإسرائيلية على قطاع غزة، وفي منطقة الساحل الأفريقي، فضلا عن طموح نواكشوط لتولي رئاسة الاتحاد الأفريقي.

Observers in the region also believe that the visit [by Attaf] probably brought a response to the Mauritanian president’s earlier messages to the leaders of Tunisia, Algeria, Morocco, Libya, Sudan, and Egypt. It is likely that the [Algerian] response focused on the situation in the Middle East, the Israeli war on Gaza, and the African Sahel area in general, in addition to Nouakchott’s desire to head the African Union.

وتولي الجزائر أهمية كبيرة لتطوير علاقاتها مع موريتانيا، حيث تم الاتفاق على تأسيس آلية مشتركة للتشاور السياسي وتعزيز التعاون الاقتصادي والتجاري والأمني، خاصة في ظل التوترات التي تعيشها المنطقة.

Algeria attaches great importance to (is very much interested in) developing its relations with Mauritanian. Thus, an agreement was reached on establishing a joint mechanism for political discussions (consultations) and strengthening the economic, commercial, and security-related cooperation, especially in light of the tensions (lived) in the region.

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Vocabulary list

All the words in the above article marked in yellow can be found in this table with explanations.

ARABIC	EXPLANATION
عَزَّزَ – يُعَزِّزُ	to strengthen; to consolidate. It is a II-verb.
تَحَسُّبًا لِ	in anticipation of; in case of. It is the infinitive noun of V-verb تَحَسَّبَ – يَتَحَسَّبُ لِ which means to take precautions; to be careful; to watch out; to look into. The preposition لِ indicates the matter or topic.
تَوَتُّرٌ – تَوَتُّراتٌ	tension
إِقْلِيمِيٌّ	regional; provincial
مِن طَرَفِ	on the part of; by
خَطِّيٌّ	written
فِي سِياقِ	in the context of… You may also often read: in this context (فِي هٰذا السِّياقِ)
لافِتٌ	noticeable; remarkable. If you need the adverb remarkably, you can say: عَلَى نَحْوٍ لافِتٍ
سَبَقَ – يَسْبِقُ	to precede

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Drißner, G. (2024, February 29). Algeria’s Mauritania Strategy & Egypt’s “People of Determination” | Media Arabic Booster 02/24. Arabic for Nerds. https://arabic-for-nerds.com/learners-corner/media-arabic-booster/media-arabic-booster-02-24/

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Published: February 29, 2024

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Publication ISSN: 3055-1730