“Abu Dhabi” in Hebrew

[audioclip url=”https://archive.ulpan.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/08/אבו-דאבי-#.m4a” /]אַבּוּ דַּאבִּי, אַב הַצְּבִי

When speaking of the national capital of the United Arab Emirates, Israelis say אבו דאבי[audioclip url=”https://archive.ulpan.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/08/אבו-דאבי-#.m4a” /].

For example:

[audioclip url=”https://archive.ulpan.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/08/אבו-דאבי-#.m4a” /]קורץ לי לטוס לאבו דאבי.

I feel like flying to Abu Dhabi.

But if we do some comparative Semitics, we’ll find that Israelis could, if they wished, translate it to proper Hebrew: אב הצבי[audioclip url=”https://archive.ulpan.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/08/אבו-דאבי-#.m4a” /] – Father of the Deer.

Why? Because the Arabic word ظبي[audioclip url=”https://archive.ulpan.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/08/אבו-דאבי-#.m4a” /] (dhabi) means antelope, which in Aramaic is טביא[audioclip url=”https://archive.ulpan.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/08/אבו-דאבי-#.m4a” /] and in Hebrew is צבי[audioclip url=”https://archive.ulpan.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/08/אבו-דאבי-#.m4a” /] – essentially different pronunciations of the same word.

أبو[audioclip url=”https://archive.ulpan.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/08/אבו-דאבי-#.m4a” /] (abu) means father of – in Hebrew, אב[audioclip url=”https://archive.ulpan.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/08/אבו-דאבי-#.m4a” /].