Re: Calling people...

[Muhammad Alkarouri <malkarouri at yahoo dot co dot uk>]

On Thu, 2004-12-02 at 06:26, Christian Perrier wrote:
[...]
> I have noticed that most of you use "Elzubeir" for "Mohammed Elzubeir"
> while they use other's people first name (like for Nadim Shaikli above).

As Nadim said, Mohammad is the most common name by far in the Arab
world, so you will find that Mohammeds tend to be called by their most
uncommon name which may be the second or the last: while Mohammed
Elzubeir has it as second, I am usually called Alkarouri (shorted
karouri) which is the last.
Actually if I am going in the street and somebody shouted 'Mohammed' I
wouldn't take notice except if I recognise the voice..

Sometimes Mohammed will be part of a two part name, like a prefix
(Elzubeir?) so he will get his second part as the more used name.

The most respectable way is to call a person 'father of ...'  in many
countries. At least in Sudan, this is almost never used, and I would say
it is also not common in all the African Arab countries.

It is usually safe to call a person by his/her first name, and does not
need familiarity. Historically the last name had no significance at all,
though the US/EU are influencing this now.

As for tu/vous, Arabs always use you which is equivalent to tu, so we
won't have an equivalent to 'comment allez-vous' except to plural.
In some cases, I think mainly for kings and the like, the plural you is
used in expressions like 'your honour', 'you excellency', etc..
Even these expressions are used as singular in most of the cases.
I think usage of 'vous' equivalent is discouraged by the islamic
culture..

Salam,
karouri