Song words and translations

All are pdf; those in red include musical transcription. Suggestions and (especially) corrections are always welcome and eagerly solicited.

Note on pronunciation

A dot under h denotes the sound of Hebrew khaf or khet. Dots under t, s, z, or d denote the "emphatic" Arabic velar consonants. Push them forward in your mouth, "darken" the following vowel, and don't worry about it too much since no non-native speaker can pronounce them correctly anyway. A dot under g is the Arabic ghayin; pretend like you're gargling. Apostrophe is used for punctuation and for glottal stop (e.g. hamza). Backquote is used for Arabic or Yemenite `ayin, though I often forget and use a regular apostrophe. Emphasis is on helping you sing along rather than on linguistic or phonological accuracy. Translations tend to be more literal than poetic, but considerable liberty is often taken in order to convey the sense.

Other resources

HoraWiki, a treasury of Israeli folkdance information that anyone can edit (גם בעברית)
HebrewSongs: Online library of Hebrew (and other) songs, translated and transliterated.
The MIT Folk Dance Club Songbook: Songs from all countries, transliterated and translated.
Hala Dance Company: Classes, workshops and performances of traditional Middle Eastern dance, plus Arabic song translations.
Israeli dance database from Australia: Lots of links to song words.

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