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TEL AVIV // In a café in Tel Aviv, known as the “first Hebrew city”, waitresses greet customers with the Arabic “ahlan”, coffee drinkers are overheared saying “sababa” (cool), and the food is consumed with sighs of “wahaat”, Arabic for “one” but which has taken on a new meaning in Hebrew of “the best”.
When customers leave, it is with a cry of “yalla!”, the Arabic for “let’s go” which has become almost universal among both Hebrew and Arabic speakers. While slang in most countries changes according to prevailing trends, Arabic has been a firm constant among Hebrew speakers even before the Jewish state was established in 1948.
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