Lahja (Dialect)

Lahja (Dialect) — connector documentation

• MCP endpoint: https://lahja.connectorbay.com/mcp
• REST API: POST https://lahja.connectorbay.com/v1/tools/{tool_name}, described by the OpenAPI 3.1 spec at https://lahja.connectorbay.com/openapi.json
• Transport: Streamable HTTP, stateless, MCP specification 2025-06-18 or later
• Authentication: none required. An optional Authorization: Bearer <key> raises rate limits.
• Health: https://lahja.connectorbay.com/health · Tool schemas: https://lahja.connectorbay.com/tools.json
• Publisher: Unify Dynamics LLC · connectorbay.com/lahja · agent@connectorbay.com

What Lahja (Dialect) is for

The question that comes up whenever spoken Arabic enters a conversation — how do you actually say "thank you" in Egyptian Arabic versus Gulf Arabic, is "shu" the same as "eh", what does "as-salamu alaykum" mean and when do you say it — answered from one hand-curated, respectful reference, without hunting across forum threads of varying reliability.

What it does

60+ everyday phrases and words — greetings, polite expressions, questions, dining, shopping/souq, directions, emergencies, small talk and numbers 1-10 — each rendered in Modern Standard Arabic (Fusha) plus the Egyptian, Levantine (Shami), Gulf (Khaleeji) and Maghrebi (North African) dialect groups, transliterated into Latin script and given in Arabic script (translate_phrase, dialect_search); a side-by-side comparison tool that groups dialects sharing an identical form and flags where they genuinely diverge (dialect_comparison); a profile for each dialect group covering its home region, the countries where it's commonly spoken, and 2-3 signature features (dialect_info); a respectful, factual guide to common greetings and their context — formal/informal, time of day, and the religious-origin greeting "as-salamu alaykum" explained alongside its standard reply (greeting_guide); a full numbers reference, 1-20 plus the 10s/100s/1000s, by dialect (number_words); phrases grouped by everyday situation (common_phrases_by_category); brief, purely descriptive notes on Arabic script basics — right-to-left direction, letter connection forms, no capital letters, unwritten short vowels (script_note); and a glossary of linguistics and culture terms relevant to Arabic — Fusha, Ammiyya, diglossia, hamza and more (arabic_glossary).

What it is not

Not a claim that any dialect group — including Modern Standard Arabic — is more "proper," "pure" or "correct" Arabic than another. Egyptian, Levantine, Gulf and Maghrebi are broad umbrella groupings, each covering several countries and many local varieties underneath them, and every entry here is phrased as a commonly-described general tendency rather than a rule that applies to every speaker. Lahja (Dialect) deliberately favors well-documented, easily-verifiable everyday vocabulary — greetings, numbers, common phrases — over obscure or contested forms, and it is not a substitute for a phrasebook built for one specific country or a conversation with an actual speaker of that dialect. Fully local, zero upstream calls, nothing stored.

Tools

Phrasebook

translate_phrase — An everyday phrase or word (greetings, "how much", "where is", "thank you", numbers 1-10, ...) rendered in Modern Standard Arabic plus each major dialect group (Egyptian, Levantine, Gulf, Maghrebi), transliterated and in Arabic script. Also matches on a dialect word itself (searching "shukran" finds "thank you"). Use for "how do you say thank you in Arabic", "what's the Egyptian word for water". Args: phrase, dialect.

dialect_search — Keyword search for phrases/words matching a query across every dialect's transliteration, Arabic script, gloss, category and notes. Use for "find phrases about the bathroom", "search for shu". Args: query.

common_phrases_by_category — Phrases grouped by situation: dining, shopping/souq, directions, emergencies, small talk (plus greetings, polite expressions, questions and numbers). Use for "give me some dining phrases in Arabic", "what should I say in an emergency", "shopping phrases for the souq". Args: category.

Comparison & regions

dialect_comparison — The same word or phrase's form across every dialect group side by side, explicitly grouping dialects that share an identical (or near-identical) form and flagging where they genuinely diverge. Use for "compare how are you across Arabic dialects", "is the word for coffee the same everywhere". Args: word_or_phrase.

dialect_info — One dialect group's home region, the countries where it's commonly spoken, and 2-3 signature features (e.g. Egyptian's distinctive hard "g" for the letter jim). Use for "tell me about Gulf Arabic", "where is Levantine Arabic spoken", "what makes Maghrebi Arabic distinctive". Args: dialect.

Numbers & greetings

number_words — Cardinal numbers 1-20 plus the 10s (30-90), 100 and 1000, in Modern Standard Arabic and by dialect group, transliterated and in Arabic script. Use for "how do you say seven in Gulf Arabic", "numbers 1 to 10 in Arabic", "what's one hundred in Moroccan Arabic". Args: number, dialect.

greeting_guide — Common Arabic greetings and the context they're appropriate for — formal vs. informal, time of day, and the religious-origin greeting "as-salamu alaykum" explained respectfully and factually alongside its standard reply. Use for "how do I greet someone in Arabic", "explain as-salamu alaykum", "morning greetings in Arabic". Args: context.

Reference

script_note — Brief, purely descriptive notes on Arabic script basics relevant to a learner — right-to-left direction, letter connection forms, the absence of capital letters, unwritten short vowels, and the alphabet's size. Use for "why is Arabic written right to left", "does Arabic have capital letters", "are Arabic vowels written down". Args: topic.

arabic_glossary — Definitions of linguistics and culture terms relevant to Arabic: Fusha, Ammiyya, diglossia, Darija, Khaleeji, Shami, hamza, ta' marbuta, root-and-pattern morphology, qaf, isogloss, mutual intelligibility, insha'Allah, alhamdulillah. Use for "what does diglossia mean", "what's the difference between Fusha and Ammiyya", "what does insha'Allah mean". Args: term.

Conventions

• Read-only. Every tool reads public data or computes; nothing is written anywhere and nothing about the user is stored.
• Result envelope. ok: true with data, or ok: false with a structured error (bad_input, not_found, upstream_error). degraded lists optional sources that were unreachable.
• Rate limits. Free tier 60 tool calls/minute and 300/day per user (keyed on the user identifier supplied by the host agent, else client IP); Pro keys raise this. Over-limit calls return HTTP 429 with Retry-After. initialize and tools/list are never counted.

Support

agent@connectorbay.com · connectorbay.com/lahja/support

Lahja (Dialect) — Privacy Policy

Effective 24 September 2026. Unify Dynamics LLC ("we", "us"), Menlo Park, California.

What Lahja (Dialect) is. Lahja (Dialect) is a connector (an MCP server and REST API) that AI assistants and personal agents call on your behalf for a hand-curated Arabic dialect reference and phrasebook: everyday phrases, dialect comparisons, numbers, a greeting guide, script notes, and a glossary. You interact with your assistant; the assistant sends us only the arguments needed for that one lookup.

What we receive. The arguments of each tool call — a phrase, a word, a dialect name, a category, a number, or a glossary term — the technical headers needed to serve the request (an IP address or a client identifier supplied by the assistant, and a Pro API key if you have one), and standard server logs.

Everything is answered from a bundled, hand-curated reference file and nothing is stored. No request is forwarded to any third party — there is no upstream call at all, live or otherwise — and no query is logged in request bodies, recorded, or used to train anything.

What we do not receive or store. We do not receive your conversation with the assistant or your name, and we do not build a profile from your queries: each request is answered independently and nothing carries over between requests. Rate-limit counters (a client identifier and timestamps) are held in memory for at most 24 hours. Hosting-provider access logs, which contain IP addresses and request paths but not request bodies, are retained for up to 30 days for security and abuse prevention.

Sub-processors. None — the entire dataset is bundled with the server and answered locally. Hosting: Vercel (United States regions).

Legal bases and your rights. Our processing is necessary to provide the service you request through your assistant. Because we store no personal data beyond short-lived logs, requests to access, correct or delete personal data are usually satisfied automatically; you can still contact agent@connectorbay.com and we will respond within 30 days. We do not sell or share personal information and do not use your data to train models.

Children. Lahja (Dialect) is a general-audience service operated by the adult using the assistant.

Changes. We will post changes here with a new effective date.

Lahja (Dialect) — Terms of Service

Effective 24 September 2026. These terms govern use of the Lahja (Dialect) connector ("the Service") operated by Unify Dynamics LLC ("we", "us").

1. The Service. Lahja (Dialect) returns a hand-curated Arabic dialect reference and phrasebook — everyday phrases and words transliterated and in Arabic script across Modern Standard Arabic and the Egyptian, Levantine, Gulf and Maghrebi dialect groups, dialect comparisons, numbers, a greeting guide, script notes, and a glossary — from data curated and verified as of the build date stated in its own data. It is accessed through an AI assistant or directly over MCP or HTTP.
2. A reference, not a lesson or a claim of authority. Lahja (Dialect) is an independent reference tool, not affiliated with or endorsed by any government, institution, or organization. It is not a substitute for a phrasebook built for one specific country or for learning from an actual speaker of a dialect, and no dialect group described — including Modern Standard Arabic — is presented as more "proper" or "correct" than another.
3. Dialects vary. Egyptian, Levantine, Gulf and Maghrebi are broad umbrella groupings, each covering several countries and many local varieties underneath them; this Service describes commonly-cited general tendencies, not a rule for every speaker, city or generation.
4. Acceptable use. Automated use within the published rate limits is welcome.
5. Availability. The Service is provided "as is" without warranty. We may change, limit or discontinue it at any time.
6. Data. Our Privacy Policy describes what we process. In short: your query is answered from a bundled reference file, and nothing is stored.
7. Pro keys. Optional Pro API keys are issued at our discretion, are personal to the holder and may be revoked for abuse.
8. Liability. To the fullest extent permitted by law, Unify Dynamics LLC is not liable for any loss arising from use of or reliance on the Service. Our total liability is limited to US $100.
9. Governing law. California law; venue in San Mateo County, California.
10. Contact. Unify Dynamics LLC · agent@connectorbay.com · https://connectorbay.com/lahja

Lahja (Dialect) support

Email agent@connectorbay.com. We answer within two business days.

• MCP endpoint: https://lahja.connectorbay.com/mcp
• REST API: https://lahja.connectorbay.com/openapi.json
• Live status: https://lahja.connectorbay.com/health

When you report a problem, include the question you asked your agent, roughly when, and which agent you used (for example Claude, ChatGPT or Gemini). Never send us passwords, account numbers or ID numbers. Lahja (Dialect) never asks for them.