Our WhatsApp front desk is an AI chatbot for small businesses. Levantine is the dialect of Jordan, Palestine, Lebanon and Syria. Syrian counts as Levantine here: there is no separate Syrian setting. This page shows the Levantine customer messages we test with, what the assistant does with them, and what we have not tested yet.
The Levantine check in our regular test suite passed in the run of 7 October 2026. We have no 30-message score for Levantine yet.
Real messages and replies
Our regular test suite has one Levantine customer message, and the assistant’s rules and detection tests add a few more. Where the suite recorded the assistant’s reply we show it exactly as written; for the others we describe what the assistant is set up to do.
The tests run through the website chat of a sample restaurant and a sample clinic that we made up in Kuala Lumpur, which is why some replies mention ringgit prices or ask for a WhatsApp number. On WhatsApp the assistant already has the customer’s number. Replies are shown exactly as the assistant wrote them. Test phone numbers are shortened.
Regular test suiteSample restaurantPassed
Customer: مرحبا، بدي احجز طاولة لبكرا الساعة 8، شو في عندكم؟
In English: Hello, I want to book a table for tomorrow at 8. What do you have? (بدي means I want, شو means what.)
Front desk: أهلين! بكرا الخميس 8 أكتوبر في مكان الساعة 8:00 مساءً. لكم شخص رح تكونوا، وعلى أي اسم أحجز؟ وبما إنك على الموقع، بدي كمان رقم واتساب.
أما عن الأكل، عندنا مشاوي عالفحم متل كفتة الغنم (38 رينغيت) والمسخّن (42 رينغيت)، ومقبلات متل الحمّص والفتوش، وكنافة نابلسية بتنخبز عالطلب. بدك أفصّل أكتر عن شي؟
In English: Hello! Tomorrow, Thursday 8 October, there is room at 8:00 pm. How many of you will there be, and under what name should I book? And since you are on the website, I also need a WhatsApp number. As for the food, we have charcoal grills such as lamb kofta (RM 38) and musakhan (RM 42), starters such as hummus and fattoush, and Nabulsi kunafa baked to order. Do you want me to go into more detail about anything?
The line about the website appears because our tests run through the website chat. On WhatsApp the assistant already has the customer’s number.
Regular test suiteSample restaurantPassed
Customer: السلام عليكم
In English: Peace be upon you. (A plain greeting: it says nothing about the customer’s dialect.)
Front desk: وعليكم السلام! أهلين فيك في مطبخ زيتون. شو بتحب أساعدك فيه، المنيو أو حجز طاولة؟
In English: And peace be upon you! Welcome to Zaytoun Kitchen. What would you like me to help with, the menu or a table booking?
A plain greeting gets the business’s own default dialect. For this sample restaurant the default is Levantine; for our sample clinic it is Gulf.
From the assistant’s rules and detection tests
Voice note, as text
Customer: بدي احجز طاولة لتمانية
In English: I want to book a table for eight. (A voice note, shown as the text the machine wrote.)
What the assistant doesA speech engine often writes formal Arabic («أريد») for what a customer said as «بدي». The assistant keeps the Levantine thread from the dialect words that survive («بدي», «تمانية»), and, as with every voice note, says back the booking before it books anything.
From the assistant’s rules and detection tests
Customer: بدي احكي مع حدا من عندكم
In English: I want to talk to someone from your side. (حدا means someone.)
What the assistant doesThe assistant’s rules tell it to bring in your team, tell the customer so in Levantine, and keep out of the chat once a person replies.
From the assistant’s rules and detection tests
Customer: marhaba, baddi e7jez tawle la bukra
In English: Hello, I want to book a table for tomorrow. (Arabic in Latin letters.)
What the assistant doesIt is set up to read «baddi» as Levantine and to answer in Latin letters. Our regular suite checks Latin-letter replies only in Gulf spelling, so Levantine Arabizi is set up but not tested on its own.
What works, and where it still slips
Works well
A Levantine customer gets Levantine back: «أهلين», «شو», «بدك», «رح». The check passed on 7 October 2026.
It answers the booking and the question about the menu in one message, the way a person at the counter would.
A plain greeting gets the business’s own default dialect, so a Levantine business is greeted in Levantine.
Dialect words survive a voice note’s formal-looking transcript, and the booking is said back before it is made.
Still slips
Levantine has one check in our regular suite, plus detection tests, not the 30-message set we wrote for Sudanese, Yemeni and Iraqi. So there is no score to show yet.
Syrian, Lebanese, Palestinian and Jordanian share one setting, labelled “Levantine / Jordanian”. Local differences are not tested one by one.
The word list has «هلق» and «هلأ» (Syrian and Lebanese) but not the Jordanian and Palestinian «هسا». Such a customer is still understood, because the AI model reads the message itself and the list is only a hint.
Latin-letter Levantine is set up but not tested on its own.
The words it listens for
The assistant works in two layers. A list of Levantine words gives it a hint about who it is talking to, and the AI model reads the whole message itself, so a word that is not on the list is still understood. These are the words on the list.
شوwhat
بدي · بدك · بدنا · بدكم · بدوI want · you want · we want · you (several) want · he wants
هلق · هلأnow
منيحgood, fine
كتيرa lot, very
كيفك · كيفكمhow are you
أهلينhello, welcome
هيكlike this
مشان · منشانfor, because of
لساstill, not yet
هونhere
قديش · أديش · شقدhow much
يسلمو · تكرمthank you · at your service
In Latin letters (Arabizi)
shu · shoشو · what
baddi · baddakبدي · بدك · I want · you want
hala2هلأ · now
mni7منيح · good
kteer · ktirكتير · a lot
kifakكيفك · how are you
hekهيك · like this
addeshقديش · how much
Words it uses back
أهلين
أكيد
تكرم
شو
بدك
هلق
منيح
Voice notes and Arabizi
A voice note is turned into text by a machine, and it can be wrong, especially with names, numbers and times. The machine also tends to write formal Arabic (أريد) for what the customer said as «بدي», so formal wording in a voice note does not make the assistant switch to formal Arabic: it goes by the dialect words that are left, and by the conversation so far. When the note asks for a booking, the assistant says back what it understood and waits for the customer’s yes.
Levantine customers who write in Latin letters (“marhaba, baddi e7jez tawle”) are understood, and the assistant is set up to answer in Latin letters with Levantine spelling. We have not run a separate Levantine Latin-letter test, so we do not list it as tested.
Where this dialect is spoken
Levantine Arabic is spoken in Jordan, Palestine, Lebanon and Syria, and by their communities in the Gulf states, Turkey, Germany and the Americas. City speech (Amman, Damascus, Beirut, Jerusalem) differs from village and Bedouin speech, and each country has its own marks: Syrians and Lebanese say «هلق» for “now” where Jordanians and Palestinians often say «هسا». The assistant is labelled “Levantine / Jordanian” because Jordanian wording is what it was set up around.
Damascus
Beirut
Amman
Jerusalem
Questions about this dialect
Does it treat Syrian, Lebanese, Palestinian and Jordanian Arabic as one dialect?
Yes, as one Levantine setting, labelled “Levantine / Jordanian”. They share most everyday words (شو, بدي, كتير, هيك), so the assistant answers all four in the same Levantine. Syrian counts as Levantine; there is no separate Syrian setting. Local differences are not tested one by one.
What does it say to a plain «السلام عليكم»?
A plain greeting does not show the customer’s dialect, so the assistant answers in the business’s own default dialect and starts with «وعليكم السلام». For our sample restaurant the default is Levantine; for our sample clinic it is Gulf. As soon as the customer writes a dialect word, the assistant follows the customer.
How many Levantine messages have you tested?
One in our regular test suite, which passed on 7 October 2026, plus a few messages in our detection tests. We have not written the 30-message set we use for Sudanese, Yemeni and Iraqi, so we do not publish a score. If you want to know how it handles your Levantine customers, send us 20 real messages and we will show you every reply.
Can a Syrian or Lebanese customer book with a voice note?
Yes, with a safety step. A machine writes the voice note as text and can mishear names, numbers and times, so the assistant says back what it understood and books only after the customer’s yes. Typed messages are the safer way.
We run them through the assistant and send you every reply, the good and the bad, before you decide anything. It is free. Or start the free 30-day pilot and watch every chat yourself.
Tell us about your business. We load your menu and rules, connect the front desk to your WhatsApp, and you watch every chat. 30 days free, no card. We build your website once you decide to keep it.
We take on 3 new pilots a month, so each one gets our full attention.
See it answer as your business
Send us your Instagram, Google Maps or website. We build a front desk that knows your menu, prices and hours, and send you a link to try it, usually within a day. Free, nothing to sign.