Real Arabic, the way people actually say it
Dialect phrases written and recorded by native-speaking teachers, with transliteration, meaning and nuance. One API, prepaid credits, no AI-generated content.
# Ask for a phrase in the dialects you need
curl -X PUT https://api.lahjaapi.com/v1/requests \
-H "Authorization: Bearer $LAHJA_KEY" \
-H "Content-Type: application/json" \
-d '{"requests":[{
"key": "greeting.how_are_you",
"english": "how are you?",
"meaning": "asking a friend how they are doing",
"addressee": "masculine",
"register": "casual",
"dialects": ["egyptian", "levantine", "gulf"]
}]}'
const res = await fetch("https://api.lahjaapi.com/v1/requests", {
method: "PUT",
headers: {
Authorization: `Bearer ${process.env.LAHJA_KEY}`,
"Content-Type": "application/json",
},
body: JSON.stringify({
requests: [{
key: "greeting.how_are_you",
english: "how are you?",
meaning: "asking a friend how they are doing",
addressee: "masculine",
register: "casual",
dialects: ["egyptian", "levantine", "gulf"],
}],
}),
});
const { requests } = await res.json();
let client = Client(
serverURL: try Servers.Server1.url(),
transport: URLSessionTransport(),
middlewares: [BearerAuth(key: lahjaKey)] // your ClientMiddleware adding the key
)
let response = try await client.submitPromptRequests(body: .json(.init(requests: [
.init(
key: "greeting.how_are_you",
english: "how are you?",
meaning: "asking a friend how they are doing",
addressee: .masculine,
register: .casual,
dialects: [.egyptian, .levantine, .gulf]
)
])))
{
"requests": [{
"key": "greeting.how_are_you",
"promptId": "6f1c…",
"published": [
{ "dialect": "egyptian", "phraseIds": ["b41e…"] },
{ "dialect": "levantine", "phraseIds": ["0d93…", "77ac…"] }
]
}]
}
Features
Everything a phrase needs to be used correctly
A translation isn't enough. Lahja tells you who a phrase is said to, how formal it is, where it's heard, and what it actually does in conversation.
Recorded by teachers
Every phrase is written and voiced by a native-speaking teacher, then confirmed by another teacher of the same dialect. Several voices per phrase.
Vowelled text & transliteration
Dialect text with full vowel marks, a readable transliteration, a literal gloss and the real-world meaning.
Structured nuance
Register, addressee, tone, contexts, sensitivity, regional spread and speaker skew, as fields you can filter on.
Seven dialect families
Egyptian, Levantine, Gulf, Iraqi, Maghrebi, Sudanese and Fusha. Recordings carry where the speaker grew up and lives, so you can pick the closest voice.
Cross-dialect matching Soon
Find the closest phrase in another dialect by meaning, filtered by addressee and register. Matches confirmed by teachers rank first.
Pay once, own it
Unlock a phrase once and it's yours, with no repeat charges and no restrictions on how you use it.
What you get
One meaning, every dialect
“How are you?” said to a friend sounds different in Cairo, Beirut and Kuwait. These example entries show the shape of an unlocked phrase.
Illustrative examples of the response format. Real entries come from the teacher-recorded catalogue and include audio.
How it works
Ask for what you need. Teachers record it.
Requests are shared across customers. If someone already asked for the same meaning, yours joins theirs, and anything recorded is ready to unlock right away.
- Bearer-token API keys, one per environment
- OpenAPI 3.1 spec, generate a client in any language
- Prepaid credits with a full ledger you can query
- Unlocked content is yours to use however you want
Request
PUT /v1/requests with your own keys, a meaning and the dialects you want.
Record
Teachers of each dialect write and record it. A second teacher confirms before it's published.
Check
GET /v1/requests shows published phrase IDs per dialect as they land.
Unlock
POST /v1/phrases/{id}/unlock charges once. Repeat calls are free.
Pricing
Prepaid credits. Pay only for what you unlock.
Buy a credit pack, unlock what you need. No subscriptions. Search and matching will be free (rate-limited) when they launch.
- $0.50 per credit
- Unlock 50 phrases at the default cost
- Full API access
- $0.40 per credit
- Enough for a full app vocabulary in a few dialects
- Itemised ledger at
/v1/account/ledger
- $0.35 per credit
- Best value for larger catalogues
- Bulk prompt requests, up to 500 per call
Every account starts with 10 free credits. Credits never expire, a phrase costs 1 credit by default, and once unlocked it's yours to use however you want. Need more than 1,000 credits? Talk to us.
لهجة
Start building with real dialects
Lahja is in early access. Tell us what you're building and we'll send your API key with 10 free credits.