Dog at Aswan Dam by Shek Graham
So, I recently learned that indigenous Egyptian dogs are called “baladi” (
بلدى ), an Arabic word whose closest English equivalent is “folk.” Lots of things can be baladi: music, dance, food…and yes, dogs.
Sometimes the word carries a lower-class, pejorative connotation; sometimes it simply means ordinary or commonplace. At the same time, local fruits and vegetables are often labeled baladi and marketed positively as being native, natural, un-engineered, special. Sounds like a perfect pariah dog slogan if I ever heard one…